I would like to paint it. I am not concerned with having a great paint job, just a different color. I would consider just spray painting the car, but I think I could spring for something a little better than that. Does anyone have any experience with Maaco? If I get a cheap paint job, do certain colors hold up better? Will they sand off the purple? I am concerned that the cheap job will leave me with a black truck (or some other color) with paint peeling, revealing the purple truck underneath. The truck is a 1997 Tacoma 4WD. I anticipate that I will hang onto this truck until it dies. It?s a daily driver, but I still consider it a ?beater? vehicle. Aside from the color, I could care less about dents, dings or the overall physical appearance of truck. In fact, I think a good dent adds character. Thanks.
Check out this site, you might be a good candidate for this option (I’d like to try it myself):
Maaco and other like painters all work in much the same way. BTW Maaco seems to be one of the best of its kind.
They use good paint, apply it well. What they don’t do is to do a good prep job. If you prep it first by doing some serious cleaning and maybe some sanding, and even some masking, it should turn out fine. The last time I used them, the painted half my chrome. Six months after they painted it I noticed some paint pealing off a bracket. I had not noticed that they had painted those brackets that were chrome. I just removed the paint (easy to do off chrome) and it was like new. The rest of the job looked good and lasted. The guy I sold it to totaled it and it was still looking good then. More important he only got a few scratches and a sore shoulder.
MAACO is the least expensive option and they will only sand off all of the purple if you want them to. This is going to cost you BIG time if you want this and it is totally unnecessary. The best primer you can have is the old paint. Properly done, and don’t take the cheapest MAACO option, the paint should not flake off.
You also need to consider this. You’re wanting a color change and the basic paint job, and not just MAACO, does NOT include door jams, underhood, under the trunk, etc. This costs extra due to the time involved.
Paint the truck black, ignore the door jams, etc. and that purple is going to stick out like a sore thumb every time you open the door or raise the hood.
I had the local MAACO repaint my 93 Caprice 4 years ago. The original paint was faded on the top of the bumpers and starting to show fine cracks on the on the hood, roof and trunk. MAACO suggested that I have the top of the car stripped and reprimed for an additional $400. The sides of the car were fine. I had the 2nd best paint job done (Presidential?). The total cost with a few dings fixed was ~$1100. I kept the original color, so door jambs, etc were not an issue. Four years on the paint job is holding up well, but does need to be waxed more often than OEM paint.
I did as much prep work as possible. This included removing as much of the trim, badges, grill, etc as possible and washing the car with Dawn dishwashing detergent to strip off the wax.
Ed B.
Just a thought here but what about keeping the truck purple and adding some black trim panels/stripes, etc.?
My feeling is that this could really set the truck off appearance wise and would be much simpler and cheaper than a repaint.
A local guy here has a 69 Dodge Charger in Plum Crazy purple. He added a black vinyl roof, black hood, side, and a tail stripe and it completely changed the personality of the car; for the better.
MAACO’s $249 (in my area) special is an excellent option. They do a great job. Realize, however, that those type of “special” paintjobs do not coat the doorjams and such areas. Every time you open the door or trunk you’ll be reminded of the truck’s original color.
To have the truck thoroughly painted will be costly.
I second 0k4450’s motion. Maybe you want to just paint the top and/or hood in a contrasting color. You have an eleven year old truck that is unique. Don’t spoil what you have by painting it white or black so it is like almost every other truck on the road. Besides, if you make it look like every other Toyota truck, you might lose it in a crowded parking lot.
If I were you I would drive a purple truck, not that I like purple but it’s not worth it on this vehicle IMOO.
I have heard the only difference between a Maaco cheap job vs. an expensive job it the warranty. Also, for a fact they will not take it down to metal or remove the purple. The best they will do is scuff it and then shoot it.
The only quality way to paint this is remove handles, belt mouldings, mirrors, qtr glasses, etc., etc.
Again, it is only my opinion but I would suffer with the purple. Whatever you do I hope all goes well.
How many other purple trucks have you seen? There is a real advantage in driving a vehicle that looks different than other vehicles. My wife drives our dark gray Toyota 4Runner. There are a lot of SUV’s that are this color. I had a frantic call from her one day that she couldn’t get the door open with either the key fob or the key and had to leave work to get to a doctor’s appointment. I drove over to her workplace to help her out. By the time I got there she was gone, but left word that all was o.k. She was trying to open up another SUV that was the same color. Before I got there, she discovered her mistake. On the other hand, my daily driver is a 1978 Cutlass 4-4-2. It’s beige with brown trim in the fastback style and I have only seen one other vehicle like it in the 30 years that I have owned it. I came out to go home one afternoon about 5 years ago and the car wasn’t in the parking lot. I called the campus police and reported my car was missing. Five minutes later they called back and had found the car on the other end of campus. I had driven it to the other end of campus to attend a meeting and then walked back to my office with a friend, and forgotten the car. The police had seen the car on campus for so long that they didn’t have any trouble spotting it. There is an advantage to driving something unique–don’t mess with a good thing.
When I was a kid a guy down the street had a 51 Hudson. Went by one day and he was out there painting the thing black with a brush. Looked like it too but he was proud. If you want to try the Rustoleum route, try a test piece on metal first to see how smooth it is. I’ve used those foam rollers before and you get bubbles like crazy. Also Rustoleum is not exactly the longest lasting paint there is. Maybe a year or two and all the shine will be gone.
Check out the cost and see if you still want to do it. There are inexpensive paint jobs that only coat the visible areas without opening doors, lift gate, or the hood. That would be a two-tome paint job. The cost escalates if you have them paint the hidden areas, too. You can save money by removing all trim and the bumpers; you can mask all the windows, too. You might even consider masking toe doors yourself, too, though that could easily be a paint shop job (only 2 holes to cover).