i know maaco doesnt do the best paint jobs...

[Tyler]

but im broke. and i can not get these marks out of my paint. i will never wetsand again! lol


anyways. i've always wanted to color black on my car.


how long will a maaco paintjob last me? if well taken care of

[strobhen]

2, maybe 3 years

You should treat it like a paint job that has no clearcoat.

As for the marks, try 3m finish restorer, or some rubbing compound.

You might also think about going to a decent shop & have them spray clearcoat on (they would spray on a few coats & then sand it down).

[ October 01, 2003: Message edited by: strobhen ]</p>

[AlienInv8r]

Have you thought about just taking it to a good body shop and asking them how to fix it, or if they would give you a good price at just fixing it, at least try that before going to maaco, weigh all your options first.

On the other hand though, the guy I bought my car from had my car completely changed from green to the silver that it is now by maaco. The silver paint itself looks like a very nice color, but it has a lot of goofs all around the car. When you get close you can see that the molding had paint runs in it, and my paint chips easily (ie- my mom tapped a car next to us once when opening my door, and the edge where the door hit chipped away a bit). This was maaco's top o the line job. Now on the other hand, since I've gotten the car, I've washed and polished the heck out of the car. A lot of people tell me that the silver looks great on my car, and I agree aside from the small things. I think my paint has been on there for like 2 years now. So I'd say as long as you take care of the paint, and make sure to thoroughly inspect your car before leaving the shop, that the maaco job would hold up alright. It definately wont be show quality, but I personally think that my car looks pretty decent and its not as horrid as everyone says they are.
Here's a pic of my car with a 2-yr old maaco job
It's definately not bad...

[ October 01, 2003: Message edited by: AlienInv8r ]</p>

[TurboKillaZ]

HMM nothing wrong with that paint [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ChronoGN]

If you sand the car yourself and do all the prep work, you could probably get your car painted pretty cheap by a professional shop.
I'm getting my whole car done for $100+paint. I just have to do do all the prep work. And he does good work. His 68 Camaro Z28 RS looks awesome.

[Birdie2000]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by AlienInv8r:
Have you thought about just taking it to a good body shop and asking them how to fix it, or if they would give you a good price at just fixing it, at least try that before going to maaco, weigh all your options first.
[ October 01, 2003: Message edited by: AlienInv8r ]<hr></blockquote>

I agree. Take it to a body shop and see what they say. You may get out of there pretty cheap. You could also consider hitting it with a buffing wheel first, just to see if it's enough.

[Big Tymer]

for the maaco paint job, make SURE they do the prep work, cuz they wont!

tell them you want to see it after the prep work is done and b4 they paint it! or they just flat out wont do anything


also get a couple coats of their best clearcoat

i did one with the cheap clearcoat and bird crap and tree sap would eat right through it...

[key2emptiness]

Our Maaco sucks down here. They did my 93. One day I get caught in the rain at work and it sat for maybe 3 hrs. I could not get the waterspots off for the life of me. I tried everything. I would not recommend it. I paid like 600 bucks too. It was there top of the line paint job. Yeah right.

[AlienInv8r]

Maybe you could just have maaco paint the hood for now to hold you over till you get some better cash. Have you gone to any body shops to even ask them what they'd charge? Maybe a decent shop wont totally rape you for a decent job. Like I said, my paint job isnt bad from like 10 feet away at all, but I've also got like 10-15 coats of wax on that and it should be a little nicer than it is. But I don't have any major gripes since I'm assuming most of the actual damage to my paint was done by the owner. If anything, go to your local maaco and just look at a few of the cars they've painted in their lot. Inspect a few of the cars. Ask to look at some of their cars that are prepped to see how they look. Maacos vary so much from shop to shop that it's hard to tell what to expect. I've heard from a lot of people that they absolutely blow, but I have also heard from some people that their maaco's actually did a decent job on their car. You'll never know till you look around at a few different body shops, and also just see how competent your individual maaco shop is. I'd just ask around, maybe ask at a local car show if anyone knows of a cheap body shop with decent work.

[Tyler]

how about having maaco paint it..

then bring it to a better shop and have them slap on a couple layers of clear coat?

[Tyler]

i also went to a highly respectable body shop right near me.

they quited me 600 just for the dent to be removed, and then have my hood repainted and quarter panels blended.

then i asked how much for the whole car. they said.. 3500 without engine bay.

4200 with engine bay and firewall