To paint the hood or not...?

[AlexSport'00]

Ok, so my Ex is coming together nicely after the little things I've been doing, however the thing that kills me is the hood is so dirty looking. The paint on the car is all fine except the hood and the roof, and I understand why, but I'm also too poor to get a paint job for the whole car. I was wondering if you guys would recommend me trying to repaint the hood myself, or do you guys think the colors wouldn't match?? I don't care about painting the roof cause well, it's sorta hard to see cause its tall, but the hood needs some work. What do you all recommend? Any tips for painting just the hood? Self paint, or take it to a shop, etc.?

 

[AlexSport'00]

It's black, if that matters...

 

[01EXP5.0]

What kind of shop equipment do you have, compressor and paint gun? I would strongly advise against rattle can. But if you have the right equipment go for it if it turns out bad sand it down and try again. Good luck and post pics if you choose to diy.

 

[storlied]

The way I see it is, you have 3 options..
1. Paint it yourself the best you can.
2. Have someone else paint it, maybe a shop.. could be spendy...
3. And if it comes down to it, quote a junk yard hood if you find one that's not damaged and compare the cost to painting yours.

 

[wood1]

Go old school and paint it flat black. I think it'd look cool!

 

[AlexSport'00]

I've got no equipment unfortunately. I was sorta considering using a can of like duplicolor, but if you advise against it then I'll pass.
I do know a guy though who does some painting stuff (he powdercoated my rims real nice), so I'll ask him if he knows someone and could maybe get me a decent deal on it since it's just the hood.
I'm thinking that any junkyard hood would be just as old looking paint.
And wood1, I'm not a big fan of the hood not matching the car's color except in rare cases; I'd rather not risk not liking the look of it. Thanks for the idea though.

 

[AlexSport'00]

Do you think it could be possible to find a shop that would let me do the work myself but use their facility? Just a possibility I could try...

 

[storlied]

Good luck with that, on another note... how exactly is your paint condition? I have a 98 and it's doing pretty good. I remember seeing on the first gens and early 2nd gens the paint would crack everywhere.. no good... could you get some pics?

 

[AlexSport'00]

The paint is pretty good everywhere except the roof and hood. I guess because of the sun damage (I live in Florida) and maybe because of the snow as the previous two owners lives up north most of the time. However darkness has fallen here so a pic of the paint wouldn't be good right now. In the dark it looks fine usually. It's in the light when you notice the problem. I'll try to get pics up tomorrow.

 

[Dono]

What about a cut polish and wax?

 

[AlexSport'00]

Unfortunately that doesn't do it. I've tried a couple polishes over the last year or so and I've waxed it twice, and everything is nice and shiny right after I do it, but after a few weeks it seems like the areas where the paint is bad just get worse than before. The rest of the body stays rather shiny for a while. It's really annoying cause the hood is all bleh but the rest of the vehicle looks good after a nice wash and cleaning.

Edit: I've never done the "cut" part of what you just said. Could you explain what that means?

 

[Turdle]

Keep an eye on craigslist. Sooner than later you'll find a nice black hood which matches perfectly, and if you spend more than 75.00 for it I would be surprised. Keep an eye on the auto parts section, searching for " explorer" and " mountaineer" looking for parting out vehicles.

any year, 96-01 should work fine. You might need to swap your hood latch hardware over.

 

[AlexSport'00]

Trudle: Do you think that I'll be able to find one that's still in as good of condition as the rest of my vehicle? Or would they all be dirty looking with the paint fading/cracking/etc. like mine?
P.S., before you even posted on this I somehow found the thread for your oven and spent like 10 minutes going through it looking at pics. Nice build.

 

[Turdle]

Trudle: Do you think that I'll be able to find one that's still in as good of condition as the rest of my vehicle? Or would they all be dirty looking with the paint fading/cracking/etc. like mine?
P.S., before you even posted on this I somehow found the thread for your oven and spent like 10 minutes going through it looking at pics. Nice build.

Yeah, I think you will be able to find a nice one, have you tried junk yards?

Thanks for viewing the oven build thread.

 

[AlexSport'00]

The ones around me don't seem to have very many explorers or mountaineers around my year. I've only found one in the yards near me that was also black but the hood was gone.

 

[LONO100]

if your monetary resources are a little short, have you considered getting an autobody class at your local junior college to do it? they are always looking for body and paint projects for their students. just get in touch with the teacher at the school and tell them you have a project their students can work on. the labor is free, all you will need to do is pay for the paint. they even have all of the equipment needed to do the job.

another option would be to find a paint shop that will let you do the prep work like the sanding and the filling. this can save you a lot on labor.

if all else fails, you can try painting the hood and roof yourself. depending on the color of your truck, if you cant match the paint, you can try doing a black hood and roof and make it two tone. any way you go, good luck!

 

[sport97]

Paint on explorers is generally pretty good. Chances are you will find one in decent shape at a junkyard if you look around.

 

[AlexSport'00]

LONO10: Those first two options are both interesting ideas. I never knew about the first one, and the second I just haven't had the time to find one of those shops. I'm excited to do a little research on both. Thanks. However the truck is black, so I want a black that matches otherwise the hood will look annoyingly slightly different; I also want to make sure it's a good coat that'll hold up, and I'm not sure if a rattle can would be very good for the large area.
sport97: I've visited all the junkyards near me within the last month and only 1 had a black explorer, but no hood. I'll be checking craiglist though.

 

[my98nnj]

Your issue with paint match shouldn't be an issue. The color code is on the vehicle info sticker. Any body shop will be able to make the color and tint it to match the vehicle . You can take it one step further and have them blend into the top of the fenders. You'll never see the difference in color. Get a few quotes from local body shops, the quote is usually free. Go from there.

 

[AlexSport'00]

Alright, cool. I've just gotta find some time so I can do that.