My car (22 years old, Blue Camry)'s paint is starting to peel, with around 160k miles. What are my options to fix the paint as economically as possible?
Appreciate any advice. Thanks
Is it a clear coat or the actual paint that is peeling? Is it chalking? Does the color of the paint come off on your hands if you rub your finger on areas that are exposed to the sun the most?
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Depends on your definition of âeconomicallyâ.
Do you mean a cheap paint job that will last a year until you sell or trade it in?
Or, do you mean a paint job that will last another 10 years?
There is the national chain that specializes in low cost (cheap) paint jobs.
Or, you can check various local body shops. Check with friends about their experiences, you can also check Yelp reviews.
Likely it is your clear coat failing, which is not uncommon.
For really cheap, you could try doing it your self with clear coat spray cans, doubt it would look good.
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Cheap repairs donât look good. Good looking repairs are not cheap.
With some sandpaper and lots of elbow grease you could ready the car for paint. A case of spray cans with auto paint⊠not just hardware store stuff⊠might make it look OK from a distance. Or you could brush paint it⊠also look OK from a distance.
Even that national budget paint chain is going.to cost you about $2000.
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Mustangman summed it up very well.
Years ago, a neighbor decided to use an itinerant door-to-door bodywork/paint guy who went around our neighborhood. He sat on the curb for a few hours, applying Bondo to some areas, and âre-paintingâ many areas of the car.
When he was finished, her Volvo looked⊠sort of⊠âokayâ if you viewed it from at least 50 feet away, and if you squinted your eyes. Within a few months, it looked absolutely awfulâeven if you stood a few hundred feet away.
The bottom line isâŠ
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Some places I see a polythene like peeling. Some places I see a a white patch.
My car is not worth much; hence doesnât make spending $2k which would be more than the worth of the car, hence requested âeconomicallyâ. Hoped for a cheap job that makes it look ok while the family drives it around (car drives fine). Family is complaining about the looks a lot. Hoping to avoid purchasing a replacement car.
Patina, some people pay big money for that, although not normal for it on a Camry⊠lol
I had the roof of my Corolla painted for about $250 at Econo Paint (a local shop), was it perfect, close enough for the 150K+ mileage everyday driver⊠I said sand and paint, no body work⊠The roof paint was gone as were most Corollas around that year, had a lot of people said it looked goodâŠ
So find a local body shop that has been in business for years and use them⊠Remember you get what you pay for, but then again I donât think you are entering any car shows⊠The paint will look good driving down the road and through parking lotsâŠ
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Give them 2 choices⊠Suck it up and take the car⊠or⊠Walk.
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Actually, there is a third choice!
The family members who are complaining about the carâs appearance could chip-in to have the car professionally repainted.
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You have a 22-year-old car that drives well and youâre hearing complaints about how it looks?
Me, Iâd be glad to have a car like yours. I could park it anywhere and not worry about dings from other car doors. My car wouldnât be a target for thieves. My bank balance would have some money for emergencies.
But your post takes me back to 1976. I was stationed in Germany at a remote signal site, far from the large Army posts further south. With a wife and two children, I didnât want to buy a small car â Opel, VW, Fiat, etc â that would be deadly in a crash.
So I bought an old Mercedes, a 190 I think, big as a tank but with only a 4-cylinder engine keeping me out of the passing lane.
One problem: the Mercedes was black, and Iâd read black is the color least visible to other drivers.
So one long weekend, in a rented empty 1-car garage, I repainted the car. Taking off whatever trim came off easily and masking the rest, I painted the entire car â twice â with a 3-inch roller. Took forever, but the cost was minimal. Plus I had no spray gun or compressor and wouldnât have known how to use them if I did. A roller, though, that I could handle.
In the end, I had a white car, now as safe as I could make it for my young family. It must have worked. We were never in an accident, and I sold my car to another GI when my time in Germany was up.
Boy, this has taken me back to some good (and bad) memories. Thanks for the question.
Iâm familiar with those 190 models, and I wouldnât consider them âbig as a tankâ . . . although they were certainly bigger than a Polo or Corsa, for example
Iâll go a little off-topic . . . Iâm not a fan of white cars
And Iâm not sure if you recall this . . . for the longest time, the color white was among a short list of colors that were NOT subject to surcharge on new cars sold in Germany
People had to pay extra for a red car, for instance
So for me, a white car brings back memories of âtoo much of a cheapskate or too poor to check off any of the option boxesâ
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Similarly, Tesla apparently has an upcharge for any deviations from their three basic (red, white, blue) paint colors, but I think that the color selection might vary somewhat from one Tesla model to another.
In my area, the Teslas are ubitiqitous, and the paint colors seem to be essentially white, blue, or red, with a probable upcharge for any deviation from that color palette. I have yet to see a green, or silver, or black Tesla in my area.
As Henry Ford would say you can have it in whatever color you want as long as it is black.
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Yup. In February when I bought my Model 3 the base color was white. Blue and silver were $1000 while black was $1500 and red was $2000. Now silver is the base and white is $1000. Iâm a cheapskate and didnât pay extra for color. All other cars I looked at last year had upgrade prices for colors though so Tesla is no different in that respect.
But most cars have more than one color at base price.
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How much more would you pay for a red car? Post above says red adds $2000 to the price of a Tesla. Would you pay it?
I would pay 0 additional dollars for a red car
I like red just fine, but Iâm not paying extra
And I ABHOR Elon Muskâs personality, btw
Somebody would have to PAY me to drive a red Tesla
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Iâve thought about this a few times and while I understand the economy of it from a manufacturing standpoint, I am fundamentally averse to paying extra for basic color options. Probably because I grew up being able to select from a palette of color options and only the fancy ones were costing extra.
If I ever decide to buy a Tesla, I would probably invest that $2k in a wrap job. Iâve seen some pretty amazing colors and contrast jobs being done to them that are way better looking than some pedestrian looking monotone colorâŠ