Body and frame: the good, the bad, the ugly. To paint or...?

I recently picked up a '99 Prerunner Xcab SR5 4 cyl auto which just moved to Chicago, after spending its life in scorching (and salt-free) AZ and CA. Life out there had some good and bad effects on the condition of the truck. First, the good.



The undercarriage including the frame are almost entirely rust-free. It may be hard to tell from the photo, but seriously, there is less rust than my 2008 Mazdaspeed3, which has spent its three years in Chicago, but also is not known for rotting away either. I asked a 'yota dealer to check, and supposedly the frame has not been replaced. Also, it seems it is not eligible for replacement either. Not that it needs it.

Now the bad:



This is a shot of the cab, under the quarter-lite. You can see where the clear coat and possibly the paint too, has peeled away. I'm not sure if it is black primer or just really faded paint, but either way, it's not pretty.



The little specks you see on the door area under the window are little pits or scratches that pretty much cover the truck. Maybe it was in a sandstorm? I don't know, but I assume that this surface eventually leads to the condition you see above, under the small window on the cab. By the way, the "gray" area on the rest of the door is the reflection of the white car parked next to it.


The ugly:


Oh yeah, ugly. The hood looks like my back a couple days after laying out in the sun. The clear is just peeling off, just like skin. The nighttime pictures don't do it justice. It is really nasty. It actually flakes off and blows away.

So the question is: what to do next? Obviously, I'm stoked about the whole no rust thing. I'll probably just powerwash the undercarriage and take it to Ziebart for undercoating. Much better to prevent the cancer than to try and remove it. Any ideas about the paint though? While I've built numerous Jeeps, trucks, muscle cars and compacts, I'm limited to the mechanicals. I've never picked up a spraygun in my life, and I have no plan to start now. Keep in mind, the truck will primarily be used for home rehab duty (hauling away junk, picking up building supplies), so it doesn't need to look like a show truck. But it doesn't have to look like crap either. A full paint job is about $4k, which is almost what I paid for it. I doubt I'd do some Plasti-Dip/Line-X "repaint" either - a little too bizarre for me. I could potentially just leave it as-is, but I don't know if the nasty Chicago winter conditions will start some rust problems on the body surfaces that are already in poor shape.

Any suggestions from the paint experts? Ideally I will keep this truck for a while, but I can't rule out selling it in a couple years either.

Looks sweet from this angle though. I'd prefer to keep it that way.

 

it looks like the body will rust out b4 the frame. maybe it wasnt waxed enough in the AZ sun?

 

You got a lemon. Please sell and ship the truck to me. You don't want it.

 

if you dont care too much about the way it looks, I would take it to Maaco.

 

Get more quotes for paint. The $4k quote that you have sound about right for a good paint job, but you will find a wide range depending on what you expect. Maaco will probably do it for much less, but you get what you pay for. This truck will last a very long time, so it might be worth spending a little money on it so that you can feel good about it.

 

Macco does a decent job if the truck is prepped well and all they gotta do is shoot it. I would "splurge" for a 2 stage (what the truck currently has) instead of the cheaper single stage paint they offer.

I also bought mine for house duties but its a TRD Taco its hard f nt impossible to deny the desire to mod it

 

agree

 

My main concern right now is stopping the rust before it starts. The looks are really secondary. I'm just not sure if the condition of the paint will allow the Chicago winter to affect the body integrity. I'll be scheduling a Ziebart appointment soon, but the rest of my available income is currently budgeted towards my apartment building renovation. So a $4k paint job will have to wait.

Will do. Please send the money to me via Western Union first, and I'll ship the truck to you. I can put it on the same carrier that is bringing the trucks from those guys who just enlisted / is being sent to Iraq / lost his son in Afganistan / inherited his grandfather's barely used truck.

 

Winter is coming, don't paint it. Paint it in the spring.... and wax it a lot.

 

buy yourself an 80 gallon compressor, a dual action sander and a spray gun and get to sanding...buy a gallon of black enamel and spray it down...when you get done youll have paint and tools win win

 

Did you ever have it painted?

 

x2

 

I'm going to have to agree 100%. Considering you spent $4K for the truck, it really makes zero sense to even spend half of that for a paint job. Now if the truck was valued upwards closer to $10K then I might tell you something different. I've seen the Maaco paint jobs and they aren't entirely horrible, just not as clean in the taping and obviously the paint is not the same. Good thing is I think it might hold up pretty especially since the truck is no longer in the scorching AZ sun.

 

Whatsup with rust bullet? i see there ads online a lot. http://www.rustbullet.com/

 

Nihao - in mainland China on business... but still surprised to see this old thread alive again!

Yes, I did get the truck repainted, just in time for winter. I still went with a budget paint job, but they didn't do too bad. They sanded the whole thing down, removed all the decals, fender flares, most of the trim. Did a pretty decent job actually, although there are still a fair amount of "bird eyes" and orange peel. They even sanded down the bed interior and shot that, but didn't wet sand it. Like it matters anyway, I just put the drop-in liner back in there, and got a used Extang trifecta to put on top. I also got some Toyota silver touch up paint to reshoot the center caps, but the color doesn't match all that well. No big deal, it looks good enough for a '99 with 140k miles on it. I have been piling the miles on, since my Mazdaspeed 3 has been just sitting there, all neglected. It seems pretty dumb to have 3 cars in the city, especially if one of them isn't going to be used. So I'm leaning towards getting rid of the 'speed and my wife's turbo Jetta for a Mazda5 mini-minivan. With 2 little kids and an exchange student coming later this year, the utility, size, and efficiency of the 5 are tough to beat. yeah, they look pretty goofy, but family life will do that to ya.

Anyway, I can't post pictures here in China, but I'll get a few online when I get home this weekend.

 

Per request...








(yes, I've since restored the black plastic!)









And by the way, I did end up getting rid of that exceptionally well-turboed Mazdaspeed3 as well as the turbo Jetta, and got this for the wife and kids...



It ain't no 'speed3, for damn sure, but it can seat 6 when necessary, and fits in the garage better than the Jetta did.

 

Wow, looks good for a budget paint job.

 

x2

 

Hey, I think the paint looks good, with the quality of most chicago shops, and prices, I had almost planned on going to Ind. in the summer to find a place to do mine.
I spent alot of time in China years ago, how do you like those mainland drivers!