Trim Painting

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Just try it yourself, few bucks and if it looks like crap then you can drop money at a bodyshop. If 2000UZJ can do it and it look good, you can too!
 
$675? Sounds steep. I am an insurance adjuster and in 8 years have yet to find a shop that will write an accurate estimate. I'm thankful for body shop's high estimates, without them I wouldn't have a job!
I looked up the parts and for appx $150 front doors and $120 rear doors you can have factory new moldings that come painted and ready to clip on. If a shop were to mask, scuff, prep, and repaint each molding on the vehicle (which is what I would do) the total comes to $396. That is 1 hour labor per molding plus refinish for each and covering the car for overspray. Paint and materials is included. Oh, and our labor rate down here is $45/hr.
So depending on how tight money is, you can get all new moldings installed for $653, again, they come already painted and with new clips. I might go back and ask that body shop how they came up with $675, or better yet, find another shop and tell them what you want. Any shop that has an open door for an "estimate" will take advantage of that which is what that shop is doing.
Hope that helps!!
 
I just purchased my 05' a few weeks ago. The first mod was to have the body shop near my place of emplyment paint the belt line moulding White to match the body. I have a friend who has a TJM front and Slee rear bumper in powder coated black. He lightly sanded the belt line moulding and painted it with Duplicolor DA 1603 Semi Flat Black. It looks fantastic on a maroon cruiser.
 
I appreciate the insight! Thank you.

I ended up just ordering the 10pcs (plus clips and adhesive preinstalled) of side molding brand new from a local Toyota dealership. I really wanted the stock look back. List price for all 10pcs came out to over $1,000 for my 2000 LC. Ouch. No discounts for TLCA members but he dropped the price in 1/2 after I thanked him and started heading for the door.

Before that I had stopped by and gotten 2 more estimates for repainting instead of replacing. This time both just slightly under $400 for refinish/repaint 1 color (not the original 2 tone).

One guy swore they needed to be removed to be done right. Thats why his estimate was $675. He said the adhesive all had to be removed, moldings refinished, painted, put on again, etc.

The other shops with $400 estimates said they'd tape it off.

So now I'm going to figure out if I need a stripe off wheel and remove the current moldings and put the new ones on myself...hrmmm...appears easy enough.
 
I was going to order those parts through CDan at American Toyota. With Mud discount it ran about $800 to buy all the trim without shipping. So for $500 you got an even better deal.
 
Oops, I just realized I didn't include the fender or quarter panel moldings in either of my estimates...my bad.
 
So to correct my previous figures, it's $1184.82 to replace ALL side moldings which come already painted.

Depending on what shop you pick, and based on other people's posts, $400-$700 should refinish all moldings depending on whether they remove them to paint or not. Personally, I would NOT want them taken off. There is plenty of room to tape behind them.
 
I was going to order those parts through CDan at American Toyota. With Mud discount it ran about $800 to buy all the trim without shipping. So for $500 you got an even better deal.

The new parts came out to $575 after tax for me.

I was prepared to let a body shop do the repaint for $400 but am happy to pay just a little bit extra to get brand new parts on there. My LC isn't perfect but the condition of the current moldings are by far the biggest eyesore and I'll be happy to look at her now :popcorn:
 
Just a couple of pics so you can see how bad the old moldings where. They are all "chewed up" on the edges. It was bad.



 
The first mod I performed. Painted my moulding White to match the body.
moulding.webp
 
Painted in place. Flat taped top and bottom behind the moulding. Ran the tape as far behind the moulding as possible and up against the adhesive tape for the most part. Took the screws out of the inner fender lip in the front and masked behind the moulding. Papered everything up after a light sanding with 400 grit wet with soapy water. Base coat/clear coat with flex asdditive.

Looks factory. No overspray at all.
 
image-2310906981.webp

Rust-oleum black bedliner $6 at Home Depot has lasted over a year and still looks decent. Just scuffed the moulding with sandpaper,masked with painters tape and two hours later,done.
image-2310906981.webp
 
You'd think he was fixing a Lexus, or more like a Veyron. Wish I could have the cash that's burning a hole in his pocket to fix my rear axle seals instead.

That is funny coming from the guy that paid 7k+ to repaint his LX..... Just sayin!
 

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