Painting a tailgate

I just got quoted $648 to paint a new tailgate. Does that sound a bit expensive? I feel like it shouldn't take more than a couple hours.

 

Sounds about right. I know my paint guy, it would be at least that.

 

Yes it does
Everything is big money now . Just the paint & clear alone is sick expensive unfortunately

 

Make sure you get two more quotes so you can get a good feel for what you're paying.

Or, you could give it to an auto body class to practice on?

 

Crazy part is one of my buddies repainted his mustang and just the Paint & Clear was almost 3 grand
Insane

 

A quality paint job on a Taco starts around $12K but will more likely be close to $15K. "Quality" is the keyword. You'd have to strip the existing paint, properly sand and prepare the metal, then use multiple paint coats while sanding/adjusting between them. Then you have to do the clear coats, polish, etc. A good shop will also try to blend in paint, which means they'll have to paint parts of the truck bed next to the gate. All of this takes time.

For the record, $900 to repaint the door. The paint job came out better than stock.

You can find a cheaper shop, but you'll get what you pay for. Unless you're getting a quote from a friend or someone who really loves to paint and does it for fun (e.g., a backyard painter with proper equipment), you'll spend $. Personally, I'd find the best shop I could afford.

 

I painted my own tailgate…and five years later of looking at a horrible paint and clear coat job spent $650 on a scrap yard (but mint condition) tailgate.

A good paint job is worth the money, I wasted a lot of time trying to do it myself, I got the color right but the clear coat needed up cracking and dulling and it just looked terrible.

Hope this puts the price into perspective.