Painting is really expensive...

The wife's 2010 Highlander roof, hood and spoiler has suffered a major paint failure (No Body Damage). Getting it painted this week. Estimated total for the repainting these three body panels is $3,334.10. Crap! I remember when I was a 16 year old pup working as an assistant you could get the whole car painted for less than a grand.

2010 Highlander 2.7 liter engine with 61,000 miles and no body damage and a Toyota. Well worth the investment as I am not buying a new car at the prices they are asking now.

 

Did you consider one of the low cost options like MAACO or Earl Scheib?
Your Highlander isn't a collector piece. You're just trying make it a bit more presentable. I bet you could save a couple grand.

There's no chance I would spend 25% of the value of a older, daily driven car on its cosmetics.

 

Remember the Earl Scheibe line? I’m Earl Scheib, and I’ll paint any car for 29.95.

 

You're telling me! Not to mention a 2-3 month wait for any place that can do half decent work..

Im still in the process of dealing with a minor fender bender on the rear quarter of my truck. It gets really, really expensive when you find out the Baja decals are no longer available from Toyota

 

Well it's my Wife's car and she wants it fixed properly, that means no Earl Scheib or Maaco I've seen their work. I don't want her driving around in a rust bucket either, if it were mine I'd just sand it down and paint it with rattle cans. She will probably keep this car for a very long time, she is 67 years young. It's worth the investment IMO. I just need to comment on how much it has gone up.

 

That too. I had to really look around until I found a shop that took in work other than insurance work... I have the cash so its worth it to me, make her happy. He was able to fit me in the schedule less than a week after the estimate.

 

You got that right.

But if the vehicle is a keeper, (at current rate another 14 years would be about 125k, right) and the color is one that can be well matched, it's absolutely worth doing it right.

My friend with an '06 Altima went the Macco route. Was redone a month later because of poor application (spray lines showed) by some rookie. Then 3 years later it was faded as much as the OE paint. The 3rd painting looked pretty good, at least until he gave it away a couple years later at 200k or so.

 

Really good paint work is hard to find. Shops spend most of their time doing insurance work and as we all know, insurance companies aren't not worried about quality or longevity - just price. That said, truly good paint work generally falls under the banner of "You get what you pay for." As for keeping mama happy, we all know how important that is!

 

Paint is cheap, prep is mad expensive.

 

A girl I knew had an old Chevy wagon painted by them in the 80's. They told her "Yeah, probably best if you just dont wash it". Hehe. It was the horrible powder blue they used a lot....damn.

 

Look at it this way and it’s not so bad. If you keep it another 10 yrs, then it’s only a $333 investment every yr. or a small percentage of 1 Social security payment per yr.

 

I had MAACO do the Presidential Paint job on my 1986 toyota pickup...It was a lousy job but it came with a lifetime warranty.They repainted the whole truck at least 6 times over the next decade..

 

Hilarious. Do you recall what you paid for the spray and pray? $199.99?

 

The patina look is in style. My 07 has some paint issues but I ain't spending money on new paint. I'm driving it as is until it dies.

If I did spend $4K on a paint job (that was the estimate I got), someone would rear end me at a traffic light 2 weeks later. Insurance company pays the same with or without new paint.

 

I had my hood and roof done for $2200 by a professional shop. It was hard to find a place just to do paint since everybody wants insurance collision work. The estimate to do the rest of the truck is an additional $6500 and I keep going back and forth on considering getting it done.

Ace_10 is spot on with "There's no chance I would spend 25% of the value of a older, daily driven car on its cosmetics." However, I keep thinking about it even though my truck is probably only worth $12-14k.

My truck is in great shape but the 13 year old pinstripes pulled paint off the sides while removing. I've re-pinstriped it but not super happy with it.

Not comfortable with the new TACO for the first several years and the premium prices are crazy.

OP, I do think 'you get what you pay for' on paint work so best of luck and hope you get a quality job.

 

Indeed prep and labor is the more expensive part, but 2/3 stage paint is SUPER pricey.

Even doing a wrap these days is thousands and thousands of dollars.

 

Oh man...Before everyone had camera phones...So we don't have a pic...But I worked for a college painters company
We had a 1990's single cab Chevy s10 as the work truck with a ladder rack...Thing was overloaded with just the ladders...
Bought for like $800 at the start of the summer...
Used it all summer...
It was severely lacking body paint...it had peeled off all over...
SO we painted the truck with exterior latex paint...a chalky blue...and then did racing stripes up the hood...Looked hilarious with a matte finish.
Sold the truck for $900 at the end of the summer...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIlLSj5oYw8

 

This is my understanding of the process too.

There used to be places to go and rent a paint booth.

 

When I was a kid the hot tip was to take a body work class at a local Community College. In So Cal in the 80's that meant that you worked on your car then sprayed it in a killer booth on the cheap, learned a lot, and had help from people that knew better. I wonder if that is still a thing? Guessing not...seems too logical.