Well ive gotten tired of having a sky blue 4runner, (not baby blue) the color isnt bad, but the paint is pretty dead, half the hood is bare metal, and ive got clearcote chipping down the driver side door panels and bare metal to. Question is, im going to paint it. What color though?

Black, id like to get some bushwackers, and then paint over them, like Jonathan did on his 3rd gen. Go all black, except for my chrome up front, touch up the grill and paint the valence black to.
Pros: ive always liked black
Cons: I have a blue interior, do you think black and blue would look okay? Also could get quite hot in their during the summer

or,

Dark Blue, and stick some bushwackers on afterwards, and paint the valence black to tie in the bushwackers.
Pros: Dark blue is nice, would be cooler in the summer, and might go better with my blue interior.

That being said, what should i do to prep it. Clay, and wax? the works? Cost wise im restricted to Maaco, or the likes. Im trying to get ahold of some people i know that have gone through them to see how the liked it but no go so far. If I got a coat of clearcote im sure itd look a lot nicer, would 2 coats work even better? Anyone have any experience or suggestions? Thanks

 

Go black man...you will NOT regret it. Being hot in the summer is no big deal, just start it up like 5-10 minutes before you wanna head out and fire up the A/C. Second of all, once you get that black you are going to HAVE to get some black steelies to math...it is amazing, I can post pics if you haven't seen enough 2nd Gen's with black steelies on em.

As you pointed out the only problem I see with the black would be the color matching with the interior, but I wouldn't really worry about it...the outside will look so nice you won't even care.

About the prep, I'm not sure if it makes any sense to clay and wax the old paint if thats just gonna be stripped off for new paint...but I may wrong

Your rig will look AWESOME being black, I love having a black Runner and I have one of the two that are around here...it's great. All I need to do is get my paint detailed, wax it and take my decals off and I'll be all set

It's gonna look great and you will not regret going with black...just another problem for comparison, black shows dirt like you wouldn't believe, but if you plan on being religious with the washing and touching up it will not be a problem.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to go with!

Fink

 

I would go for a dark blue, less hassle with the interior, door jams, engine bay and etc. Go for something like this:



More pictures here:

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/340485

 

black is nice i agree, but seeing that dark blue looks really nice to.

The problem with maaco is i think they just paint over your existing paint, thats why i was wondering if i should wax it or clay the likes. and if i do, what am I going to do about the clearcote chipping on the side panels? its a visibile difference in height, how should i deal with that?

 

My truck is black with that greyish blue interior. Doesn't bother me any.

 

i would go with the dark blue, I never liked black that much though. When you go for the macco job if you can please take a few before and after pics, i have been thinking about that option for myself. I don't see much sense in a $1000 paint job on a 4x4 that gets used the way it was ment to be.

Lamm

 

Macco does nothing but spray it so do a good job yourself of sanding, filling and remove ALL moldings!
They are not bad as long as you are willing to put in the elbow grease to prep it.

 

okay sanding, so do i just go grab the belt sander from the garage and put on some 200grit? that cant be good can it? How do i go about prepping it?

 

If your clear coat is chipping, you'll need to sand down to the color coat, otherwise your new paint job will start chipping off with the old paint.

 

how do i go about sanding it? am i gonna have to do it by hand? or would a belt sander really work?

 

Color? Personally, I'd go with something as close to the original color. Taken into account the fact that you were looking at a darker color, you have a blue colored interior, and would like the bushwackers. How about a Charcoal blue, loosely speaking. It would hide dirt/scratches better than black/blue and would compliment the interior. Your door jams/engine bay will of course be OEM color

Prepping? Take off as much chrome, molding, lights as you can. I am not going to talk about sanding but someone else might have some more help for you. I would assume a sanding block to get a uniform level on large peices like you hood and panels, and by hand in contouring and the like. Dent removal might be a good thing to have done before the repaint as these points might not cure properly with the service.

Just for contrast, you may want to ask around about auto body shops in your area. I could find out if I can get a reccomendation, my grandparents have lived in Modesto for 25 years. If you were to get a quote from another place (with the knowledge of you performing a lot of the prep) you might be suprised at the quote you get. Take the quote with a grain of salt, it will be a higher quality than the Maaco.

Good luck

 

Any color goes with black so no matter what your interior color is, it will match. My opinion of course.

As for sanding, sure you can start with 200 to get most of the paint off, then you can fine tune with 600 then 1000 prior to painting.

 

You can't lose with black man, my Taco right now is black. But a dark blue exterior with a blue interior wouldn't look to bad either.

 

okay just wanna make sure, when sanding im going to use an orbital sander, or something of the like, and then just hand sand the grooves, dont wanna get sanding happy and end up with a hole in my hood only to find out your not supposed to use a belt sander on cars

 

I wouldn't use a belt sander. I would stick away from machines in general. If you find a high spot, your going straight through to bare metal, which could rust by the time its painted. When I repainted my bed last summer, I did all the prep work myself. I used a block on larger, flatter areas and sanded by hand on the curves and corners. Don't go down to bare metal, and if you do, spray some primer on it to prevent rust. Just try to sand off the glossy clearcoat and it should stick well. Thats all the advice i got for ya. Hope it helps.
-4BangR

 

Dont use wax because it will be stripped off before they paint it.

Only use a orbital sander if you are planning on taking it all the way down to the metal. If you do that then you will need to use a primer for the metal, then sand it, then use a primer for the paint, then sand it, then shoot the paint.

The problem with changing to a darker color is that you will need to get the door-jams painted so it wont stick out like a sore thumb.

 

Man, dark colors show every dent and ding like neon signs. IMO light colors hide blemishes better. I would paint mine gold, but it already is