What would you do? (clear coat failing)

The clear coat on the passenger side of my '06 dblcab 4WD has failed due to a shoddy body job paid for by the previous owner. I have been quoted $2500 to fix the one side and $5000 for the whole thing. Truck has less than 130k miles and is mechanically sound. So, what would you do?

 

After market paint jobs usually are almost always poor quality compared to factory paint. Just the way it is.

What would I do?
Probably sell the truck and get a new one. Give it to someone who doesn't care or trade it in on a different used one.

I would care about appearances enough to not put up with it. I also wouldn't want a second non-factory paint job. They don't last. Especially if you are going to someone who is not going to do it indoors with 100% controlled conditions.

It's a tough thing to decide because new trucks don't come cheap.

What color is your truck?

 

It's black sand pearl. I contacted the body shop that painted it and they said since I wasn't the "original" owner their "lifetime" warranty didn't apply. I even reached out to the previous owner who admitted he lied but he wasn't going to do anything about it.

 

I wouldn't say aftermarket paint jobs are worse than factory jobs, but quality aftermarket paint jobs aren't cheap.

$5k for a whole paint job, including paint prep, minor body work, paint, cut and buff isn't that costly.

If you have the means I would go for a full respray, and if you aren't married to the same color paint being used as the original color, maybe you can save a few bucks.

We paid $3k almost 20 years ago for a full paint job with a champagne smoke metallic paint. He did an excellent job. Car was totaled 5 years ago or so, but you'd never be able to guess the paint was 15 years old. Looked better than our 2006 GM and 2004 Camry, when they were new.

$3k back then is certainly more than $5k is now.

 

For $1k you could invest in yourself and give it a go, but it is a lot of work.

 

I have a friend who is an excellent painter but he does not have a booth. We've discussed using a workshop as a makeshift booth but that creates a whole host of issues including keeping trash out of the paint.

 

Booths can be rented pretty cheap.

Lot of excellent paint jobs came out of homemade booths using polyethylene for walls and ceiling and wetting the floor with water to keep dust down.

Your friend should know that.

 

Vinyl wrap the entire car any color or scheme you want!

 

partial repaint at a reputable shop and then trade trade truck? If you can make the numbers work, just another option.

 

The Duplicolor perfect match is pretty spot on for BSP. My entire front clip paint came off the shelf at AutoZone. If the base coat is ok, just clean up the messed up clear and put a rattle can acrylic top coat on, wet sand smooth, compound, wax, and your good.