So as I am sure some of you saw I replaced my truck bed with a white one I got used...

I have been researching paintjobs and costs, and benefits of one way or the other...

Ive found an auto body guy, and I have a couple options

1: Paint the interior and exterior of the bed, tailgate and blend up to the rear of the doors,

2: Paint the interior and exterior of the bed thoroughly, and sand down the clear coat and respray the color and clear coat the whole truck to factory colors.

3: Buy rattle cans of the appropriate paint and do the walls and try to match the blue...

4: Put my bed liner back in, and my tonneau cover back on and just drive it, it isnt worth the paint

for reference this is how my truck looks with the bed and its got 132,000 miles, I bought it in october:

 

do u have prices of the first 2?

 

I should have added them:

Just the bed with a blend up to the door, is $450

Blend and reclear the whole truck is $750.

I know its cheap, i was told in my other thread, in speaking with the guy, he and his father ran a large local shop my father is familiar with, that has been in business 30+ years, and now are much smaller, and do work for auto dealers, and occasionally runs ads for jobs like this as fillers.

My issue is I have several expenses later in the year that the money I spend on this could go towards (getting married, honeymoon, house upgrades and repairs)

But I think for the price, its worth it to have the truck match, since I think its a good looking truck (or was before the bed replacement).

But I am being nagged not to paint it by some (not my fiance, she thinks I should get it painted)

 

My vote is to have it match the rest of the truck, but put your bed liner back in too (if it's black).

 

I would (1) Paint the interior and exterior of the bed, tailgate and blend up to the rear of the doors and then put the bed liner back in.
If he is a good body man you wouldn't be able to tell. Just my .02 cents worth.

 

Thanks for the input folks, the auto body guy was telling me, he can match the color well, but when washed, polished and buffed, the rear and front will be different due to the ages of the clear coat.

By different he said, the front will never shine as much as the back.

Now, I think its a good looking truck, the body has minimal rust, no rot on it anywhere really. So I am leaning towards the full paint, but an extra $300 in my pocket pays for some of my sliding door off of my kitchen, or a couple of fabbed stone steps for the front of my house.

On the other hand, i think the truck will look awesome all glossy again, all the scuffs in the clear gone, etc... But I am not sure its worth the $300

 

just my 2. please don't get offended. but if don't want to spend money on the truck and rather spend on something else, odds are you aren't getting a new one anytime soon. therefore I would paint it all and drive it till it dies all this while looking awesome.......

 

Option 1 or 2 depending on your money situation....

 

None taken, that was what I was thinking. One of the actual paint options sound good to me. I planned on driving this truck barring any major repairs for as long as I deem fit (bought it with 116K, goal is 200k)

id like it to match for the next 70k+ haha.

As a point of reference, I paid $7500 for it in october or last year. Does that have any impact on anyone's decision? with this repair, and no paint, I have another $900 or so into it, without this paintjob.

ive got opinions on both one and 2, no resounding options. LOL

 

Paint the thing now man....200k is very low expectation for that truck...change it to 500k.