paint job

paint job (plural paint jobs)

1. The act, or the result of painting or repainting something

   His car has a great new paint job.

   • 2023 March 8, “Network News: Pwllheli 'box gets a makeover”, in RAIL, number 978, page 22:

     Hidden timber elements, lintels and roof tiles have also been replaced, in addition to gaining a new paint job and guttering drainage, and the removal of ivy that was damaging the exterior.

2. (figuratively) A modification to something which appears flashy or impressive but is actually superficial.
   • 2008 May 30, Earnest Cavalli, “Konami: Gun Metal PlayStation 3 Not 'Just a Paint Job'”, in Wired‎, San Francisco, C.A.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-04-14:

     "Some seem to think that the Gun Metal Gray is just a "paint job", which it is not," wrote Konami's community relations operatives in a recent public forum post.

   • 2011 August 19, Daniel D. Snyder, “’Fright Night’: Telling a Nerds vs. Jocks Tale, With Vampires”, in The Atlantic‎, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 August 2023:

     With a smooth screenplay from former Buffy: The Vampire Slayer writer, Marti Noxon, and a re-tooled story from original writer/director Tom Holland, Fright Night circa-2011 feels like more than a just shiny new 3D paint job.

   • 2017 October 19, Eliot Brown, “WeWork: A $20 Billion Startup Fueled by Silicon Valley Pixie Dust”, in The Wall Street Journal‎, New York, N.Y.: Dow Jones & Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 December 2017:

     "WeWork is nothing but Regus with a paint job—it's newer, cooler," said Frank Cottle, chairman of Alliance Business Centers, a large network of serviced offices. WeWork's valuation, he said, "makes no sense."

   • 2021 September 24, Stuart Ritchie, “A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century review – self-help laced with pseudoscience”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-08:

     Their towering self-regard gives them the false belief that all their arguments – including the book's premise, which is just a repackaging of 18th-century Burkean conservatism with a faux-Darwinian paint job – are staggeringly innovative.