Hey, the hood on my 250 is fading pretty bad. My question is, since it's just the hood anyone ever just gone to Maico. It's a lifted truck so you can't see the hood to well anyway. Anyone know the cost and how the result would be?

 

Cost really really cheap.....result....paint failure again in about 1 to 2 years.
They do not prep anything right, unless you are willing to pay there outragous fees for that part.
Do yourself a favor, find a reputable body shop in your area and have them do it. Just because other people wont really be able to see it doesnt mean it wont bother you while driving.

 

Pull it off and paint it in your garage, easy cheap and fun!

 

Really? What type of equipment would I need?

 

You will need a decent sized air compressor 20 gal is more than enough, spray gun with 1.3mm nozzle. You can hand sand the hood, but you will want sanding blocks for the large flat areas. If you dont use then, you will wind up with low spots in the finish fron your fingers while sanding. Other than that thats about it. But till you buy a spray gun, the paint, clear coat (unless you go single stage), block sander, misc items(such as tape, sand paper, tack rags. You might even need some primer, but that can be bought in rattle cans.
It might just be cheaper to go to a body shop. (It probably will) Now if you are planning on more painting in the future, then it would probably be worth it.

 

easy, cheap- I wouldn't exactly call this work easy or cheap, if you want good results, allthough not to say it can't be done by someone that has the commitment and dedication, and does their homework before hand to know the products and procedures to follow and gets some practice shooting beforehand. And thier are some decent products, not what I'd call cheap, but that are a little more reasonable then the big name brands.

Fun- sometimes it is, but when something catastraphoic goes wrong, and there are a lot of things that can go wrong painting given the chance, its not too much fun, as well as knowing you just wasted some pricey material. Or wouldn't be too fun if a neighbor ended up complaining, and you have the police at your door and find you painting in a residential area. Not too fun if you don't properly protect yourself (and might not see the effects until the future), and you damage your health.

I'll never discourage someone from trying their own paint work, but lets not mislead them. In this case with just a hood, you might be better off taking it to someone, if you don't already have the equiptment to do it. Maybe you could find someone to shoot it on the side for you reasonably.

 

Thanks for the help guys. I just got a quote for a strip down and repaint at $500. Does that sound reasonable?

 

I would get a price from another shop. To me it seems a little high, but then the guy I used to work for didnt like to overcharge his customers either. What color is it BTW, cause that does affect price. ANd since its only faded, I do not see any reason why it needs to be stripped to bare metal. Maybe just sand down to primer coat(if that), reprime then paint.

 

It is black and yeah it is just faded. About 25% of the hood is a bleached white.

 

I'm willing to bet without seeing the hood its your clear coat thats bad, so then there is definatly no need to go to bare metal. Black is cheap though, its the body work that can kill you with black paint (you probably dont need any) cause black will show every little imperfection.

 

I found a shop that is gonna do a full repaint for $400. I'm bringing it in Monday. He said it needs to be stripped down and repainted.

 

NV..........If it is just plain old black and nothing exotic.......I think you could get this done a bit cheaper, lole someone said already, black, improperly done, will show every imperfection.
I had my entire truck painted and all the bodywork included for 2000.00 just a few years ago. It was a 3 step? process with a clearcoat and came out just great. Seems like 400.00 for a hood is a bit much, not highway robbery mind you, just a bit high. If you get this done, have them put a quick coat on the underside as well just so it a 100% match.

 

What do you guys think of painting the truck flat black? Anyone tried that?