Go Maaco or spring for a better body shop.

I picked up a new to me 1984 4-runner last weekend with some paint dandruff issues. That is, the paint on the roof and tailgate flaked off a bit like dandruff.

A local body shop with excellent ratings (and what seems like great customer service) quoted me $1700 to paint those two spots. That seems steep to me.

I have about $1000 that I'd like to spend on such a thing (During the time I was doing the budget I thought this would be about "right" for that much paint but maybe I'm just old and still think candy should cost a nickle?). There are a few other paint places with 5-star ratings near me, but the question becomes:

My local Maaco has good reviews online (the type of place that would advertise $99 paint specials). Should I keep looking around at paint shops until I find one that hits my magic number, or just give the cheap-o depot a try?

Also: Look close at that drivers side pillar (first pic). See it? I wonder if the rest of the truck is still a Toyota paint code. I hope that's not going to be a issue when it comes to paint matching...

Many Maacos will do great work if you pay them. I know the local one has done several award winning show cars

Maybe buy a compressor, an HVLP gun, some Rustoleum and mineral spirits, a couple of tarps to make a booth, and teach yourself how to paint? You could easily re-paint your whole car several times including the cost of equipment for $1k.

What's expensive is prep time, and guess what gets skipped on a $200 paint job? Can you do that yourself to save, or at least tell them you'll pay for real prep?

A very good bodyman I knew gave up painting his customer cars. He did all the fit and prep, then rollbacked it to MAACO to get sprayed. As he said, those guys paint cars all day, every day, and most of them get pretty good with a spraygun.

Maaco is a franchise model, so truly YMMV. Some are really good, I had a friend who owned one and did great work. I've been in several that would struggle to paint my kids bike without getting drips and orange peel.

Maaco--do the prep yourself. If you really want to do it right, buy the paint yourself too.

The main thing is going to be the prep work. Those areas need to be sanded down to the solid surface underneath the paint. What you are seeing is lack of intercoat adhesion. If you do the prep work or pay Maaco, you can get satisfactory results. As for color match, you can remove emblems and trim and get a full re-spray. It should be able to be done within your budget. Also, if you can speak to the painter and flip him a tip before the job, it should insure a better result.

As others have said, the dough is in the prep. If you work a deal to sand it to bare metal yourself, you can probably save money...until you count up all the sandpaper you will go through.

I hatehatehate sanding and painting cars. I'll pay somebody else every time.

G-Body-Man: I thought about that long and hard. I got the stuff to do it, but I FINALLY got some momentum going with the Alfa project (after a couple week hiatus). I really don't want to break my alfa stride to pull the 4-Runner into the shop (and I don't want the 4-Runner money sitting in my checking until I can get to it either). To me it's worth the $1200 or so to stay on track.

Mad, Duke, MTN, Klay, and Don: thanks! There's a Maaco on my way home. I'll swing by and talk to someone about what's the what. I'm not sure I can do "all the prep", but I bet I can get it to a reasonable point and let them take it from there.

As usual, I appreciate the help. You guys are awesome

At the very least I'd try to remove everything you don't want painted before you bring it to macco. It will look better painted without the bezels, lights ect than if they halfassed masking them.

Remove all trim you dont want painted sand and prep yourself heck id even mask it off in the parking lot. Ive painted enough cars to know it sucks and is totally worth having maaco do the spraying. As stated they do it all day everyday and if you can get in the back and talk to the dude doing it, maybe slip him a $20 or offer to put a 12pack in his trunk. Ive seen a handfull of macco jobs and they look good other than rushed prep work and not clean or straight tape lines, cure those issues by doing it yourself

As others have said, prep, prep, prep. Do it yourself and you help ensure a good job. I pulled everything from my MR2 except the windshield. Had to drive over at night to avoid detection, removed the taillights when I got there and taped the headlights up.

If DIY painting is out of the question, I'm in the prep it yourself and let Maaco spray it camp. It's an old truck that you presumably intend to use as such, doesn't need show car paint.

Since nobody has posted their finished product of a Maaco job, here is a "top" of the line job done at Maaco. Cost me a little under $800.

Went from this

to this

As much as I really want to learn how to spray paint myself, I've accepted the fact that I will probably never have the time to learn and will be taking my car to Maaco.

Have you thought about a vinyl wrap?

A wrap would be 3x ish his budget.

