IS Macco worth it for me?

[Itzallstock]

I will be keeping my car probably another 3 years or so. Is the Macco job worth it to me? If I trailer the car in all masked?
I have heard of people slipping the paint guy 50 bucks and getting a much better job done. I know we had a recent posting and I like the way they came out. I dont want to spend 2000 on a paint job. Even if I have to have Macco do it another time down the line I would still be under $2000. I have pretty much zero rust and would jsut need the same oem black.
-Thanks
Ben

 

[dustyduff]

I'm currently in the same position as you right now. Spring time is coming around the corner and I'm ready to have my bodywork and paint done. Even though tax returns just came in, I'm a little skeptical on what to do as far as paint. As everyone always says, "you get what you pay for". If you're just looking for something to freshen up the exterior, I say go for it. You'll probably have gotten rid of the car before you notice any major blemishes starting. Their quality is all dependant upon where you go to.

 

[97GS-TSpyder]

Honestly comming from experience wiht maaco 3 times on my talon. NO. Dont do it. I got the highest one i could get the second time and third time and it still turned out the same. If you look in my gallery and notice on the bottom of my front bumper, the chips, that happened when iw as HAND washing my car. It just flaked right off. Same on the rear bumper and the sideskirts as well. There was also what seemed to look like a handprint on my hood near the windsheild that they never got out, and the A pillars wheere they changed it to black you could still see white on the edges. Granted if youw ant to do ALL your own prep work, filler, sanding, primer, all that jazz. Sure. But they cnat prep work shit. And this is 3 jobs at 3 diff maacos in a year or so. Dont do it believe me .

 

[GeneralChaos]

this has been discussed before. heres cliff notes:

-Check out more then one maaco, some are better then others.
-Any monkey can paint if you give him a gun long enough, its all in the prep work.
-Do the prep work yourself if you can, since thats the long part, they half ass it.
-Try and talk to the owner and find out whos the best there.
-Slipping extra money for a good job never hurt for anything.

good luck with your decision, if people I know dont paint anymore I will be prepping and getting a $1000 job from maaco probly, I want OEM quality or a little better, nothing to fancy.

 

[HighPsi92GST]

-Any monkey can paint if you give him a gun long enough, its all in the prep work.

this is the second time I read a statement like this today. most of the work is in the prep work, but spraying the paint is not a matter of squeezing a trigger and the car looks all pretty. some people must have watched the new vehix comerical where the guy sprays the car from red to blue in 5 seconds. IT DOESNT WORK LIKE THAT. spraying is not as easy as people seem to think it is.
now in your statement, you at least said "long enough" which i assume means enough practice first, that makes your statement alittle better then the one i read in another thread

 

[Sinner]

this is the second time I read a statement like this today. most of the work is in the prep work, but spraying the paint is not a matter of squeezing a trigger and the car looks all pretty. some people must have watched the new vehix comerical where the guy sprays the car from red to blue in 5 seconds. IT DOESNT WORK LIKE THAT. spraying is not as easy as people seem to think it is.
now in your statement, you at least said "long enough" which i assume means enough practice first, that makes your statement alittle better then the one i read in another thread

I agree there are so many techniques used when it comes to spraying candies, pearls or even metallics. I come across so many people who think they can paint and when I look at the job they did I almost want to slap them and ask if they have even seen a good paint job before.

 

[buscodsm]

Don't do it. Take some advice from the previous posts. Do all of the prep work yourself and spend a little more on the paint job. There is a reason maaco only charges 250 and if you have them paint your car you will know first hand why it is so cheap.

 

[GeneralChaos]

this is the second time I read a statement like this today. most of the work is in the prep work, but spraying the paint is not a matter of squeezing a trigger and the car looks all pretty. some people must have watched the new vehix comerical where the guy sprays the car from red to blue in 5 seconds. IT DOESNT WORK LIKE THAT. spraying is not as easy as people seem to think it is.
now in your statement, you at least said "long enough" which i assume means enough practice first, that makes your statement alittle better then the one i read in another thread

Well they have to somewhat know what they are doing to get the job, and I meant after spraying enough cars they will get better.

Even if he sucks to start with, after painting 1000 cars, im sure hes a lot better then he used to be.

If you prep it good enough it will be easy to get a better then factory job as long as it doesnt run. prepping it right is the hard part.

 

[Itzallstock]

I figure an average macco paints 8 cars a day. A full body shop MIGHT do 2, and even if they do they only do parts, NOT whole cars. Macco would be as large as they are if it was shi t work......I am still 50/50 on the subject.........So far it looks like the people that say it sucks have very nice paint jobs and thats why they are knocking on Macco...
-Ben

 

[97GS-TSpyder]

Did you read my post? I have a maaco paint job, and it sucked. Had it redone multiple times at multiple locations and it still sucked. Dont do it.

 

[leakyfaucet]

I've had two maaco paint jobs. They weren't bad at all. In one of them, the cut some corners and didn't paint a very small part of the side mirrors, but I just took it back and they fixed it. The paint quality was perfect, didn't flake off or anything.

 

[n0c7]

I had my first car painted at Maaco here in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Like always, you pay for what you get. I prepped the car myself and it was the first car I ever prepped so it wasnt perfect and I used spray bomb primers from the local auto parts store. The paint itself was good.

Positives:

- Cheap price for the paintjob alone, ~$500 CDN
- Thorough
- Was still holding up when I sold the car(had it painted for 1.5 years)

Negatives:

- Minor drips on the hood, which they would have fixed
- Painted my grill and gas cap pieces and threw them in the interior of the car while they were still wet, only minor paint stains on the seats
- Didnt take time to figure out my color even after I explained what I wanted. I wanted the Subaru Blue Pearl off of the Impreza WRX's and I ended up with the dark blue/purple pearl off of the station wagon Subaru's. Still looked good though.

 

[Slammed0]

My Nissan truck was painted at Maaco. The paint job itself wasn't too bad. It was laid out very well actually. It was the clear coat that sucked! It was gone after about 1.5 years and then the paint started oxidizing quickly. If you made sure they got alot of good clear coats on it might not be that bad.

BTW - I bought the truck right after it got painted and dont know what the paint package the previous owner got for it. Probably the cheapest of cheap with hardly any clear.