[S10Neil]

Love my S10 but a noob and need professional help. What questions should I ask to make sure a place is doing it right but not ripping me off? I’ve received quotes from $4500, $12000, $20000 and then a restore place wanted $40,000! I would like to sand down surface rust (over 50% of truck) and surface, do a couple small repairs on small pin size dents, prime, base and clear, whatever else, I don’t know what is reasonable. I don’t know enough about what is good or not to ask the right questions.

 

[manbearpig]

Without pictures it's hard to even guess.

 

[S10Neil]

Sorry attached. I guess I’m more interested in what I should be asking to even make sure I’m at a good place. But attached pics. Thx!

 

[PeteD]

Love my S10 but a noob and need professional help. What questions should I ask to make sure a place is doing it right but not ripping me off? I’ve received quotes from $4500, $12000, $20000 and then a restore place wanted $40,000! I would like to sand down surface rust (over 50% of truck) and surface, do a couple small repairs on small pin size dents, prime, base and clear, whatever else, I don’t know what is reasonable. I don’t know enough about what is good or not to ask the right questions.

Good quality paint starts @$10k due to all the labor. Good quality materials can top $1k. As you move towards SHOW , Most of the stuff you like is approaching six figures or more. And then its a garage queen. Back in early 90s CenTex, bill to strip and prep a body on frame large GM was $7k. Another shop painted it with House of Colors materials for $4k. Still nice today. Labor's gone up a bunch since then .

 

[S10Neil]

Ok, makes sense.
Is there a type of primer, paint sealant I should make sure they use like, “should be epoxy primer” or something? How about techniques like “sand to bare metal?” Thanks!

 

[bk2life]

Ok, makes sense.

if youre just looking for a respray say that. I call it a maaco job. The blue truck pictured is my 'maaco' job. not all panels are straight, nor are all the dents fixed. It looks good, shiny, and cost about $3500 to do. Thats really all you have to ask for. If you have facebook, look up tamco or orion paint (they voth have wesbties and sell materials at good prices) and their facebook pages has lots of tech, and people like yourself asking all sorts of questions.

 

[s15_neub]

If you want to do it right, you’re going to want to take all the trim off and sand that bad boy down to bare metal. Bead blasting would be quicker but the average Joe may not have the set up while you can save some by getting it to bare metal for the shop and just let them do the body work and shoot it.

if you like the patina look which I do, I’d say just get a red 3M scrub pad, wash the truck really good, go at it with the scrub pad then wipe on some poppy’s patina clear coat. It’ll make that puppy SHINE!

I think you could do the Poppy’s wipe on clear for around 100 bucks while you think over a 10-15k sand and paint at a shop.

here are a couple shots of the poppy’s wipe on clear I did on my corolla (please excuse the Toyota on the s10 forum, but just want to show what you can achieve easily). Red in color too. Should be pretty easy to see which are the before and which are the after shots. The before have lots of oxidation which came off with the red 3M pad. LOOK AT THE SHINE! Your truck would pop with this stuff. I’m not sponsored, it’s just a really really good product

I’ll likely do my 1987 S15 hood and roof with poppy’s soon too to seal it up. It’s pretty rough like yours but the sides are okay

 

[crazy_ate]

Love my S10 but a noob and need professional help. What questions should I ask to make sure a place is doing it right but not ripping me off? I’ve received quotes from $4500, $12000, $20000 and then a restore place wanted $40,000! I would like to sand down surface rust (over 50% of truck) and surface, do a couple small repairs on small pin size dents, prime, base and clear, whatever else, I don’t know what is reasonable. I don’t know enough about what is good or not to ask the right questions.

I hear ya wanting to have it painted, but total waste of $$$ (given your figures above) being that it's not a show car or even a resto.
I would leave it be, but have you thought about giving it a try yourself -- plenty of guys do this in absolute trash environment and end up with OK to very good results.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=painting+truck+on+a+budget

 

[S10Neil]

All great insight. Cool pics too. I’ve thought about doing it myself, but not super talented….but maybe I’ll try? Thanks a ton everyone!

 

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

You could always remove the trim(or leave it on, whatever your preference). Lightly sand and prep the car yourself. Then drive it to any Maaco dealer and get a cheap respray. From what I have heard, Maaco is decent overall when it comes to painting, they just do terrible bodywork. Most people recommend that you pay the extra to add the hardener to the paint otherwise the paint will be very fragile. You could probably get a single stage paint with a hardener for less than $2000 total. I am no expert on this topic however, just speaking from internet knowledge.

OR, A lot of people who work at bodyshops, work weekends or after hours fixing peoples cars for alot less then the shop they work for would charge, so maybe you could get in with a body guy for some "cash only" type of work. I personally have a great body/paint guy who said he could fix all of my dents and damaged panels with paint for around $1500 cash.

 

[mrpetec01]

Go to MAACO, Spray Glow or whatever the name is in your area. Get their premium sanding job, paint with clear coat. Should be around $3k. The two shops in our area do a fantastic job. The quality painters i know in my area charge about the same. T&he resto shops are in the up the $40 - $60K range.

Look at other cars, go to a car show in your area and ASK guys withe nice looking rides who did theirs.

 

[Poncho167]

Complete paint with body work under $5,000. Some shops could do the whole thing in just a matter of days.