Bob,

I don't know if they have Tractor Supply in your area, but you can buy 2 quarts of paint, mix it 2 parts paint with 1 part laquer thinner and get a 15.00 paint gun from Harbor Freight, borrow a small air compressor and paint it in your driveway, did my old motor home 2 years ago and it still looks good. Like the others said, prep work is the key. Get all the old wax off by going over everything with a ScotchBrite pad and neutralize all the rust.

Junkman

I was told a small compressor wouldn't keep up?

I was told a small compressor wouldn't keep up?

You were probably told right. But if you want to go the route of junkman (which will yield better results if you read up on painting a bit), I'd step it up a notch and use a 60gal. compressor with a moisture filter and buy a little more spray gun http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=43430.

I have this set up and I have gotten really good results.

A couple of other hints:

• if painting indoors, spray the floor down with water to keep dust down
  
• if painting outdoors, paint in the morning when the air is calm and bugs aren't flying

Other than that, just like everybody else says, don't skimp on prep.

Really? Damn... I used 2 cans of rustolium just on my bumper! I noticed the Rustolium has a vertical sprayer (easier), the the cheapies have a circle sprayer (seems harder to get even). I plan on doing my Zook soon, but I figured 5-10 cans of primer, and 5-10 cans of paint? Can anyone verify please?

Most of my paint was in pretty good shape, so I wet sanded it (320 then again with 400) to remove the gloss and smooth it out.  No need to primer, except a few spots where rock chips needed to be feathered out down to the metal.  The paint will stick just fine to the old paint as long as you get the gloss off.

Rustoleum is pretty heavy stuff, so it covered well.  5 cans for the truck.  It is a 2 dr convertible, so  there is not as much to paint as a 4 dr or tintop.  I also didn't paint the bumpers as you can see in the picture.  Take everything off the truck that you can.  Bumper covers, mirrors, tire carrier.  Take the hood off and hang it up to paint it (much easier that doing it flat).  Like everyone has said, prep is everything.

Thx everyone for your input.

...If you do the prep work, or have someone do some good prep work, the paint they put on will be fine.

Yeah, I thought about that, but I don't think I have the skills or facility to do the prep work myself. My situation is that I live in a 4th floor condo in the inner city, and I have one parking space in our basement garage. Even if our parking garage wasn't dark and lacking electrical outlets, the condo assoc. rules prohibit us from working on our vehicles in the garage. Kind of a sucky situation. And no way can I afford a house in Seattle. I figure if I have someone else do the prep work it may as well be whoever paints it.

Yellow  :'(

Well, that's not set in stone. I am also considering copper orange, dark red, or light blue.

I suggest finding out where all the Import tuners get their paint work done, these are your best shops for good quality, custom work.

Good suggestion! I'll research that.

A good quality color change job done at a shop should cost around $2000 - $3000.

I was hoping to get away with $1,500 or less. I'm not sure that anything more than that would be a worthwhile investment. I'm not sure how long I'm going to keep the X-90. I've been thinking about getting a Jeep Patriot, a Suzuki SX4, or a Kia Soul (http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/25/officially-official-kia-soul-coming-to-u-s-in-april-2009/).

Too bad Suzuki doesn't still make the Samurai. If I paint the X-90 I'll probably end up keeping it for at least a few years.

I would suggest getting it wrapped in a camo vinyl. I think about 300 will do a tracker/x90. Im going to do mine this winter. There is a place in fife that does it for a reasonable price.

Yeah, Jalopnik had an article about that recently: http://jalopnik.com/399961/bmw-owner-changes-his-3+series-color-from-black-to-white-with-tape.

I can't help thinking that it would scratch easily. If you end up getting yours done please let us know how it turns out.

And - yeah, the x90 SUCKS for cargo storage. Slap on a hitch, and get a small trailer.

Another unfortunate aspect of living in a city condo: you can't have all those cool garage toys. I'm going camping tomorrow morning, but we are taking my hiking buddy's Subaru.

If you are planning on going off-road, the paint job won't matter much, since its gonna get some "trail stripes" on it anyway.

The closest I do to off-roading is old unpaved logging roads in the Cascade mountains; nothing serious.

Here is my Tracker with the "I can't believe its a rattle can" paint job (as others have said, its all in the prep) and the matching '66 Apache Buffalo.

Looks pretty good if you ask me.