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New Paint Color

5K views 22 replies 10 participants last post by  brian86t 
#1 ·
Hey all -
Longish time member (7 years is a long time, right?), mostly a lurker, benefiting from other's experiences.
So as per usual; I want to benefit from your experiences :D

My 2005 Xterra is rusting... and I keep finding more and more rust spots. Nothing rusted through yet; but it is becoming more and more apparent that it needs a total strip down and repaint. Well... "needs" is a strong word... but I am intending to fully re-paint my Xterra.

I am considering keeping it silver; but am more considering a complete change.

I am not worried about the labor/time/money that goes into it; I've successfully painted a vehicle before, and my Xterra is no longer my daily driver. We want to keep it alive for as many years as possible; and it's not a great commuter (fuel economy), and wide spread rust obviously puts a damper on a long life.

So here is where you guys come in: What colors have worked well for your Xterra? Anyone have a regret on a color they chose when buying/repainting? Anyone have a color they absolutely love?


I'm planning to continue using it for off-roading and camping, but I don't do anything SERIOUS, I'm not a rock crawler or anything (yet), so I'm not planning to do major line-x, Herculiner, etc; except maybe on the plastic parts/lower sections.

I searched the forum for any similar conversation, but wasn't finding anything.

So... thoughts? Experiences?
Time-frame is either this fall or next Spring, so I'm in no hurry :)
 
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#2 ·
If it were me, I would absolutely repaint it a new color!! I've seen a couple of vinyl wraps on Xterras as well as bedliner/raptor liner jobs, but I haven't really seen a full on repaint I don't think. So you won't find many opinions on colors here.

I want my Xterra to be as unique as possible so I would def pick a color that was not factory. I think an olive drab would be cool, or orange. Or maybe a sky-blue color. The first gens had some cool colors...

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#3 ·
I have a similar issue with some paint chipping off, considering a repaint eventually. im thinking about doing a roll on bedliner type paint, mainly for cost(DIY) im thinking about a flat grey color like the late model toyota 4runners tacoms and tunrdas use. or a FDE/ military stylec olor.
 
#9 ·
Many of the do-it-yourselfers in my area will use the Duplicolor Paintshop paints

Paint Shop is a ready-to-spray system that requires no mixing or reducing, and with no re-coat window, additional coats can be applied at anytime.
 
#11 ·
At the moment, I'm leaning heavily towards the candy apple red, with dark black trim/ tough lined lower parts.
I'll for sure do a build post once I start the process, with lots of pictures :D
Thanks for the input folks!!! I had been thinking some sort of red could be fun, but hadn't found one I LOVED, but that candy apple looks cool.
Good news is Duplicolor does a paint system for that specific color, so this may be a less expensive endeavor than I was expecting.
 
#16 ·
At the moment, I'm leaning heavily towards the candy apple red, with dark black trim/ tough lined lower parts.
I'll for sure do a build post once I start the process, with lots of pictures :D
Thanks for the input folks!!! I had been thinking some sort of red could be fun, but hadn't found one I LOVED, but that candy apple looks cool.
Good news is Duplicolor does a paint system for that specific color, so this may be a less expensive endeavor than I was expecting.
I'm excited to see it.
 
#18 ·
Now that it is warming up, I am hoping to get this started soon.... but my other car is being needy right now, so it's stealing the budget. I mean, does my WRX really NEED a new catalytic converter and head gaskets??
I'll start posting when I start the prep work on the Xterra.. until then, I'll be playing grease monkey with my other car.

I am super excited to do the candy apple red though!!!
 
#20 ·
Not sure if it has been said directly, but it makes a lot of sense. It's a multi-layer paint coat, so I can't imagine it would be easy to fix. That being said, the vast majority of my scratches are where I'm doing a bed-liner, so I am hoping it won't turn into an issue.
 
#23 ·
Well.... I sold the Xterra this last weekend, after almost 10 years of ownership. I've got super mixed feelings about it, but it made sense for us to change vehicles. So... this build post won't be going anywhere. Thanks all for the awesome suggestions!!! And good luck all!!
 
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