Advice on getting car painted (MAACO any good?)

[GrandPrix34]

I want to get my car painted AGAIN because the work the 1st asshole did totally destroyed my beautiful factory finish. After about 5 months, the whole damn paint is falling off, its fish-eyeing everywhere, I CAN SEE METAL in alot of places, and stupid orange peel.

 

I WILL NOT take it back to that piece of monkey shit because i need my car everyday, i can afford to loose it for about maybe 1/2 a month but NOT 2 months like this punnany did last time.

 

What is a good price range for quality paint? What about MAACO? WHat do you guys think? I have an air compressor, should i paint it myself 8) (j/k on the last one )

[jeremy]

if you want a quality paint job, I take the chance of doing it myself vs. taking it to MAACO......for a good quality job, I would expect to pay $2000-3500

 

later,

 

jeremy

[GrandPrix34]

a local shop around here charges $900 minus any parts added for a paintjob. I have seen their work and its like factory to the minute detail.

 

When looking at smaller ma' and pa' shops, what should i look for in their work space? Equipment, place to paint? How bout questions to ask?

[Thabulldog]

You wanna see a Maaco paintjob, look in my sig. 700 bucks and most of the car was stripped.

[GrandPrix34]

looks good to me (unless i cant tell the prob if any thru the picture)

[conley3.1]

You could save a LOT of money sanding it yourself. If I ever get my car painted, i'm sanding it myself, and my uncle owns a body shop

If you have any experience, sand it yourself, i say.

What color are you going to paint it?

[5speedz34]

Yeah, well I've seen some good MAACO jobs if you do ALL the prep work yourself.

[gp90se]

Ive preped a car for a maaco paint job, it voids their warrenty but it comes out good if u take your time. we pulled EVERYTHING off the body we didnt want painted, including the headlights, door handles, the whole 9 yards. maaco uses sum good paint, but they employees only get like 9 an hour, so u get what u pay for.

 

-Jeff

[Redfox340]

Yeah, well I've seen some good MAACO jobs if you do ALL the prep work yourself.

 

Agreed! Our Celebrity turned out awesome in comparison.

 

Ive preped a car for a maaco paint job, it voids their warrenty but it comes out good if u take your time. we pulled EVERYTHING off the body we didnt want painted, including the headlights, door handles, the whole 9 yards.

 

Really? Void their warranty? We had our extended since we did such a complete job.

Besides, after spending $250 for paint that last over 3+ years, I'm willing to bet we'll do it again soon.

 

- Erik

[topless94style]

Also, depends on the color at maaco. they use decent paint, but coming from a Dupont rep at school, he said the bad things about maaco paint. Then again, thats cuz its a dupont competitor. If you choose a not so common color and a better job or something? they will charge more, the basic red blue white black and a couple other colors they charge really cheap on. After that the prices go up.

[grandprix104]

Well if you want a maaco paint job check out the reputation of the location near you. The quality of work depends soley on the experience of the guy doing the work. Also check to see if they will allow you to do the prep work. MOST will let you do the prep work and keep the warrantee as long as they can inspect it and then you do any finishing touches they reccommend. DO NOT use thier economy service use the supreme or better. For best results use thier base-coat/clear-coat service. That turns out pretty nice if you prep well.

[BrianG]

DO NOT go to maaco unless you want to do A LOT of work yourself to make the job look decent, and I hope you know what youre doing. Paint jobs are prime examples of "you get what you pay for." MAACO is just that. You pay $300 bucks and you get NOTHING but a coat of paint over your original. MAACO does NOT mask anything off, they paint over whatever has not been masked off yourself. I have heard they paint right over sidemarkers on fenders. I suppose if you do all the prep work, sanding, priming, bondo, etc. then mask everything and remove everything you can, then tell MAACO to put a few extra coats of clearcoat on, then you can take it home and wetsand and buff it yourself and get a really good job in the end. Just a really good wetsand and buffing job can run up to and over $1000, not even painting, just wetsanding and buffing.

 

GrandPrix34 - for 900 did they prep or wetsand and buff??

[Thabulldog]

DO NOT go to maaco unless you want to do A LOT of work yourself to make the job look decent, and I hope you know what youre doing. Paint jobs are prime examples of "you get what you pay for." MAACO is just that. You pay $300 bucks and you get NOTHING but a coat of paint over your original. MAACO does NOT mask anything off, they paint over whatever has not been masked off yourself. I have heard they paint right over sidemarkers on fenders. I suppose if you do all the prep work, sanding, priming, bondo, etc. then mask everything and remove everything you can, then tell MAACO to put a few extra coats of clearcoat on, then you can take it home and wetsand and buff it yourself and get a really good job in the end. Just a really good wetsand and buffing job can run up to and over $1000, not even painting, just wetsanding and buffing.

 

GrandPrix34 - for 900 did they prep or wetsand and buff??

 

 

Look at my car, does it look like anything was painted over? Also the shop I went to voided the warranty if you did any prep yourself. Thats that operator in paticular but some let you, this one did not. They did full prepwork too.

[topless94style]

Maybe its the quality of the picture, or the lighting, but to me your cars paint looks a little off. I am sure its the picture, but on the rear of the car, teh paint looks great, i like that color red. But as you progress towards the front of the car the paint looks more faded and more of the older red color.

[Intlcutlass]

But as you progress towards the front of the car the paint looks more faded and more of the older red color

 

 

 

I can't tell.......I think it looks alright........

[slick]

I say call around, and ask places what they charge, what all there processes are, what paint they use, types of guns, and all that. Heck, talk to people, they may know a person that paints cars in there garages. One of my good buddies dad's has painted over 30 cars, right out of his garage. Does one heck of a job. He would only charge me for all the parts, but I would be nice and throw in a few hundred for him.

 

EDIT: Teach yourself how to do it. In the end, you will feel proud that your car has a nice paint job, and you did it yourself.

[BrianG]

Its not BS. Ive seen pleanty of shitty maaco paint jobs, theyre all over the place by me. Did they wetsand and buff too??? For $700 I doubt they did, and if they did, it probably wasnt a quality job.

[Thabulldog]

Its not BS. Ive seen pleanty of shitty maaco paint jobs, theyre all over the place by me. Did they wetsand and buff too??? For $700 I doubt they did, and if they did, it probably wasnt a quality job.

 

The only time you get a shitty job from them is when you get the economy bullshit. If you spend more you get a much better job. I think the results of my car speak for themself.

[BrianG]

Pics never do a paint job any justice. You didnt answer my question either.

 

The fact of the matter is that MAACO is not known for great paint jobs and probably never will be.

[topless94style]

Pics never do a paint job any justice. You didnt answer my question either.

 

The fact of the matter is that MAACO is not known for great paint jobs and probably never will be.

 

 

The only reason me, or anyone else i have talked to around here, would use MAACO, is to help sell the car. Give it a paint job, say its a brand new paint job, because it is, then get a few extra bucks out of the car. After you sell it, you dont have to deal with the paint problems. I know i would never do that though, because i would be pissed as hell if someone did that to me.