custom paint job advice for my F-150

[mattadams]

PROBLEM: Scraped each and every damn panel on the passenger side of the truck with a sign that was too low to see and I was not alert enough to stop in time (it was 2 in the morning, I was pulling in to the rest area to get some sleep for goodness sakes).

SOLUTION: Possibly a custom paint job. I'm trying to think of some designs or blends that might look good on here, and I know theres some whizzes on this board with photoshop that can make some excellent drawings. One thing I was thinking was since I'm going to ber epainting one side, why not repaint both sides and do some sort of a color blend? The head of the Mile High Jeep Club has a 4-runner which is teal (like mine) and he did a blend with a navy blue near the bottom blending in to the teal and it looked incredible good. I'm also thinking some sort of design. Nothing too bold but not too small either. If anyones got tips or can work up some drawings for me it'd be much appreciated, hell if I use yours maybe I"ll even reimburse you for the hard work .

First off, some pictures of the vehicle with different angles for you to look at . Basically all of these aren't as deep as I thought but they do go through the clearcoat. The dent on the rocker panel is quite a dent, its fairly deep. The rest are just scratches that ended up going down to the metal.
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Then some pictures of the vehicle itself, without the damage .
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[Dannyboy]

Wow Matt,
There was something about this trip that somebody didn't want us to go home in one piece. I think maybe some rocker panels would look good, Chrome if you wanted to stay street. I've seen some that have Dodge and Ford logos etched in the so the color of the truck is the letters. Perhaps yours could say PIAA.

 

[aldive]

It makes me sad to see a beautiful truck all scratched up....

 

[Joe93]

Sorry to hear about that man. Try and buff out as many of the scratches as you can. The trim around the wheel will probibaly need to be replaced. If you take it to a shop they will probibaly buff out most of the scratches and charge you an arm and a leg to do it. I'll take a look at it at the BBQ and let ya know what I think you should do. Post the paint code of the truck and I can probibally get ya some free paint from my work if ya want. Really sorry about that, Still a good lookin truck.

 

[shagg44]

sorry 2 hear bout the accident man. but anywho, i was thinking that if you went w/ a custom paint job you could accent the fender flares in black then maybe do some custom work on the side of the truck and hood in black as well, and still maintain your factory color. plus the black accents on the body would help bring out the black in the nerf bars, roll cage, and grille guard. just some thoughts i was kickin around.

 

[mattadams]

well guys thanks for the tips, keep em coming, I'm still contemplating what to do with it .

 

[rpenner54]

You could lower it and get some of that paint that changes colors when you move around. Its only 10k to mix up.

Hmm I would do that blue thing, I think that sounds pretty kickass myself. Move to a darker blue till at the very bottom of the truck you have a blue that almost looks black! That would look sweet if you ask me. Maybe get a bit of rino lining down at the last 5" or so and paint over that just to give it more effect? Or just paint the whole thing hot pink and get some fuzzy dice to hang in the mirror! After all cruzin day is almost here...

 

[Rick]

I like the mural of the post office truck in the paint. That is incredibly realistic!
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[mattadams]

LOL I never even noticed that til now, thanks Rick . Now that I think about it as I was taking the pictures I was talking with the mailman about the damage.

 

[mattadams]

ok guys whatcha think? A friend sent these to me... didn't look 100% bad... the hood wouldn't look quite that jagged... and I'd probably be installing a ram air hood if I was to get everything re-done...

 

[95ExplorerLtd]

I also like the mural of you standing with your camera on the fender, very nice

So if you do a custom repainting, would you want it to be just a single color with some chrome accents? Like paint it dark blue with chrome rockers, or another dark color. All the lights and chrome would look nice I think. Or would you want it to be two-tone or possibly 3 tone? Our 89 F150 has 3 tone grey, and it looks pretty good, but I dont know about it on such a new truck. The jagged black thing doesnt look all that bad. Maybe a dark blue base color, then the jagged things would start black at the front and fade from black to lighter blue to grey. I am pretty sure I could make some pictures of what I just explained. Give me a little bit, and I'll have them up.

 

[4Wheelin]

What about black with flames coming off the front towards the back or black on the bottom of the truck and fade it to royal blue up the sides? I think that would look real cool.

 

[95ExplorerLtd]

This isnt exactly what I described, but its a thought!

How do you like the rims? Hehe

 

[mattadams]

Grant, that is some darn good photoshop work, remind me not to trust any pictures you post as being real ever again! . Seriously, not a bad idea, I'm not a big fan of the rims though.

 

[95ExplorerLtd]

Well I dunno Gimp, I'd have to see your face first Just kiddin I guess I could try....

 

[Flounder]

I like Grant's rendition, but I also like the stock paint as is... I've just never been one of those multicolor, complicated paint job guys... except in the case of anything done in BASF's Color changing paint (Saleen Mustang or the 1996 Cobra option...). Of course, at $10K a gallon, it's a little pricey.

 

[Anime]

nice

Nice job Matt.

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Maybe its a bit extreme but I think the best basic idea would be to do like this guy and paint your fender flares and rockers to match your air dam..you could even do it all black or PIAA white.

I think you can probably have the smaller "scratches" buffed out or minimized enough that its at least ok to look at...then the paint on the flares and rockers takes care of the rest.

The only other idea is some kind of full graphic..scallops, race logos..custom airbrushing? I dont think you want to spend 15K on a truck thats 15-20K itself do ya? I do airbrushing if youre interested...

 

[Perry]

Matt,
If you want to do something besides stock there are some things to think about.
1) it cost money to have a custom paint job no matter who does it.
2) When you go to sell it you might have trouble getting a good price out of it.
3) If you do a custom job sometimes it's hard to match it if you do something stupid again.
4) As in our Explorer I decided to go with vinyl graphic stripes instead of paint because of how much time it takes and if you have to match it you can just peel them off and do something different.
5) By the way your flares aren't all that bad. They can be sanded and fixed and as for that so called "BIG DENT" that is nothing also. Sorry to burst your bubble, but your truck would be easy to just get back to stock by blending in the spots then clearing the whole side.
Check out dad's truck, that is BAD

If you decide on something bring it up and let dad look at it. He would be happy to give you a price or maybe you can talk to him at the Saxon run, I think they are planning on doing it also.

 

[mattadams]

aww Perry your wreckin the whole thing! LOL. Your supposed to say "yep, you'll need to replace those flares... might want to go with a larger better looking flare... and a custom paint job is not only cool but also attractive and a good attraction factor to the opposite sex" LOL j/k. I'm tossin around a lot of ideas, I'll talk to your dad if he's at Saxon. I'm planning on keeping the F-150 for quite a while so I'm not too worried about lost value.

 

[Perry]

Matt,
I don't want to wreck it for you, just letting you know things you might not have thought of.
You can replace the flares without much trouble. Do they make a aftermarket flare for them???????
That would be something you paint before you put on.

For some ideas on paint, check out the magazine store. The low rider mags have good ideas and they have good looking chicks sometimes so you can't go wrong at least checking them out.

With the vinyl they are cheaper then custom striping and they do a good job of doing highlighting with airbrushing on them anymore. If you really want to do some nice airbrushing I know someone that is awsome, just check out my van.

We will see you at Saxon and we can talk more about it then.