Its just a paint job. If these trucks ever go up to being 100k cars you can plenty rationalize having a good resto shop undo any prior paint or bodywork. I enjoy my land cruiser so much because it has character and it feels special, yet it is still very approachable and can be used without fear of messing up.
$2300 Quote from Maaco....what do you guys think? (5 Viewers)
- Thread starter Francis K
- Start date
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GTV
SILVER Star
I had them fix the LR corner/gate of an '03 Sequoia I had last summer, cost me a similar amount.
I wouldn't give Maaco twenty three dollars next time. I just needed the Sequoia to look good enough to sell, which apparently it was, but man, it was really lazy work. They left the interior filthy, jammed a 1/4"-20 screw where a 6x1.00mm was supposed to be, there was deep sanding marks below the paint, etc. In the future I'll happily pay more to support someone who gives a crap about the work they do.
I wouldn't give Maaco twenty three dollars next time. I just needed the Sequoia to look good enough to sell, which apparently it was, but man, it was really lazy work. They left the interior filthy, jammed a 1/4"-20 screw where a 6x1.00mm was supposed to be, there was deep sanding marks below the paint, etc. In the future I'll happily pay more to support someone who gives a crap about the work they do.
Francis K
SILVER Star
FMC80
SILVER Star
@Kabanstva plasti-dip? GTFOH with that. That product has its place but to use it on an entire truck that isn’t a dedicated trail rig is asinine. I give that s*** to my kids so they can paint their creations that I throw away afterwards.
Like Francis and I already stated, MAACOs are not created equal. There’s a forum member here @Mdej3 who owns a couple and his shops do phenomenal work; you’ll pay more too though.
Like Francis and I already stated, MAACOs are not created equal. There’s a forum member here @Mdej3 who owns a couple and his shops do phenomenal work; you’ll pay more too though.
GTV
SILVER Star
I did not know that but it's a risk I'm no longer willing to take.
No need to get smart dude. Just voicing my opinion. “Phenomenal” is subjective. I’m in the auto refinishing business and my opinion is clearly different than yours. And yes you can plastidip and entire vehicle and use it as a trail rig no problem. Your choice if you want to believe me or not. Yea it stains, yes it’s hard to clean, yea it will tear from pinstriping on the trail, but it’s cheap, easy to remove and touchup and costs pennies compared to a Macco ShMacco paintjob. I charge more for a paint correction that take 1-2 days than he got quoted for all that work so yes I am a bit skeptical of their pricing and the quality that comes with it.
I've had some decent paint jobs from Maaco. I took everything off I could and I feel I got what I paid for.
I painted my BJ44 with bedliner, It cost me $300 and took a less than a day. It lives outside, never gets washed , gets desert pin striping and I used bedliner as it had parts from 3 different cars. Now it is one color.
A show or factory paint job will cost you $12,000 and up. Are you doing a show car or something you are using off road?
For your average car or off roader Maaco will be fine. Not for a restoration or garage queen.
I painted my BJ44 with bedliner, It cost me $300 and took a less than a day. It lives outside, never gets washed , gets desert pin striping and I used bedliner as it had parts from 3 different cars. Now it is one color.
A show or factory paint job will cost you $12,000 and up. Are you doing a show car or something you are using off road?
For your average car or off roader Maaco will be fine. Not for a restoration or garage queen.
FMC80
SILVER Star
I’m not trying to be argumentative. Plasti-dip is just a crap solution; my opinion only. You/your shop clearly does high-end paint jobs and you’re a subject matter expert. I’d rather have a s*** paint job than plasti-dip; my opinion only
Yes a regular paintjob is in a different league than plastidip, durability, rust protection, looks and ease of maintenance, etc. I was just throwing out the idea of plastidip as another option. At our old location, another company was doing plastidipping full time, they were the first to do it on a large scale in Chicago when this stuff was becoming popular. Full paint booth, paint gun, etc, stuff looked very smooth, almost OEM-like from a few feet away. They mainly did it to kids’cars, Hondas, old Nissans etc. looked better than peeling OEM paint and or primer/bondo. And no I did not suggest it as a replacement for a good paintjob.
