Paint job

Hi guys.
I have a 2003 tacoma. Its black but I was thinking of getting it painted paradise blue. Id also want the rims black. How much of a job are we looking at to have this done?? I just love that color on the gen ones.

 

Are you doing it yourself? It's a lot of work to do a color change on a truck if you want it to look right. Door jams, under hood, etc.

 

If you pay a shop to do it expect no less than 2k and that's if you only have the exterior done.. no door jambs or under hood.

The MAACO special is the cheapest option but they only paint it white, barely mask the windows and lights, and you'll still pay between 900 and 1k

 

Maaco definitely sprays more than white.

 

They suck at all the other colors too

 

I know that. But they have a "deal" (round these parts anyway) that they call the ambassador that's 199 bucks (for a small sedan). But they'll just paint it white with a single coat and barely sand it at all plus no body work

 

I've seen some quality maaco paint jobs but those guys have spent about 1700 on them

 

That’s the point of the cheap paint job. If you want the body work done and full prep, cut and buff.. they’ll do it, but not for $199.

 

To do a complete job. The truck needs to be stripped of everything, just bare body panels.
Then strip the paint. sand, sand, sand n sand some more.
Repair the metal
Sand
Prime
Sand
Paint, multiple coats
Sand, multi grits up to 5000
Clear coat
wet sand, multi grits up to 6000
Then a final polish

Or you could do it in a few hours with a 4" brush and a gallon of Behr from the local big Orange Box store.

 

Had a friend in high school who took his truck to Maaco and had it painted, he left a pile of nails in the left front bed corner by mistake. They painted over them as well, blue

 

i was quoted over $10k at a top local body shop, which did not include engine compartment
that did seem a bit high but idk

 

That's the "we don't want to do it" price.

 

thanks. So prob around 2k?? I would be taking it to a shop. I just wanted to get an idea how much.

 

no, he would do it for that
but he talked me out of it lol

now i gotta go back to the drawing board for small repairs here and there

i think just having the box & tailgate done was over $2k, which is the easiest to do?

 

Body shops are expensive.

I had a motorcycle tank that needed paint. The quote was $780. I said, "Thanks, but no." I ended up buying all the equipment and paint, did all the prep, prime, masking, painting, sanding (oh God, the hours of sanding), clear coat, more sanding and finally polishing. I did the entire bike for about $400. Still expensive for a tank, 2 side covers and a fairing.

Huge amount of labor. Automotive paint and clear is expensive stuff. $5-8K to completely do a truck.....isn't a big surprise. $2K seems a bit low for a complete paint job.

You could probably save yourself some money. You would need to strip the truck down to just body panels, strip the paint, place it on a trailer, then have a body shop do the prep, paint and clear the body. Take it home, reassemble on your time.

 

That's a good loose ballpark IMO. I just had the missus' corolla painted cause I swapped out the bumpers and fenders with junkyard parts after someone hit her in a fast food drive thru. The shop didn't do any body work but they took the labor to remove trim and lights and did a good tape job on the windows and wheel wells, they used a quality multistage paint and the total for us was 1600. Just exterior. No door jambs or under hood

Corolla is quite a bit less surface area compared to a Tacoma so im shooting in the dark but I would think for a quality long lasting paint it would take 2k for our trucks. No bodywork though.. that'll really add to the cost, labor ain't cheap

 

It depends on location and you don't have one.

 

to further add to this, at this point in my mortal & limited remaining life, i would MUCH rather spend that +$10k to change to a blue color than i would to ever spend that on a down payment whatever on one of them fancy blue 3rd gens tacos, even though that blue color looks sharp, the blazing blue

 

I had rocker panels and cab corners replaced on my 4 door Duramax last year by a guy who owns his own shop. He used to paint race cars for Richard Childress, he's good. He charged me $1,800.00 and you can't tell it's ever been touched.

 

Everytime I've had a vehicle painted, I was sorry. Wrecked or sold came soon after.

10K is the total value of your truck, when you first bought it for I dunno, 20 thousand, the paint was a fraction of what you paid.