i have an 85 f150 with the 300 I6. it is a 4 speed manual with 4x4. i bought the truck 4 years ago and it was in decent shape with 99k miles. i now have 150k and the paint job blew off goin down the road. i have no blisters, only surface rusting on the passenger door and front fender. this isn't my daily driver so i'd love to restore it's body back to looking great. i have invested a lot of time on the mechanics of the truck and the thing runs like a champ. i have replaced almost everything imaginable over the 4 years, however, the not the engine or tranny. they are excellent still. what would i be looking at as far as getting the body work done with a decent paint job. i'd appreciate any help. i have never had any body work/painting done on any of my vehicles. everyone i know has had it done via insurance due to wrecks/vandals, but never out of pocket. i love my truck and i plan on keeping it for years. i just want it to look good.

 

Well, how good? Depending on what your opinion of decent is, and how much body/trim/detail work you want to put into it, anywhere from $300-10K. Your question needs too much info to give a realistic answer. The nicer the outcome, the more bucks it takes.

Aside from the surface rust, you didn't mention if it had any dents, dings, creases, scrapes, scratches, hail damage, off roading wounds, etc. As far as "decent" goes, some consider paint that isn't rusty decent. Others buy a cheap paint gun, shoot it themselves and find it more than decent. Still others find brand new vehicles in bad need of a claying and buffing if you know what I mean. (Which mine did btw)

So, you need to decide it's use when done: a daily driver that looks nice that you can park next to a Chevette without worrying about door dings, a weekend/blvd. cruiser that rarely if ever sees foul weather and always takes up two spots faaaaar away from other cars, or a garage queen that never ever sees anything but the sun, and never parks, except at get togethers w/ other garage queens. there are many in betweens of course, but you get the idea.

SL

 

After I rolled mine, I found a junkyard body & all the other sheet metal, stripped everything off I could, did a little Bondo work, & dropped the whole mess at a cheapo redneck paint shop. $300 later, I had a cheapo redneck 2-tone paint job that has lasted well enough for ~8 years. I've never waxed it, and I can probably count the times I've washed it in those 8 years on 3 fingers. Click my first signature thumbnail to see how it looks, and you can gauge how much time & money you want to spend on yours.

 

well, i ain't lookin for no show quality custom paint job. i only want it to look like new. i have absolutely minimal body work needed. i have only 2 very small dings on the pass. side bed and minor surface rust on the pass. door. it's just that the current paint is blowing off the truck. underbody and backside of my body panels are in great shape...no rusting. i actually found somewhere that a 2 stage paint job with clearcoat should only cost me around 2,000 to 2,500 bucks with the body work. as far as trim goes, i'm doing all that myself. i have the majority of my parts and i'm in the process of getting the rest in the next couple weeks. also, should i even get the inside of the bed painted, i'm only planning of doing the primer coat, cuz i'm doin the rhino lining. what do you think? thanks for the replies.

 

If you are going to do any kind of spray in bed liner, than I wouldn't bother painting the bed, since thay are just going to sand it down and spray over it anyway. I would say you are in the right price range for a good quality job without getting carried away. It's definitely going to take some prep work if the paint is falling off! Good luck!