Maaco Paint Job [Merged 2-7]

[TSiGoesPsSsSst]

<-----Or you can work in a bodyshop and do all the work yourself and get a $1500+ paintjob for free.

miteclgst,I couldn't have said it any better myself

 

[Auladan]

Many thanks for your responses.

I figured as much, about getting what you pay for. I would very much like a nice paintjob, one that'll last years, and will look good. I hate shoddy work, and I doubt I'll be submitting my Talon to a poor quality paintjob.

Methinks I'll hold off until I've the money for a quality coat of bright, shiny red. I think I'll also look in to the how-to of prep work (sanding, primer, ect), which I could possibly do myself.

Thanks again.

 

[Chuck_3]

one of my instructors at school said macco paint is good its just they leave out a step but he always does it before he gets a car painted (he buys and sells alot of cars) and said it like any other paint job and it actually sticks! but im not sure what step itwas he did before he got it painted

 

[TSiGoesPsSsSst]

definatly prepping makes the paintjob.

 

[TSiGoesPsSsSst]

Many thanks for your responses.

I figured as much, about getting what you pay for. I would very much like a nice paintjob, one that'll last years, and will look good. I hate shoddy work, and I doubt I'll be submitting my Talon to a poor quality paintjob.

Methinks I'll hold off until I've the money for a quality coat of bright, shiny red. I think I'll also look in to the how-to of prep work (sanding, primer, ect), which I could possibly do myself.

Thanks again.

If you can prep the car you can save yourself some money,Its not hard to do at all.Look into it

 

[93 Talon Boy]

you have 2 choices:

1. Pay MAACO $300 to get it redone every 2-3 years

2. Pay a real body shop $1000 once for life.

(assuming you are painting it the same color and arent going to do door jams etc...)

there is a reason MAACO is so cheap and its called sanding and primer coat.

you can sand and primer yourself ans save yourself money both ways. i would sand and primer myself, then take it to MAACO get a paintjob from them and they offer to paint each opening (engine bay, trunk, and doors) for $80 each.

 

[Auladan]

Sounds awesome.

Might anyone have a link to some place where I can read about sanding and priming my car? If I do this, I want to do it the right way.

 

[a_scobel]

you can sand and primer yourself ans save yourself money both ways. i would sand and primer myself, then take it to MAACO get a paintjob from them and they offer to paint each opening (engine bay, trunk, and doors) for $80 each.

Buy for people like myself who lives in dorms...no garage..yea, that's a problem.

 

[93 Talon Boy]

Buy for people like myself who lives in dorms...no garage..yea, that's a problem.

yeha can't help ya there, thats when you need to have friends w/ garages or friends that work at a shop

 

[Infiltrate2000]

BTW, the cheapest paintjob from a body shop over here is 1200. And thats same color, car's clear is just sanded. Car sanded to base for better adesion. Try to talk to some people at the body shop or a honest one, many of them lie.

Its not a complete sand down to metal etc. If you want that, it going to cost you upward 2000 to 3000. Prep work is a lot of money.

As for Macco, their ambassador paint service, all they do is, basically suffle the paint a little bit, and start the painting.

 

[dsmrunnah95]

I've got a friend who's dad owns a body shop (and he happens to work there) and they laugh at Maaco paint jobs.

You can barely touch them with a sander and you're already into the primer.

I wouldn't get one.

 

[ben90tsi]

I had good luck painting my last car with this paint that is made by Dupont, its like a two in one where there clear coat is already in it. 100 bucks will paint your whole car and i did a decent amount of prep work, it turned out better than i thought and i will be doing it to my talon soon as well. i also saved a lot doing this at my work where they have a huge paint bay (for buses) and a lot of proffesional equipment. just my 2 pennies

 

[paranoidTSi]

http://members.aol.com/paranoidxe/3dsm.jpg

Theres a picture of my recent Maaco job, I didn't go with the cheapest, I went with Supreme.

 

[2GeNTSi]

I have some before and after pictures in my gallery, as well as a description of what was done in the AFTER pics. Page 2 in my gallery has the other three pics.

 

[93 Talon Boy]

yeah i have a MAACO job on my talon and it's great. I got the meta-flake black w/ clearcoat and $200 worth of dent repairs. I got the "Presidential" job as they called it and all for $500 which is a greta deal IMO. just check my gallery for pics...

 

[TheTSiGuy]

dude you stole my AOL SN

made it a little over 2 years ago

Im sorry? do you want reperations? :laugh:

 

[blMuskrat]

I'd say the only way you can garuntee a good paint job from MAACO is if you do all the prep work yourself, remove the trim you don't want painted over, and then go there when the car is being done and make sure they taped up and covered everything you don't wanted painted, i.e windows

 

[a_scobel]

I'd say the only way you can garuntee a good paint job from MAACO is if you do all the prep work yourself, remove the trim you don't want painted over, and then go there when the car is being done and make sure they taped up and covered everything you don't wanted painted, i.e windows

So in other words..babysit them, huh

 

[mr2turbo12]

heres a link to my friends 95 gst, that he had painted at maaco 2 years ago.
http://midwest-racing.tripod.com/95__Eclipse.html

 

[a_scobel]

There's always the exception, of course..not EVERY Maaco in the country does crappy prep work. Of course some stores do it better than others..just depends what kind of people they have working there.

 

[iisbernhard]

maaco isnt AS bad as many ppl see it....its up to you....do u plan to keep the car forever...or just for 4-5 years...if just 4-5 years get maaco and get their 400 somthin dollar paint job...just dont get the cheapest one...itll last 6 months and hten start looking like spray paint

 

[miteclgst]

When I saw the title of the thread I was expecting exactly what we have seen up untill now, namely these people bashing MAACO and these other people swearing by it. Lets face it, if the paintjobs were terrible then they wouldn't be in business, but they are so obviously there are people who are happy with the results and the money they spent to achieve them. The price is what makes the MAACO job not the quality, if you want your car painted all one color inexpensively then MAACO is for you, if you want your car painted right then don't be pissed when you get a 2K + estimate. Since I have not seen a MAACO paintjob in person (too many variables come into play in a photo) I cannot say that they do a bad job. But with my experiance working at an award winning antique auto restoration shop, I will tell you that what I consider to be a quality paint job CANNOT be produced for the prices that are advertised. Paint work is labor intensive, no matter how you look at it you cannot accept an unprepped car and paint it to a certain quality for $400. MAACO is the McDonalds of the auto paint industry, you go there you get served quickly and it's cheap... A happy meal though cannot be compared to a filet mingon at a black tie restaurant.

 

[krott5333]

if there is like a vo-tech school (where high school students can go and learn tech skills) near you, they paint cars for free, you just have to pay for the paint. I heard its a pretty good deal.

 

[EclpzLvr97]

That's a negative. Maaco sucks.

 

[blew90]

Each Maaco is independently owned and operated, they hire their own painters and so forth. I got mine painted at Maaco three months ago and paid for the absolute best job they could do. Full prep, full clear coat etc.. I got out of there paying $1066 total with tax, of course talking them down a few hundred. The color is electron blue pearl, from 99-00 Civic SI's, my paint shines awesome. It is a lot better than the teal/aqua color I had before. Do some investigative work on local Maacos, checking out their work. It looks like you live in Shelton, I got mine painted at the Federal Way Maaco (good reputation). I don't know the distance you would have to travel, though.

Here is the pics:

http://www.hermanracingservice.com/newpaint.html

http://www.hermanracingservice.com/sexy.jpg

http://www.hermanracingservice.com/sexy2.jpg