Getting an old-ish car repainted?

Thought I'd tap the font of knowledge here for another random question... :)

I have a 1999 Toyota Camry that's still running really well. I'm hoping to keep it until it dies, hopefully somewhere north of 200,000 miles. My last Camry had 230,000 on it when I got T-boned by a guy in a truck...

Anyway, the previous owner got a lot of stone chips on the hood and sides, and they're finally starting to rust a little bit. The body is otherwise in great shape, and I want to prevent it from rusting out on me.

I'm wondering how much it might cost to get a decent quality paint job done on the whole vehicle.

If that's not worth doing, what might it cost to do just the hood?

I'm looking for a range here to figure out what my options are.

Thanks!
Josh

Get estimates from a local Maaco.

You may also want to get estimates from a few of your local collision-repair shops.

Whole car painting | Car Painting Options | Maaco Auto Body Shop

Josh you will find that you get quotes all over the spectrum on this. There are so many variables that your head will spin. Type of paint used, the amount of body prep before priming and even the type of primer used. It will be hard to give you a guess because we don't have any idea what the shop you go to will do with the car as far as what products they use.Maaco will probably be on the cheap side, but most do cheap work and use cheap products. I will say a decent job should be close to $1000 , if the body work is real light and mostly prep. Hope this helps.

Josh
Another option is try to find a school that teaches auto body and paint.
They may take longer but they do good work because they teach how to do it the right way. I went to one in high school for two yaers, got out in the real world and learned all the short cuts.
Just a thought.
hope this helps

Tim

Another option is a Nose Job... :idea:

We have a company that does these on most of the used vehicles that come on to the lot,, Depending on how bad yours is of course...
These guys use an airbrush and paint/fill the rock chips, a full Nose Job ranges from $50-$150 just stop by any larger car lot and ask them who they use...

Again this might not be what you are looking for...

If you decide to get only hood painted it will probably show different than the rest of your Camry. Old paint has usually faded a little so the new color won't look exactly the same, even if it was made from the same original color code.

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

Another option is a Nose Job... :idea:

We have a company that does these on most of the used vehicles that come on to the lot,, Depending on how bad yours is of course...
These guys use an airbrush and paint/fill the rock chips, a full Nose Job ranges from $50-$150 just stop by any larger car lot and ask them who they use...

Again this might not be what you are looking for...

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CarMax does this as well as fix cig holes in seats and carpets and other little cosmetic stuff. I'm not sure if you have a CarMax where you live but its a huge used car company that has a big lot full of decent used cars. I think the are only on the East Coast

I was going to get a paint job done on an Civic I had since college. I found out that you pay for what you get and it would probably be worse to get a cheap paint job. A few places gave me a lower quote, but you got the feeling that by the time they were done it was going to be in the same ballpark as everyone else.

Just a funny story. Years ago there was this guy Earl Scheib who advertised he would paint any car for $40 (this was back in the 1970s) when my Govt Agency got used cars to use we would take them there for painting and within 6 months the paint would simply begin to wash off in places. You get what you pay for.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoshEarl

I'm wondering how much it might cost to get a decent quality paint job done on the whole vehicle.

If that's not worth doing, what might it cost to do just the hood?

I'm looking for a range here to figure out what my options are.

Thanks!
Josh

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Depends on what you want. In my case, I'd be perfectly happy to go out, buy a can of paint and let my daughters paint flowers, suns and whatnot to cover the bits where the paint is missing :)

Bruno and I finally agree!!!!!!!

A '99 that runs well and still under 200,000 miles. This car is saving so much money that I can't begin to comprehend why you would want to sink cash into anything not mechanical or safety related. Just get 10 $100 bills and throw them in the fire. Same thing. If you must spend $1000, donate to your church, local homeless shelter, or another charity of your choice.

This car is almost the holy grail of vehicles. Dependable, reasonable miles on it, good fuel economy, and PAID FOR. Who cares what it looks like?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Just a funny story. Years ago there was this guy Earl Scheib who advertised he would paint any car for $40 (this was back in the 1970s) when my Govt Agency got used cars to use we would take them there for painting and within 6 months the paint would simply begin to wash off in places. You get what you pay for.

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and if you didnt wash the car before dropping it off, you could see the dirt under the paint and on top of that, if you didnt pull off your molding, it would be painted to match. :gaah: Atleast that was the experience of a couple of my friends.

If it was me I'd go down to the local parts store and buy a spray can of the stock color, you could probably paint the whole car for under 100$, of course it wont be the highest quality but it would cover up the parts that are rusting, just make sure to sand the rusted spots down to bare metal, and use a primer first. If you want to keep the job small, just buy the paint in a can and apply it using a paper match.
One other option is find a junk yard, with the parts you want painted, that are already the stock color and in better condition, then just replace your chipped parts. You could probably find both fenders, the bumper, and a hood for around 300$, just ask for the front clip. It might take a bit of time to find junk yard parts that are in better shape than yours though, but it is possible.

I just put a few numbers together of course without seeing the car, to repair rock chip on the leading edges of the hood and l and r fenders and to blend the color onto the tops of the fenders for a good color match,basecoat/clearcoat with ICI autocolor 700.00-800.00.I have been doing body/paint work everyday since 1976. When i started,the finest grit of sandpaper was 600. We used that grit to wet sand and buff Laq. Boy have things changed,now you can get 4000. hope this helps you decide.