White 4Runner paint job(s)

[Anonymous4Runner]

Hi all! I'm going to have my 4R detailed on Saturday, and I was just thinking about doing some stuff to my 4Runner. I noticed my paint color (white) was dull-looking, so I'm most likely going to have my truck repainted natural white so that the paint looks much fresher. Now, I was thinking about painting some parts of my 4R black i.e. the front hood grille, the skid plate below the hood, but I was hoping if anyone did something similar to their *WHITE* 4Runner & have pictures to share with me! Please feel free to share if you did anything to it!

I'm debating whether to get limo tint or not tomorrow...tough decision. It's $96 every time I get a ticket, but the privacy & cooling makes it all worth it. I've been ticketed three times in 4 years. Anyone have pictures of limo tint all around excluding windshield on a white 4R? Share!

 

[Mytoy4]

I haven't had the entire truck repainted but it's been darn close. My hood, grille, both front quarter panels, passenger front door and tailgate have been painted in different intervals. All in Natural White.
Not sure this is exactly what you're looking for but thought I'd share. You can find some pics of the paint jobs in my photos link below.

 

[Mike07SE]

4runner white uses a single stage paint (no clear). If its not cleaned often and waxed it will lose its shine. A detail job using a clay bar and wax and polish will bring it back to a shine. I do this once to twice a year.

 

[superman3043]

Here is an old pic of when I had my lower valance plasti-dipped:

Grille is plasti-dipped with white emblems. Headlights blacked out and fog/DRL/turn tinted. You can see more on my build thread (link in sig).

You didn't mention which year yours is, but if you have the 06'-09' style grill, I'd consider color matching it like a Limited instead of blacking it out. Or you could go the Satoshi route. 03'-05' style like mine looks a little better blacked out in my opinion.

My buddy has an 06' Natural White and his paint looks aweful. I told him to claybar and wax just before Christmas and it helped a ton, but it's still dull in places. I think maybe a polish between the clay and wax would have helped. My paint still looks immaculate, but it's been meticulously maintained. I've only polished mine once and clay barred once, but there is always a ton of wax on her. The only panels starting to dull is the roof because it probably gets neglected more than the rest.

Hope that helps.

 

[Mike07SE]

Superman, I like your plastidip job on the front end there! I've been contemplating doing that on my white 07, just been on the fence about it for awhile. I guess I should just do it, and if I don't like it, just get a painted Limited grille.

Back on topic - Last year my paint was real dull and dirty. I took it to a place that clay barred and really machine cleaned the surface to cut into the paint. It does do wonders. I'm just curious as to why Toyota didn't do a clear (cheaper)?

 

[gaterose]

This is the only 4runner that I know with limo tint, but he had it all around. He also eventually got in a lot of trouble with the cops for his tint, after several tickets and had to remove it all.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/64970-autbonds-06-se-build-thread-12.html

...I got rid of it mainly because I had started legitimately being targeted by a few police officers in Auburn. I do admit it was my fault, at first, because I continually got tint tickets and would strip the windows and then go get them re-tinted. But even after I got legal tint put on they would come up to my truck if they saw it out anywhere. I just realized that it was time to give up and sell the truck...

I have 20% up front (still illegal) and a limo strip on the windshield and it works well to keep it cool. I'd like to limo the rear stuff since it's safe but have been afraid it'd look funny from the outside.

I also sometimes have issues seeing out at night lol but inside Austin's truck was like right before dark all the time.

edit - and yes the white paint kinda sucks, but mine shines up well enough thanks to using the wax option on drive through washes. I don't think I've ever actually hand waxed it, although I did buff the roof once to clean up from where it's covered by the gobi rack.

 

[superman3043]

Superman, I like your plastidip job on the front end there! I've been contemplating doing that on my white 07, just been on the fence about it for awhile. I guess I should just do it, and if I don't like it, just get a painted Limited grille.

Thanks man! You should do it. I was really happy with how mine turned out. I haven't seen a dipped 06' style grill. Most usually just do the center bar. Would be interesting to see. Plasti is reversible anyway, if you'd just like to do it to see how it would look. Really easy stuff to work with.

And on topic; My good friend [MENTION=47269]Darklight[/MENTION] has all of his rear windows done on a black 4R. It looks really good, but it's really dark in the back of his truck. I don't know if he has the fronts that dark though. I've got 20% on my fronts to match the factory smoke on the rest and I'm happy with it. It's still ticket-able in my state as our legal limit is 27%... Which is actually pretty lenient compared to most I guess. I don't seem to get bothered about it at all. It seems like when I was a kid, I used to get window tint tickets every weekend.

 

[Dexter Morgan]

Hi all! I'm going to have my 4R detailed on Saturday, and I was just thinking about doing some stuff to my 4Runner. I noticed my paint color (white) was dull-looking, so I'm most likely going to have my truck repainted natural white so that the paint looks much fresher. Now, I was thinking about painting some parts of my 4R black i.e. the front hood grille, the skid plate below the hood, but I was hoping if anyone did something similar to their *WHITE* 4Runner & have pictures to share with me! Please feel free to share if you did anything to it!

I'm debating whether to get limo tint or not tomorrow...tough decision. It's $96 every time I get a ticket, but the privacy & cooling makes it all worth it. I've been ticketed three times in 4 years. Anyone have pictures of limo tint all around excluding windshield on a white 4R? Share!

