Got a 3rd gen 4runner Limited with the plastic cladding. The truck itself is in pretty good shape bodywise, but the plastic cladding has seen better days. Has anyone repainted it?

I'm thinking wet sand with 200 grit, followed by maybe 400 grit to take off all scratches and smooth it out. Then paint with a plastic specific paint followed by a few coats of clear. Anyone have experience with this or advice? Things to watch out for? I'll take pics and do a tech write up if I'm the first, but I really hate being a pioneer when it's something I know nothing about.

1996 4Runner Limited. Green/tan leather. 171k

 

If your worried about doing it right you can probably take it to an auto paint shop and have them do it. You can take the piece off too to make it easier.

 

I've thought about taking it to a shop, but it would probably cost quite a bit more than I'm looking to spend. Unfortunately, it's pretty much all the trim pieces (not just one). As far as taking them off, I wanted to initially, but I'm under the impression that I will break the clips that hold it to the body and those are about $3-$4 each and with a total of 50ish, gets kind of expensive. Have you had any luck taking off the pieces without breaking the clips?

 

can the cladding be taken off without breaking the clips that hold it on? they are about $4.00 each from toyota to replace and there are about 50 total, so a little to rich for my blood. maybe i could source the clips cheaper, but it'd be nice to keep them intact and reuse them. Is this possible?

 

I've thought about taking it to a shop, but after all the $50.00 paintjob threads, I'm convinced I can do it myself. I'm just wondering if there is any problem painting the plastic. I would love to take the cladding off, but if the clips are one-time use, then I will have to replace 50ish clips. At $4.00/each that is way more than I wanna spend. Is there any way to pull the cladding without breaking the clips?

 

Painting plastic is risky business..... I personally am terrified of painting plastic.

 

Is the plastic painted the color of your truck or is it black?

I coated mine with Herculiner...it turned out great! I just don't know if you want that look or not on your runner.

 

Whoa, why are folks terrified of painting plastic. Assuming the surface is sanded and free of contaminants, a good primer is used, good paint is used, good clearcoat is used. Won't it be a decent looking finish? I'm not looking for show quality, but definitely looking for something that looks decent and lasts for a few years.

 

I am sure people are scared because of the flexibility of most pieces. But I would do 200-400 and then maybe finish with 1000. Then body shops have an anti static that you use prior to primer... to get the grease and static off the part. Typically you take a sliver of the plastic and see if it floats or sinks in water (there are two different plastics, and typically two different anti-statics). Spray that on, then primer then paint, and clear. Of course, then you have to hope that the new paint matches the old stuff, and I definately would take the parts off prior to painting.

I plan on painting my front and rear bumpers to match sooner or later, so I'll get to have some fun with the plastic parts.

 

A good trick to prevent dust from falling out of the air onto a newly painted piece is to string up balloons over the piece. They will attract all the dust in the air.

that tip came from this pdf file that i just uploaded, i plan to use it as a guide for painting my front and rear bumpers

http://www.mediafire.com/?vcavmgfqhyz

to the original poster, please update this thread with pics, i'm really curious to see how it turns out

 

The paint turned out pretty good. this is a budget truck, so doing a budget build and DIY paint is the way to go. I pulled the mudflaps and front flares off, masked the rest. Wet sanded with 400 grit and put on two coats of rustoleum grey primer, two coats of greyish/silver rustoleum, and a clear coat. Looks pretty good to me (really good if you consider it's a $12.00 job) now I'm just waiting for my new front bumper to get here to take pictures. The before and after will hopefully be impressive to those here on the forum. btw that balloon idea rocks. Makes perfect sense, I wish I would have thought of that. If the color doesn't match the front bumper, I may sand it down a bit and respray the cladding a more silverish color using that trick. Pics to follow.

 

Any updated pictures? I'm wondering which spraypaint matches the limited cladding the best. Planning on a front bumper, and would like to paint to match the grey flares.

 

Post up some pics. I always thought doing a nice bedliner or undercoating or something on the limited plastic pieces would be the way to go. If I had a limited instead of an SR5 it probably would have had that done already.