Painting an auto part

[Roger Feeley]

My wife busted the plastic cover to the passenger side mirror on our daughters 2013 Toyota Highlander. I got the part from Toyota but they don’t stock painted parts for cars that old. I have never dealt with auto body paint.

The parts guy at the local Toyota dealership (very nice) told me that I should go to a body or paint shop. I also looked at a touch up paint place on the web. They want $85 for a kit with the paint, clear coat, sandpaper, polish, etc.

What sort of cost should I expect from the pros? There will be no masking. The part is in a box. It’s maybe a half of a square foot in area. I would imagine that the big expense is sourcing the paint and dealing with the gun.

[Bill George]

My wife busted the plastic cover to the passenger side mirror on our daughters 2013 Toyota Highlander. I got the part from Toyota but they don’t stock painted parts for cars that old. I have never dealt with auto body paint.

The parts guy at the local Toyota dealership (very nice) told me that I should go to a body or paint shop. I also looked at a touch up paint place on the web. They want $85 for a kit with the paint, clear coat, sandpaper, polish, etc.

What sort of cost should I expect from the pros? There will be no masking. The part is in a box. It’s maybe a half of a square foot in area. I would imagine that the big expense is sourcing the paint and dealing with the gun.

I got some custom mixed paint in spray cans and another can of clear coat online from a place down south AutomotiveTouchup. It was a excellent match. You will need the paint code from the door jam. I painted an entire Toyota Tacoma pickup tailgate and it looked very good.
https://www.automotivetouchup.com/

[Tom M King]

Check Eastwood for spray paint to match, wetsand to 2,000, and spray can for clearcoat. It might not match a panel exactly, but should be plenty good enough for a mirror.

edited to add: Depending on how much of the stuff you need you have on hand, it might be a wash in cost to get the pro to shoot it at 85 bucks.

[Bill George]

Check Eastwood for spray paint to match, wetsand to 2,000, and spray can for clearcoat. It might not match a panel exactly, but should be plenty good enough for a mirror.

edited to add: Depending on how much of the stuff you need you have on hand, it might be a wash in cost to get the pro to shoot it at 85 bucks.

I don't know where you live but a body shop here would be $200 or more!

[Ed Aumiller]

Autozone and Advance in this area (Virginia) sell spray cans of auto paint that matches exactly for about $12... you need the paint code from driver side door jam.
They also sell the spray cans of clear coat.
One can of each is all you will need.

If they cannot match it, as Bill said, https://www.automotivetouchup.com/ can.

[Roger Feeley]

I don't know where you live but a body shop here would be $200 or more!
Im in Falls Church, VA, just outside Washington DC. Nothing is cheap here. The $200 wouldn’t surprise me.

[Mike Henderson]

I don't know where you live but a body shop here would be $200 or more!

That's my experience. It'd cost $85 just to have them talk with you:)

I think the reality is that they don't want to do a small job like that. They have to get the matching paint, prep the piece, shoot it, clean the gun, sand the piece, and then clear coat it. Around here it would be at least $200.

I'd get a can of matching paint from AutomotiveTouchup and do it myself. Especially on a 10 year old car.

Mike

[Doug Garson]

Why try to match the existing paint color? Paint it and the driver's side a contrasting color so the fact it doesn't match is a feature. My wife's Mini is black with red roof and mirror covers, looks great.

[Tom M King]

check ebay. I just checked, and they sell replacement mirror covers for that model in a bunch of colors for less than 25 bucks.

[Bill Dufour]

Paint both flat black.
BillD

[Bill George]

BTW I looked locally for Toyota paint in a spray can, no such thing if so very limited choices. Ford & Chevy lots more sources. I have no idea what a gallon of automotive paint costs today.... I would imagine its close to $150 per gallon and I don't know if quarts are even sold? Plus the reducer, hardener and then clear coat.

[Jim Becker]

One of the reasons that many auto parts like this are not available pre-painted, even for current generation vehicles, is that there is inconsistency in paint colors and time also brings changes. Modern paint "colors" on vehicles are also a bit more complex because of the popularity of "pearls" and sparkles plus clear coat over the base colors. All this things alter the paint color enough that a bad match can be noticable. So keep in mind that DYI, even using paint directly from the manufacturer, may not be an exact match. This is kinda why having a body shop do the work including color matching can cost a bit of money...multiple iterations to get the right color before the small amount of paint actually gets applied to the part in question. it's labor intensive.