For what it’s worth, plastidip is a lot more chip resistant than regular paint, and it’s no surprise since it’s a rubberized coating, it doesn’t really chip off. I’ve done a couple of small parts with it and it’s still held up after 5+ years of outside use. I’m in the paint business so I’ll always recommend a good paintjob over anything though. I guess as long as the owner’s happy, all that matters!
FMC80
SILVER Star
7 days from today! Let’s see the transformation!
Francis K
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #93
I’ll pull her in just to get a few shots but right after that she’s going to the welder for the rear and the sliders. Then back to me to rattle can them satin black and the exterior is all set, everything else I can do myself including the flares. The new seats and misc trim pieces are sitting in my warehouse ready to rock, I’m debating if I should put deadening down when I have them out or just take the easy route and rubber coat the wheel wells and behind the door and rear panels. I’m thinking maybe to put some miles on her and just do the wheel wells first with the 3M deadening spray before i put the new seats in and see if it makes a noticeable difference, if not then I’ll go with mat for the interior. Then put her all back together and she’s done….well done for now at least
I’m thinking to create a build thread, I don’t have s*** to offer as far as technical reference in help compared to all the other build threads so I’m thinking maybe to do it a little different and catalog every single penny I have spent because on the truck. That might actually help someone when deciding to take on this disaster “hobby”….
I'd be interested in seeing that, and comparing to my own spend.
I've done this tracking, at least within a few hundred dollars and I've also logged most of my work time. It's been interesting to see the seasonal patterns of spending/work emerge, etc. Over time this has turned into an effort to drive the truck more and work on it less so that I can see the time worked and $ spent per mile calculations continue to drop. Spend includes everything (original purchase of $1800, etc.) but insurance. Here are some highlights from my logs:
| $16,901.90 | 503.35 | |
| 2016 | $2,000.00 | 16 |
| 2017 | $3,129.00 | 96.5 |
| 2018 | $4,940.00 | 143.85 |
| 2019 | $2,556.00 | 55.5 |
| 2020 | $1,991.00 | 80.25 |
| 2021 | $1,950.90 | 78.25 |
| 2022 | $335.00 | 33 |
| Totals without gas | |||||
| $ total spent | $16,901.90 | miles total | 52,620 | ||
| $ per month | $254.85 | $ per mile | $0.32 | ||
| hr total | 503.35 | min worked per mile | 0.57 | ||
| hr per month | 7.59 | speed driving for worked | 104.54 | ||
| Totals with gas | |||||
| $ total spent | $27,944.12 | $ per mile | $0.53 | ||
| $ per month | $421.35 |
Francis K
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #95
Oh wow very nice! I was thinking to do a build thread with every little cost listed that I incurred due to the truck even accessories, I mean down to bolts, tools and lubricant thinking it might help someone.....
Not gas though that's a really nice sheet you have there!
I record all my gas fill up. I try to log all my parts and oil change costs, but I do NOT log my hours against my per mile cost. I have a 5 year average of 11.56 MPG. That covers about 65K miles.
Holy crap, if I logged my hours against it, I would be sorely disappointed.
Do I need to log my hours of driving it as well? Technically, I'm still incurring cost per mile if I'm driving it.
Following!
FMC80
SILVER Star
Francis,
Hi, my name is Pell. Have you seen my "build thread"? It's basically facebooking for me. I offer nothing except taking up bandwidth. I have tagged certain people to be my internet mechanical mentors whether they like it or not. Do your build thread, I'm sure it'll at least be entertaining.
Yeah, and he calls those people at any time of day, any day of the week.........
Ya gotta read my sig line........
ha, who knows what you really need... You should definitely ask the mud collective on that though.
@Francis K
My logs include parts, lubricants, etc. you name it. I only track tools if they are for the 80 only or live on-board like the toolkit that I added, etc.
Keeping such logs may be a bad idea for most folks and ruin the fun. I've worked through a few multi-year projects / restorations and track all parts/spend/hours etc. on large projects out of habit at this point.
Overall the cost to operate an 80 is definitely higher than a simple, old econobox but I think it compares favorably to buying a newer rig with a higher up front and insurance costs. The cost of the labor to baseline a derelict is pretty interesting to consider though. I enjoy the labor most of the time, my family at least tolerates it, I have no way to accurately quantify it...
