Painted my - Camry Coupe
 

Had the work done at 1-Day Paint, the national chain. White. You never want to do a color change on a car. Unless you like surprises.

The car glistens like a jewel. There was no body work except for about 6 'dimples'. For $725, I would give them a B+ on the painting, and a C on the dimples. You can still detect ripples where the repairs were made. Visible when sighting along surfaces.

Can we get some pictures of the paint job on your Camry? I don't have much experience with this, but I'm considering a new color for my '05.

You're miles ahead if you can stick with the old color. When you change, all the crevices in open cavities become a nightmare to paint. Under the hood, door edges and frames.

And on resale, the buyer will suspect that you had extensive body damage in an accident. Seriously effects the resale value. Can't you live with fresh paint/same color?

I'll take photos and post tomorrow.

Having learning problems with digital camera. This clearly isn't working, as uploads continually fail. Photo taken under foggy sky.

The paint is flawless. Urethane. But have to wait 90 days to rug out (polish) and then wax. I'll practice more with another digital camera and take some new photos. :(

Having trouble uploading images. Which format do you folks use? Tried .jpg, .jpeg,tiff,HTML without luck.

Third Try
 

Screenshots taken from my Desktop. Will post again in 90 days following paint rub out and wax jobs. Photos will be taken in sunlight instead of fog.

Difficult to tell for sure from the pics but I'll take your word for it, looks really sharp from what I see. Did they give you any guarantee that it would last?

As long as the proper prep work was done to insure that it sticks, I'd be very happy with the cost and outcome.

The paint is backed up by Sherwin Williams and by One-Day Paint. We just had our first real rain of the year in Southern California so I'll wipe it down and spend a more time experimenting with the sole dorkey digital camera in the household so I can post more photos.

As I mentioned earlier, the paint won't be cured fully until the 90-day mark. Then i can rub it out with a buffer and I'll post more shots. That will be in 60 days.

It's good to know that you can get a nice paint job for under a grand these days. Did they paint in around the doors, hood and trunk? I asked our local body shop about mine and he said it would be around $1200 and that was without doing around the doors etc.

Needless to say, I decided to rub out the existing oxidized paint and settle for a good coat of wax.

Our Camry is a pale yellow (not my favorite), was wanting to change that to a nice root beer brown which would go well with the interior.
Maybe I'll find the right place/ deal one day and get it done.
We live rural so it's a good long drive to any of the one-day shops.

If I ever do go this route, I'll do a lot of prep work ahead to try to save as much as possible.

Congrats on the nice paint job, I'm sure it feels more like a new car again!

Nope on door jambs and trunk, etc. That's why I chose not to change colors.
I honestly don't know if they would accept me doing light body work. They might back off on offering the guarantee with an unknown clod prepping before the paint is applied. I was a little dissatisfied with a tad of overspray on the radiator and air dam in the front. A bit sloppy, but not crazy.

About cost. A guy in my cycling club owns an upscale body shop 1 mile from my home. I asked him what he would do the job for, and he turned me away. Said it would be too expensive since all his clientel are insurance jobs.

I've painted cars myself before. And after getting the paint and materials through my employer (FedEx air operations) I invested close to $600 in 1997 for a two stage job on my old Mercedes. That was at a big discount. No color change. Materials are that expensive. From my background in old car restoration, I know that the current going rate to paint a classic is about $5000+. Of course that would including removing the glass. And I guess you know that the per gallon cost varies with the pigment. Red and blue are sometimes 2x what white costs.

If you have a friend who can spray a car for you, someone who has access to a spray booth, you could do the prep work yourself and complete the job for about $300 or so. At all costs, avoid a color change. Painting is quite sensitive to temperature and humidity. I waited for the first cool day of Fall, because the paint flows better. I love in Southern California.