Painting is really expensive...

YUP

 

Yeah. I've been in one of these conundrums before, but IMO painting is the move especially with a low mileage yota, you plan to keep. As Jimmyh's mentions the replacement cost if you buy new is so bad (i.e. ~$40-50k) and if you finance probably talking about $800/mo so dropping $3k is less than 1/2 a year on payments and if you get 10 more years of use from the vehicle that seems like a solid financial decision.

 

Have you called around? A few years ago, I found a local salvage yard that rebuilt cars with salvage titles that did side-work on customer vehicles between jobs. They offered to either “do it right” or do it “fast and cheap.”
I took the fast and cheap route. If you looked really closely, you could see they hadn’t pulled the bumper covers and the blending was slightly off, but you had to kneel down and put your face next to it. It lasted until I sold it to a friend. We used them several times before they closed the salvage yard and started doing fabrication. Shop around!

 

I did shop around and I felt lucky to find some that did more than Insurance collision work. Dropped it off this morning and hope to get it back before Christmas.

 

I guess I’m a lucky one. I had MACCO do my entire Honda Accord 20 years ago. That turned out great and lasted 10 years after that when I sold it. It wasn’t glass but had very few imperfections. To save money they had me razor blade off the clear coat on the roof, truck lid, and hood. They sanded and masked everything.

 

Durabak tan

 

Refresh time at 14 years and 200k for my 2009:
Just had Maaco do a single stage urethane full paint job with heavy sanding on doors, roof, and hood and looks great with a 3-year warranty for $2400.
They do not remove anything so I pulled the hood squitter's, the mud flaps and taillights out. Should have done the antenna too but would have broken I think.
I did not have them fix any dents as I'll get more and did not care - looks great now. It was pretty ugly with the clearcoat peeling, roof rust starting, and it was all faded.

 

Off the topic. Not long ago someone, I think he was an Attorney, found an old newspaper with that ad and went down to an Earl Schiebes wanting to get a car painted claiming that the ad is still valid because there's was no expiration date on it. They ended up having to paint it, heard it on a local news station,

 

The dollar ain’t what it used to be. Lost 30% of its value in 10 years, 20% of that in just the last 3 years! Crazy but the 25k I paid for my Tacoma 2 weeks ago used to be 20k before that unamable illness struck.

I painted a couple of cars in the garage and have done panel repairs with great results. Plenty of YouTube videos to show you how using spray cans from matching paint services with 2K clear coat from Amazon or Eastwood.

if it were me I would make a small paint booth in the garage and paint the spoiler first using can spray products. At worse you will be $100 dollars short. At best, you will have the skills to do the hood next.

The quote you got is for prep labor too. You may be able to bring it down if you are willing to do that work and just have the shop do minor prep and paint.

 

My 21 challenger had a trampoline land on it. Scratches on every panel, Few dent's in the roof.

They totaled the vehicle because it would cost to much to repaint.

Painting IS very expensive.

They totaled a fully loaded Challenger with less than 25,000 miles because of paint...

So anyways, I bought a Tacoma lol

 

Damn, thats too bad

 

I paint and sell paint for a living. Paint is absolutely not cheap. Even cheap paint isnt cheap. And its not the paint prep that gets you for labor at a shop, its the R&I process of taking the car apart and putting it back together. Most folks dont comprehend how much work really goes into repainting a car, ita a lot more than smjust sand and spray. $3300 for a hood roof and spoiler is very reasonable when you factor in cost of material, not just liquid material but also all the sandpaper, masking and cleaning prep material. Plus the labor time for the guy to take the hood apart, drop the headliner, pull any racks, antennas or moldings, and put it all back together again. Not to mention the painter to prep everything, tint the color since you arent blending, and paint it. Plus if the clear coat is failing, now you have to do a repair too. That takes primer and block time too. If you want it cheaper, find an individual that will do it that wont run it through the shop. Do the R&I yourself. Id charge $1500-$2k for that job for a straight up scuff and shoot, depending on color and no repairs.

 

Hmmm… I’ve always wondered if this was a thing. In the past I’ve had shops basically tell me that they don’t do that. It’s all or nothing. But my sample size is small.

 

Buddy of mine at work is getting his Jeep repainted along with rust repair by our on-site equipment painting contractors. Guess they are using some leftover paint from a previous project so they're doing it all FOR FREE! I've seen the freshly painted equipment roll out of their shop and let me tell ya' it's pretty top notch!

 

Thats if you dont run it through a shop and find someone willing to take on sidework. Majority of shops will be all or nothing due to liability.

 

Paint is cheap compared to labor and that was my point. And by 'prep' I mean all the crap that isn't spraying.

 

Yeah I realize that but at 2 months shy of 69 years old and my wife being very picky I'd rather pay the price. LOL.

When I was in my teens I painted a few repairs when working as a shop apprentice. They used primarily lacquer or enamel paints. The preparation is 95% of the job.

 

I certainly do, and it's "I'm Earl Scheib, and I'll paint any car, any color, for only 29.95"