[Tom M King]

Pair of chrome covers on ebay for $33 with free shipping.

[Doug Garson]

Maybe it's just me but I think chrome mirror covers would look butt ugly on a Toyota Highlander.

[Tom M King]

I don't know what a Highlander looks like. Was just commenting on relative prices of covers for that mirror on ebay. I would think as long as the color was close it would be okay, but if not, it is possible, just not for 25 bucks.

[Curt Harms]

There's an auto body supply place near me that will mix any color you like and put it in a spray can for a very reasonable price - it's been a while but I remember around $25.00. It might be worth looking for a place like that near you. Another time I had a rental car that got scratched pretty good. It was noticeable enough that I would probably have had to pay for a repair and I'm sure it would not have been cheap. Auto parts store for paint and sandpaper, I had a place to work. The paint matched really well.

[Bill Dufour]

Highlander, like a jeep? Black truck bed liner.
Bill D.

[Jim Becker]

Highlander, like a jeep? Black truck bed liner.
Bill D.
Highlander is a midsize SUV with three rows of seating and has been on the market since the mid-2000s and I believe it's in its third or fourth generation. It's one of the market leaders in its class and is available in ICE and hybrid. (Sorta three row...the way-back is for midgets)

[Bill Dufour]

A plaid tartan then.
Bill D

https://nicolsonkiltmakers.com/pages/corporate-design

https://clan.com/tartan/browse/filters/name-terc+11+toyota+tercel+blue/

[Doug Garson]

Well you can get Union Jack covers for Mini side mirrors.

[Roger Feeley]

Gold News,
The son of a neighbor is a gear-head. Imagine a block of $2M houses and in front of one of them is a vintage pickup up on work stands. I love it. Anyway I asked him and he recommended a local paint shop. I called and it sounds like I can get the part painted for under $80…maybe $60-80…maybe $40…. The guy was pretty informal. I’ll take it by today. Any of those neighborhoods are fine with me. The complete kit from the touch up site is $85.

[Ken Combs]

BTW I looked locally for Toyota paint in a spray can, no such thing if so very limited choices. Ford & Chevy lots more sources. I have no idea what a gallon of automotive paint costs today.... I would imagine its close to $150 per gallon and I don't know if quarts are even sold? Plus the reducer, hardener and then clear coat.

Depends a lot on the color. And brand. I bought some generic single stage urethane red for my pickup project. 3qt can, 200 bucks and I need 2 of those. In a name brand and a match to factory reds would be much more, most around 400. Some way more. And, this isn't a metallic or a clear coat. Clears are very expensive in the top of the line brands. Metallics or pearls also drive the price up, and make matching much more difficult.

[Roger Feeley]

Gold News,
The son of a neighbor is a gear-head. Imagine a block of $2M houses and in front of one of them is a vintage pickup up on work stands. I love it. Anyway I asked him and he recommended a local paint shop. I called and it sounds like I can get the part painted for under $80…maybe $60-80…maybe $40…. The guy was pretty informal. I’ll take it by today. Any of those neighborhoods are fine with me. The complete kit from the touch up site is $85.

I took it by and the formal quote was $65 with two day turnaround. Worked for me. I have other things to do with the twin grandchildren birth imminent. We are rushing to get the nursery painted.

[Ron Selzer]

I took it by and the formal quote was $65 with two day turnaround. Worked for me.

No brainer, screaming deal ya got there
Ron

[Bill George]

The proof will be when he gets it back, will the color match and does it have runs or drips? Lets hope not.

[Doug Garson]

If its a pro paint shop I wouldn't be worried about drips or runs as that would be their fault and would fix it but matching the color is another issue.

[Bill George]

If its a pro paint shop I wouldn't be worried about drips or runs as that would be their fault and would fix it but matching the color is another issue.

Correct, at that price they are not buying paint but its done in house.

[Jerome Stanek]

If its a pro paint shop I wouldn't be worried about drips or runs as that would be their fault and would fix it but matching the color is another issue.

If it's just the mirror then it won't have to be an exact match like a fender or door.

[Tom M King]

I still don't understand why replacing the mirror skin with a prepainted replacement for 25 bucks was not the simplest solution. There are youtube videos for about anything to do with working on vehicles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnPoBBMFQXo