Paint job cost?

Is Maaco good enough? I’d normally say no. I know they have bad reputation. Those come from reasons.

for now I want to see if I can have the roof painted white, good but affordably
And find out what the going rate is so I know shopping around

clear is fading bad. Surface feels rough, no longer glossy, and starting to rust.

I’m thinking of vinyl wrapping the roof but problem is the surface would be hard to work with. And I don’t know if it’s doable.

dropping it off at a shop, having them paint white and clear, hopefully affordably, sounds straightforward.

only pain would be removing shell to gain access.

last time some paint guy brought up his job he quoted $3500 for top area clear repair which sounds nuts. I’ll keep driving it for $0 at that point

I know the whole top area is fading. Top of fenders. Hood. Etc. But figured painting the roof might be a start. To address the most faded area so far, which is the roof.



TL;DR who here has repainted their roof white and what’s a good cost of that

 

$3500 seems high for a roof paint job. Unless it's this

 

I've heard paint has gotten really expensive; labor isn't cheap either. That said, I'd focus more on finding a shop that does quality work as opposed to finding someplace cheap.

 

I tried to get my 08 tacoma hood painted and they wanted $2200. They told me to beat it up and turn it into insurance. Seems they only work for them.

 

$2200 for just a hood yikes

plasti dip I think also comes in white
That might work on the roof. Do it outside where the fumes aren’t a problem

anything else DIY is likely a big investment, like garage, fan, masking, compressor, prep, paintgun, etc to still not turn out the best

maybe I will try cheap vinyl on the roof and see how it goes

I *hoped* a ton of wax slapped on would temporarily hide and shine it up but last attempt it hasn’t.

seems like the worst smiles per dollar “mod” I’ve ever heard
Same price is lockers + gears, suspension, etc all that’s a lot more smiles

Looks aside I hope it doesn’t deteriorate into rust, as paint guys have told me it can
and rust deeper
unless keeping it waxed can be a bandaid

 

The patina look is in now, some guys are now having clear coat sprayed over the rust and all. I'd Leave it alone and drive it. Painting a vehicle has gotten expensive, you can spend $10K or more to have the whole truck painted at some places.

My 07 has some peeling paint, a few dings and dents and even though the dent in the tailgate is only cosmetic it can't be repaired. It would have to be replaced. I'm looking at $5-6K or more to have my truck painted and the tailgate replaced. If someone rear ends me at a traffic light and totals my truck the insurance company will give me $7000-$9000 on my old truck. They won't give me a dime more if I had just paid $5K to get it painted.

 

if you have any compressor, and you can buy a spray-gun at one of them, harbor freight stores
dupli color has come out with they do it yourself solution just pour in the paint and spray it
no mixing know anything spray the paint let it dry spray the clear let it dry you done
but again you need a beautiful day that doesn’t have bugs or a friend that has a garage

 

Clear coated patina is a sin. You ruin the natural process and don’t get me started on fake patina



I want to repaint my truck yellow so I can turn it into a pizza planet truck. I’m probably going to end up doing it myself with a gallon of rustoleum paint, a foam roller, and a lot of wet sanding.

 

there has to be some sort of solution for this
oriented for DIY off road enthusiasts not looking to drop $5k+ on paint

Actually now that I think about it...

DYC...(DipYourCar) - known about this for a while.
Says kit is about $500 for about everything included
guy in the views: "hardest part was masking my car. Total job was 9hr"





there's GOAT Armor but I believe is for the sides, not roof/hood.

actually, DipYourCar might not work on a truck...
Truck has to contend with anything off road including branches; street car does not
Then again, DYC might sell stuff that can be used for touchup
many coats are thick
I had plastidipped badges and they never had issue

I think another more affordable option could be Goat Armor stuck on the sides,
and finding a deal on roof + hood paint. Maybe a spare non-scoop hood to drop off for paint. Roof dealt with later.



I was *hoping* a shop would charge less for things like a hood and roof,
because it's no longer "paint the whole car"
but rather "hey dude, can you sand and paint the roof white? Any white, doesn't matter. Matching not a concern, don't care, truck is a different color." - less work involved.

 

I thought most paint jobs were expensive from all the prep work? Spraying the vehicle is the cheap part, or at least I thought it was. Paint has went up in price though I know that personally.
Prep the roof yourself and get someone to spray it. Dude you’re in SoCal, car Mecca of America, you can’t find a painter who does side projects at home in his garage or homemade paint booth.

