Hi All, Its been while since I posted here. I finally got me some extra cash to get my two tone Y2k 4runner painted all black. A body shop quited me $500 even to paint the all the colored pewter parts on my truck. The body shop will color match it and paint it good. I am not sure yet how many coates but he said it will be excellent. The catch is that he wants me to take off all the parts that needs to be painted and bring them to the shop, then after painting I will have to install them back.

What do you guys think?

 

Sounds really, really cheap. I would be very wary of them. I don't think that price even covers the cost of good materials (paint & clearcoat). I would want to see their previous work for the same price paint job and after it has weathered for a few years. I would expect to pay $2500 plus minimum for a good paint job.

 

I think it's reasonable..since all he's doing is shooting paint on your fender flares and body cladding. A word of warning...those flares are a biatch to remove...have him spray them on the truck.

 

make sure its preped good before they spray

 

When I initially read your post I was under the impression the shop was going to paint your whole truck black, including the colored pewter parts. If they are just painting the flares and cladding then that seems like a decent price, I still recomend you see their work on other fiberglass/plastic pieces (I'm not sure which material the flares/cladding are made of) so you know what to expect.

 

Thanks All. Yes, it will be just the cladding /flares/bumpers. The shop looks clean but I will double check their work again.

Anyone have instructions on how to remove the flares especially the back ones?

 

flipside,

contact ctapia. he had the same thing done to his black limited

bob

 

did you ever have this done?

Any pics?

Does ctapia have pics?

thnx

 

$500 and you have to take it off and put it back on yourself .. thats nuts

 

its really easy but they have to sand blast the bumpers so it sounds really really cheap to me. thats usually about 300+ just for that to be done

 

So, how much would you expect to pay for a full paint job (including the fender flares & bumper) to black?? $1000+?

 

WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED? i did it myself.

you have to pull off the flare gaskets and get new ones. you have one on each front fender, one on each flare on the front bumper, one on each rear door, and then one on each fender flare. you also have one on the front bumper lip and one on the rear tag surround. you don't want to paint the gaskets. you will want to pull the rear tag surround off too and spray it black while you're doing it.

here's what i did:

once the flare gaskets are off, you slide tape behind the flares and along the door seams (you can pull them out ever so slightly w/ a plastic putty knife to get the tape BEHIND them. once you get a edge of tape around the transition, then go back and mask everything off with paper to prevent overspray. once you do that, you start sanding away lightly with some 220 to knock the clear down for the most part. after that, you go up to some 320 and then finish with 400. after that, you hit it with a VERY thin, light coat of automotive primer and then follow that while it's tacky with your base coat. wait 20 min and shoot second coat of base. wait another 20 and shoot another coat of base. while that base is still tacky (within 10 min) you need to shoot your first coat of clear. you then follow with two more coats of clear, 20 min apart. let it dry overnight (in warm temps) and then inspect the work. if you're happy, then start to remove the paper and then go VERY SLOWLY and remove all the tape in the transition area.

i used less than 1qt of base and 1qt of clear to do all the flares, the rear bumper, and the front ARB. i got VERY good paint and clear. the paint was about $35 for a quart, clear was about $50. you then need some reducer (about $10), some clear rubberizing compound (about $10), some clear activator (about $10) and a quart of automotive primer (about $10). add in the sandpaper and tape for another $10. you're looking at about $135 in supplies (and you'd have some left over) and about 6 hours in total labor.

considering that leaves $365 for paint labor for 6 hours, that would be about $61 per hour - not bad - but that is also with them doing all the work and NOT removing the flares. $500 isn't bad, but it isn't good either. with the flares removed and delivered to him, they'll have about 3 hours of labor in them TOPS. also, if you do all the removal and reinstallation, then what happens WHEN you scratch one of the flares or the bumpers? then you have to pay for touchup.