Hello Scotty,
After studying your videos, I bought at 1997 Toyota Tacoma LX at auction a few months ago (160,000 miles, V6, 4x4, Automatic), and while she can run and drive great, her hood paint is peeling and looks pretty rough! To give you an idea, the black paint is peeling in spots all across the front hood, with some of the spots showing a little rust discoloration. While the hood is the worst of it, the texture of the paint across the rest of the body almost feels like its going to peel, despite not showing any spots. The tailgate has a couple rust streaks I could work on myself like scotty with his son's truck.
Long story short, I would love to have it cleaned up to act as my daily driver one day, but I would want to pay to have it done professionally. How do I find a great shop that will do a good job on an old truck without breaking the bank in the PNW?
You will definitely break the bank for a good paint job. A really good paint job can easily cost many several thousands of dollars.
Well unfortunately any really good paint shop is going to be expensive. That's how it goes these days. Back in the day when I lived in Houston there were a bunch of Mexican guys who are good at painting but they were breaking the law because they did not have recirculating paintballs to stop pollution of the air. Those things cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. So nobody's going to paint your car cheap these days. But if you want a good job see who your friends use and see the jobs that they did. Just realized they're all going to be expensive
There's always this...
http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWhWKcY2ltg
Insurance agencies send dozens of cars to shops for body and paint work, and the agents/staff know who does decent work at reasonable prices in your area, and which ones they get complaints about.
Thank you for that advice, I think I will call around and ask now!