Ordering a painted non-OEM hood

[S4ofNH]

My hood has several rock chips, some with rust. I was quoted 750 to have these “repaired”, front of hood only painted with no guarantee on outcome. They based that on 7 ish hours of labor.

Anyone with experience ordering from paintedautobodyparts.com or another supplier of painted non-oem steel hoods?

They are charging 487 for the painted hood, color matched based on paint codes + 220 shipping.

[SwankPeRFection]

You could always try to find a good quality carbon hood and save weight to go faster… would also improve front end steering response if you lost that 50 lbs. Just a thought to consider if you haven’t.

[S4ofNH]

Trying to keep OEM look and get it touched up for trade in vs private sale in September

[SwankPeRFection]

See how much a really good retailer will charge to fix the chips. Aside from the rust issue, which could be cleaned up with rust dissolver, the chips can sometimes be filled in with actual paint and then sanded down and then the entire hood polished up and made to look brand new. If the details is a “real” detailed like this, it’ll work and could be a cheaper solution to your original option. Worth investigating.

[Nillious]

I just sanded my hood and refinished it due to the previous owner getting it chipped up extremely bad. This guy must have tailed a haul truck for a living lol.

[S4ofNH]

Estimate cost to sand and refinish the whole hood?

[Nillious]

I had about 500 dollars in materials. I did it myself and had previous paint and body experience. Most body shops these days are only interested in insurance jobs and won’t take a job like this. You have to do it yourself or find a guy who will do it on the side.

If the rust is only on the surface you can knock it off with 80 grit followed by some epoxy primer. You have to get all the rust off completely. Needs to be down to clean bare metal. You will then have low spots you will need to use a 2k high build primer and block it level. Then follow up with another primer coat you can get smooth with 600 grit. Then from there you can start the painting process which is the easy part.

[blackfunk]

Not that $750 is something to sneeze at but its not much more than $500. And do you really want to spend 500 and do all the work when you could have someone do it for 1/3 the price more?

IMHO, this is the type of job you out source. If it were me, first option would be a paint pen/paint brush i.e. Dr Color etc. If its not to your satisfaction then on to option #2, take it to the body shop. Option #3. Leave it as is. Which serious person who's buying a car that's at least 7yrs old and not expecting rock chips?

[S4ofNH]

I agree. I will most likely trade into a dealer for the convenience, and just wanted to give my self the most bargaining power by not having rusted paint chips on my trade.