Make sure you confirm that your white is or is not clearcoated before spending 3k on a QUALITY repaint. If it isn't then your detailer (if he's good) will be able to polish that white back to a brilliant shine. If it is clearcoated, then the chalkiness/dullness may indicate the need for a repaint - though its hard for me to believe clearcoat would fail so badly on a modern car...

Quick test - take a colored rag and apply a dab of polish then polish a small spot on your runner, if you see white on the rag then it is not clearcoated.

For the longest time, Toyota didn't (and may still not) clearcoat their whites since it is the color that has the least amount of reflective properties.

 

[got556]

Would love to repaint my shadow mica in white. Not sure how much it would cost around here though. Know a few body/paint guys through other web forums that might be able to make it happen for a decent price.

 

[Dexter Morgan]

Would love to repaint my shadow mica in white. Not sure how much it would cost around here though. Know a few body/paint guys through other web forums that might be able to make it happen for a decent price.

Changing colors will be expensive. You'll have to do all the jambs and engine compartment, firewall, etc.

 

[superman3043]

Would love to repaint my shadow mica in white. Not sure how much it would cost around here though. Know a few body/paint guys through other web forums that might be able to make it happen for a decent price.

Wow, that's the opposite direction that most would go. Most consider SM the most sought after color and white to be the most generic. I love my white though. I love SM as well, and of course the blizzard pearl Urbans.... Ooooh wee!

 

[Mytoy4]

Would love to repaint my shadow mica in white. Not sure how much it would cost around here though. Know a few body/paint guys through other web forums that might be able to make it happen for a decent price.

Meet me half way and we'll trade :driving:

 

[got556]

Changing colors will be expensive. You'll have to do all the jambs and engine compartment, firewall, etc.

Well aware. I'm talking way down the road here. Although a vinyl wrap (quality one) would be just about as expensive but wouldn't be permanent and wouldn't need to strip the whole car down.

And I agree with you all. I love shadow mica. It's a great color, but weirdly enough I've never owned a white vehicle and I love white on certain vehicles. On the 4R it looks great.

Part of me is just in fantasy land about repainting to white...fyi. :thumb3:

 

[TN_4runner]

4runner white uses a single stage paint (no clear). If its not cleaned often and waxed it will lose its shine. A detail job using a clay bar and wax and polish will bring it back to a shine. I do this once to twice a year.

I would say clean it good, as stated Mike07SE is right about the white paint. I had a '96 Tacoma 4x4 that I bought new that was white, I would wax it about once a year as it started looking faded, about on the 8-10 yrs of owing it I had to do 2 wax jobs a year. You can tell when it needs to be waxed from the dull look. I sold that truck last year for $5500 and it looked like it did when I bought it in '96.

I would use a cleaner wax first and then go back with a good quality wax to finish the final coat, always had a show room shine.

 

[One04FourRrunner]

I buffed mine last rear, Paint looks great. All original also never had any touch up.

 

[footdoc]

Hi all! I'm going to have my 4R detailed on Saturday, and I was just thinking about doing some stuff to my 4Runner. I noticed my paint color (white) was dull-looking, so I'm most likely going to have my truck repainted natural white so that the paint looks much fresher. Now, I was thinking about painting some parts of my 4R black i.e. the front hood grille, the skid plate below the hood, but I was hoping if anyone did something similar to their *WHITE* 4Runner & have pictures to share with me! Please feel free to share if you did anything to it!

I'm debating whether to get limo tint or not tomorrow...tough decision. It's $96 every time I get a ticket, but the privacy & cooling makes it all worth it. I've been ticketed three times in 4 years. Anyone have pictures of limo tint all around excluding windshield on a white 4R? Share!

had my handles, grill, and hatch piece rhino lined. Holds up really well! they guy I bought the truck from removed all the emblems aside from the front and rear toyota emblem, and I really like the look.

Talked with gatorose about blacking my lights, which I would still like to do, I just fell out of touch and got kinda busy to finish the project. I think blacked out on white looks pretty cool.

 

[Anonymous4Runner]

I have decided to get the limo tint after all. As for the detail, it has been postponed due to my detailer's trip to California. I will talk to him more about his opinion on whether I should have something done to my paint or not. I hope to take pictures after the 4R details & share it with you all. Thanks for feedback & sharing your gorgeous 4R pics with the rest of us!! I'm leaning toward plasti-dip for the hood grille and skid plate...


However, what are some quick pros & cons as well as the average price for plasti-dip? thanks!

 

[superman3043]

However, what are some quick pros & cons as well as the average price for plasti-dip? thanks!

It's about $5 for an aerosol spray can

Pros:
- Nice "matte" finish but can be gloss with "glossifier"
- Less chip prone than paint
- Easily reversible
- Easier prep
- Easier to work with
- Easy to clean up or deal with overspray

Cons:
- Can come up with masking tape if dry. To combat this run a razor blade or hobby knife along the edge before peeling tape
- Could peel up when you don't want it to
- Could wrinkle if not done careful
- Addictive

Hope that helps. I think plasti-dip is great stuff. Good luck and post your results and thoughts.

 

[crazeazn]

the paint on my car looks like complete sh&*t

 

[20034RunnerV84x2]

Try a clay bar first.