Topic: Repainting recommendations

[pmkroger5]

Thinking about repainting my 01 Xterra.  Does anyone have a recommendation for an LA/OC area shop?  Nothing fancy, just restore the original factory color.

Thanks,

Peter

[G.B.H.]

If you wheel your Xterra and are a DIY type person, Do it yourself. I knew nothing about painting cars but had a compressor so thought why not. Did a little research and bought the necessary supplies. Any decent auto paint supplier can match your color. I painted My IH Scout in a little over a day. It was a great experience. Not going to say it was show quality in the end but it looked a lot better than before. Kept the rust out and covered the old pin striping. If you need your X to look like show quality then ignore this post.

[CAWoody]

Another route, if suffer from trail stripes, is to use Monstaliner or similar.  I did the lower half of mine and it was an easy roll-on job.  They have great colors too.

[SuperSlideStyle]

Original paint is a 2-stage paint (but in reality 3 steps).  Primer, paint, clear coat.  90% of the quality will be the amount of prep work done before the paintjob itself.  The sanding, bondo, masking, etc.
Stay away from cheap "specials" that mix the clear coat with the paint itself.  It will look good for about 1-1½ yrs, then start fading & you'll rralize why it was a bad idea.  A decent 2-stage paint will not be cheap.