I'm curious about what my options would be if I wanted to paint the truck for pretty cheap. I bought a white 2000 Ranger a while back but prefer a darker color. I would have searched for one in the right color initially, but my focus was on a truck that was mechanically sound and under $4,000, so I couldn't be too picky about color. It's not a daily driver, just a weekend truck for hauling mountain bikes and motorcycles, but I still would be interested in painting it a darker color.

I've heard of people coating a truck with Rhino Liner, but I am really skeptical that that would look good unless it was a large truck that spent a lot of time off-road and had the equipment to go with it (mine is a 2wd 4cyl with small wheels and no lift...) I've also heard of plasti-dipping it, which should be under $200 and would work decently, but I don't know how well it would hold up. The truck will not be offroad or anything.

 

It really depends on how much you are willing to spend. You can get a cheap maaco paint job, probably won't hold up long.

Or you can spray paint the truck. I spray painted mine with rustoleum flat black and it's holding up very well. It cost me right around $125 after sand paper, masking tape, free newspaper and around 10 cans of spray paint. Prep work is the key for a good spray paint job.

 

Do you have pics? I'd not considered spray paint since I'd always heard it looked terrible (of course that was always in relation to cars and not trucks), but that might be an even better option

 

These are right after I painted it. The hood is the only thing not spray painted yet and the fenders are painted with a different brand of paint, that's why their a different shade of black.

 

^you need to add some more pictures of what your truck looks like currently to some albums on your profile!! From those pictures and your sig it looks/sounds pretty sweet!

 

if you plasti dip it just do it out of an electric sprayer which is also cheap. it will come out better than if you do it with a rattle can.

if you're going for a real paint job then just dish out the money to get it done. my friend is currently getting his S2000 (small honda coupe) resprayed the same color it is from the factory (got the fenders, trunk, and hood shaved) and its going to be a little over $5100 at a very reputable shop

 

i did my own with spray bomb.



this is really the only bedside shot i have

 

Yeah, the cost is why I'm not gonna get it painted professionally... $5,100 is more than I paid for the truck

I'm leaning towards spraypaint or just leave it right now. White isn't that bad, but it's boring. Given the time and effort that it looks like spray painting it would be to do it right (and not end up with a drippy, horrible looking mess) I may just decide to leave it as-is. I don't need the truck to look great, considering what it is.

Chris98's and 06RangerXLT's look good though, some good work put into it (which I might not have the time or patience for lol).

 

looks like it came out good but it doesn't match lol

 

i couldnt care less about matching perfect, the truck gets used and abused, its a toy not a trailer queen. i paid a body shop to do my front ones, and they couldnt even match it. bodyshop wanted 500 to do the bedsides, i did them for $140

 

I'm currently in the middle of spray painting a digital camo job on my 1997 Ranger.

Several youtube videos gave ideas on the process. None of them covered a digital paint job on cars/trucks, but there are videos of guns and one I found of a boat.

Lowe's has a line of inexpensive camo paint (Brown, Beige and Green) for $3 a can. Flat black is cheap anywhere. ($1-$2).

Plastic stencil sheets serve as the basis of my patterns. The whole thing will come in under $100 in materials and about $25 paying a kid to sand down the rough parts (the truck used to be owned by a concrete contractor so, cosmetically, it was a mess) and rough up the painted parts which were still glossy.

The nice parts about a camo paint job (besides cost) is it's it's easy to touch up, I can repaint an entire truck for about the same price and I never have to wash it again.

Pictures to follow later.

 

Pix of my camo paint project:

The truck bed was done with two cans of high dollar truck bed paint, but the side walls was cheap flat black paint (Walmart $1/can)

The paints and stencils used:




The truck with it's base coat of tan and brown spray paint:


About 3 hours of work. This included mounting stencils on a cardboard frame and cutting the smaller stencils out of old gallon milk jugs. It's about 2/3's done. I'll let this coat dry then go over it with both green and black patterns then a final tan and brown plus touch up:

 

Not finished yet, but a lot closer. I have aftermarket head, tail and third brake lights to replace the aged and cracked old one. Some minor painting to go plus some mechanical stuff which I'll have the garage do such as the air conditioning.

Can anyone recommend a place that offers a replacement latch for the split rear window?

 

help section at autozone

 

Great idea. Thanks!

I checked it out plus other websites and am considering whether or not to replace the entire back windshield. It appears pretty easy and a new aftermarket smoked one goes for about $150. The current sliding windows stick and don't slide easily.

 

Sorry, random Hijack, but Road Warrior I think that camo looks sweet. I normally don't care for full camo but that came out awesome.

 

I'm not a big fan of camo design though I must say that it looks good on your rig.

 

Could also do plasti-dip. It's cheap, comes in different colours and if you want to change colour, all you do is peel it off.

 

Advance auto usually has em in stock for ten bucks. It comes with two latch sets, I just had too buy replacement for mine two days ago.

 

This is my Ranger that I painted with a black Plasti dip for only 100$, I love the look. I use only 10 cans of dip and you can see that my top is not paint.