Paying 3.5K to paint a roof sounds outrageous to me, but you are in Cali so….

 

-I know I'll get some eye rolling here , but since it's just your roof, and you're wanting to paint it white (non metallic). Read this:

https://www.cartalk.com/blogs/craig-fitzgerald/how-paint-car-bucket-rust-oleum-and-roller

I see now there's even more YouTubes and articles on this. The original article I read a few years ago was about a guy painting his '69 Charger orange. This whole subject will take you down a rabbit hole. I did paint a kid car bumper white as I knew it would get banged up again. The results were amazing, you would never have know it was Rustoleum.

Worse case, you don't like the results, you can always sand it back off and take it to a body shop.

I don't understand why the price of real automotive paint has gone up drastically over the past decade or so considering most of it is now water based. You would think with less chemicals, the price would be less......

 

My issue is UV exposure of plastidip. If I’m going through all that effort I might as well use actual paint

 

I want to do this but I’m not sure how the plastic front bumper would work out. Maybe an excuse to get a full replacement bumper

 

Maaco are franchised own so there are Maaco's that does pretty good work. I've gotten 3 of my cars painted at Maaco 2 stage and 1 stage OEM color and they have come out pretty good at a reasonable price. I recently got my 09 dclb fully painted 2 stage silver streak mica with body work for 3k.

I say go to several shops and get quotes and see the cars that they are currently working on to get an idea of their work and go from there.

 

Couple weeks ago MAACO quoted me $1333 to do just hood/roof which the clear coat is going. $1517 to do the whole truck. Doublecab longbed. Single stage / silver streak mica. He advised against 2-stage because it was hard to get good results.

 

saw a guy have Maaco paint a civic for like $900. Maybe they quoted $1500 because the truck is bigger. But in that ball park price range it’s creeping up to reputable shops

I’ll ask what locals are doing to check for any new shops and hit up the good ones I already know about

truck is silver, kind of a boring color and not the best silver out there
At that point would probably use it as an opportunity to color change

some sort of desert tan looks cool, like what 3rd gen has factory option of
Maybe it would be even more fade resistant
I don’t think they laid the clear coat on these from factory very thick or highest quality supplier

that foam roller part is appealing. None of that airborne spray cloud crap involved

at the end of the day paint is paint (if you’re doing it quick dirty affordable, maybe temporary) so if it rolls uneven it might settle, can still be wet sanded level, clear, wet sand again, polish

assuming it’s not so thick that it flexes and cracks or something

 

I got my roof and hood painted here in SoCal for 1100 (600 roof 500 hood) I was so impressed by the guy I had him repaint my entire taco (7k) but he took everything apart and replaced all the seals and bolts etc oem

unless you do all the prep work yourself never take it to maaco or earl sheib (if you’re in the position where you have the ability and know how on doing proper prep work I’m sure you’re doing your own spraying as well)

 

If you're doing the roof in white, consider rolling on Durabak. It's available in a non-textured formulation, rolls on easy, and hides many sins. You'll still need to do basic prep but it will last forever.

 

Had my roof one new front windshield done for $1300 in 2021. Then my hood and new fuel tank door done foe $1200 last year. Quoted another $8k for the rest of the truck. A bit high but I had a hard time even finding a quality shop to just do paint. Most places want insurance repairs with bodywork. I believe you get what you pay for. Crazy thing is, I’m considering the full paint job even though the truck is probably only worth $12k.

 

come to think of it
If that’s a white version of rhino bed liner type products
Or anything that is
That sounds like a great solution

doesn’t address hood but that’s still fine
A solution for hood would be find a non scooped and drop it off at a shop for cheap repaint

anything roll on sounds less hassle
Simply unbolt shell, slide it back a foot, and start the work.
If there is Bedliner-like texture, that’ll hide any imperfection in the surface underneath to avoid having to get all time consuming OCD with prep.

non scooped because better visibility. And they’re the only ones compatible with that one company solar panel sticker (Cascadia?)

yeah I don’t think insurance will help unfortunately
Unless it gets bailed on which even that might dent metal and total it

truck has almost 360 degree armor too so I don’t envision a random person smacking into it and buying paint