The voice of Billy Mays echoes from somewhere mysterious: Are you tired of cheap Maaco jobs and E36 M3ty flat black rattle can? Well now you don't have to be with "Plastidip"! Plastidip you say? It's soooo cheap, super forgiving, redo-able at any time, and you can go psychopath crazy with the livery designs. Plastidip the whole car Rattle can? Sure! Or buy a cheapo $10.99 spray gun at HF and go psychopath crazy with the glitter and sparkles in your plastidip custom five gallon mix. The possibilities are endless! Also, it lasts a while. And if you buy now, we'll even send you on a romantic cruise!

Trackmouse wrote: plastidip...it lasts a WHILE.

FTFY

chiodos wrote:

Trackmouse wrote: plastidip...it lasts a WHILE.

FTFY

Mines been on for three years. It actually got some rock damage from doing "mad skidz yo" but I just pulled the flappy piece off and resprayed.

It a truck....spray bedliner on it and call it a day (after preping it). Just do a search for bedlined trucks.

I have personally had two cars sprayed by Maaco, a 62 Rambler Ambassador in Gold Metallic and a 87 Cramit in Black. In both cases I pulled all the trim, lights, etc, and did all of the bodywork. Both cars came out fantastic. The Rambler sat outside and was driven for 5 years before the paint faded (this was in Florida). The Cramit got sold right away.

Andy: That looks great! Was that base and clear?

Ok, I had a chat with the guy at the counter and got a positive vibe from the guy/place. We had a detailed chat about what was going to happen with the truck and what it needed etc. Now, I'm no expert but with the Alfa paint project coming up I've done a bit of research as to what needs to be done to what to get what you want done right (follow?) and what the guy was saying was pretty spot on with the research I've done (I guess I'm saying, nothing he said sounded "car salesman-ish")

He's quoting me $400 to prep and take the areas that are starting to show surface rust down to a workable surface, from there I have 2-options but I think I know which way I'm going to go...

• Option 1) Base plus clear, $175 for their "Top-end" primer, with the body work will be $1600 (tax incl.). This is their priciest paint job, and their most durable. This option is appealing to me because of the metallic aspects of the paint on the truck. I thought this would really make it look sharp. (more on this in a second)

• Option 2) Urethane base + IC. This is a base with an integrated clear coat. With the body work, and their mid level primer ($129) it is going to cost $1200 (tax incl.) which is right about where I wanted to be with my budget. This comes with a 4 year warranty (one year less than option 1) but I think this might be "more than adequate" for what I'm going for, and it falls within budget.

A part of me wants to stretch the budget and spring for the base + clear option, but the other part of me says "man, it's a truck. Be realistic". I think option-2 is going to be "pretty enough, but not so pretty I'm afraid to scratch it"

I'd love to year ya'lls input

** The above quotes were as the truck sits now. I think with the prep work I plan on doing I may be able to save most if not all the cost of the $400 that was quoted for "body work".

I'm confused. This whole thing started because the local body shop was $1700, you said that was too much, and wondered if you should just pay maaco $200.

Now maaco wants $1600.

Why were you unsure about paying them $200 but now you're onboard with paying them eight times that much?

Why not pay the local bodyman that you have confidence in? Its only an extra $100.

Honestly? I can't imagine spending that kind of money for paint on a 32-year old vehicle like a 4Runner, especially if it's ever going to go off-road.

gearheadmb wrote: I'm confused. This whole thing started because the local body shop was $1700, you said that was too much, and wondered if you should just pay maaco $200. Now maaco wants $1600. Why were you unsure about paying them $200 but now you're onboard with paying them eight times that much? Why not pay the local bodyman that you have confidence in? Its only an extra $100.

The budget was initially $1000 (ish). I can swing $1200 for the option I'm leaning toward and like I said, the quote was "as the truck sat" (so it included $400 in "prep"). I have the tools etc to do the prep myself but didn't want to be under-quoted when the time came (expect the worst, hope for the best?)

I guess my logic was: If I'm right in my assumption that the prep-work will be removed from the quote, then that puts the price for option 2 at $800 which is half of what the body shops were wanting (and $200 less than I wanted to spend). If I'm incorrect or even partially correct that puts me right in the ballpark of where I wanted to be.

For the truck being "off-roaded", well yes. And no... The term I think I'm looking for is "overlanding". This won't be a 4wd "Toy", it'll be a truck that can drive off pavement to find camping spots and adventures not accessible to those without 4wd but and still look nice when I take the kids to daycare. Nothing that would require a lift, but I'll probably add a tube bumper and a winch just in case.