Hey all!

I just bought a Leer cap off craigslist in perfect shape, and I got a super deal. I pick it up in a week as it's about 3 hours away from me. It is Arizona Beige. My truck is 2-tone Redfire on top and Pueblo Gold on the bottom rocker panel.

I am really only going to have the cap on like 2 or 3 months a year in the winter, and maybe a week or two during the summer when we go on long vacation trips (which is why I couldn't see spending roughly $1500 on a new one!) I have an extang BlackMax tonneau on the rest of the time.

My questions are: how different is Arizona Beige and Pueblo Gold? If they're close I can live with NOT painting the cap. OR has anyone had their cap painted to match their truck, and if so how much was it?? Not sure if it would be a pain going from beige to metallic red, or if it would come out nice.

Any opinions?

 

My guess is that u would probably have about 300-500 into it. Really you would have more money in material in it than labor cost. That is if you go with base and clear. Color wise I would to check my chip book. You can go to your local carquest,napa, or paint store they should have chip book to compare the two colors.

 

I also got a CL shell (white on a tan truck), and would like to get it painted. When I was having some paint work done on my truck, I asked the guy about painting the shell, and he didn't seem excited about it at all. He said to paint it properly, the windows need to be removed and that is labor intensive. I plan to paint it myself one of these days, it's just not real high on the priority list as I only use it a few week a year.

 

Yes, they paint up real nice.

 

I don't know how different the two golds will be. Do you have any painting gear. Tri City Paint in San Diego offers thier own brand of color matched paint at half the price of PPG. I picked up a new off brand shell in black and painted it to match my dark met blue pearl truck. The cost of the color matched paint (1 quart) and the clear (1 quart with catalyst hardner) ran me $150 local pickup. I masked off the all windows very carefully and wet sanded the shell with 800 grt. Sprayed the color coat and clear after. The color coat matches perfectly. Going from a light color to red will not be a problem. The question is do you have access to a paint booth? This is key. I painted mine outside and it's not perfect. With a paint booth and a good gun you can achieve perfection.

 

I live in Dallas and I got mine with the flames for 450$ it was originally white

 

I had mine done for $300 but I gutted all the windows before giving it to him. Was originally green and my truck is white so I defineately wanted to get it painted. Roll of tape from the dealer to put the windows back in was $10 and a few hours of my time. Got the cap (ARE Z series) for 350 so I figured i was at half the cost of a new one. I don't run mine all year round either although I did keep it on this winter. Usually just for camping trips and vacations.

 

expensive, and no...

 

I agree, I couldn't see spending $1200 - $1600 on something I wasn't going to use all the time.

I got the cap Thursday, the Arizona Beige is like one shade browner than Pueblo Gold. From certain angles, they're almost the same color, but in direct sunlight they're far enough off that it annoys me lol.

I've been to two local body shops and got quoted $325 at one and $600 at the other. I'm going to get a few more estimates and see where we're at.

Thanks to all for the input so far!

 

I paid $250 to have my cap from my old Sport Trac painted, I stripped the windows and all the hardware off myself. I picked up a CL cap for my F150 a few weeks back for $350 and was buying a cargo trailer the other day, the guy at the trailer place has a booth where they paint their custom trailers and he offered to paint it for $200 for me. As soon as I find the time to pull the windows out and strip it down, it's getting done!

 

Wow $200 is a great price! Best I've gotten so far is $325... The highest is $800 - sheesh.

 

Why would you need to remove the windows? tape and newspaper works perfectly fine. . .

Unless there's something I don't know but I think he was trying to scrap as much money from you as possible.

 

I think the same thing, but only ONE place I went to mentioned nothing about removing the windows, and that was the cheap place. Literally every other place wanted the windows out. Two places said I could remove them myself to save money. I should've asked why everyone wants the windows out...

Anyone know??

 

My only guess would be to paint under the molding so just incase they don't do a bad job with the tape you will make sure you won't have any mistakes. But if you have been doing it a long time I that thought wouldn't make sense. I'm not a painter but I have painted somethings on my old trucks I had and never had to remove anything before hand and everythin came out pretty good.

 

You'll get a much nicer job overall with a bare shell. It's much easier to get into all the nooks and crannies with less chance of paint runs and you don't have to worry about any tape lines or buildup at the edges. It only takes an hour or two to remove the windows and hardware yourself, definitely worth it in my opinion.