I am finally getting some new paint on my 91 z28, which it is drastically in need of. I bought the car ~2 years ago and it needed new paint then, with a lot of rock chips and the beautiful van nuys peeling clear. Although I have heard alot of horror stories about maaco, it is all I can afford since every other shop wanted $2000-3000 and I am still in graduate school. I decided to have a couple of dents removed, with the premium prep. package, and the base clear paint job for a total of $1200. I went to check on the car today and they had it in the booth spraying it with sealer and primer. I talked to the shop manager and he told me that they ended up completely stripping the hood and pulled out a total of 8-9 small dents which I could see. He said that they will be taking the car out and resanding it before they lay down the 3 base and 3 clear coats, and then they will be polishing it. He owns an 84 z28 and said that he wanted to make the job nice since I seemed to really care about the car, partly because I pulled all of the lights and ground effects before bringing it to them. Hopefully I will have it back and reassembled sometime next week and I will post some pics. So far they seem to be doing a good job, which is much more than I was expecting after reading some of the threads on here. They opened up less than a year ago and it seems like the shop manager takes pride in the work they produce. I also think it helps that my car has no rust and that he owns a thirdgen. I was just wondering if this is more than is typically part of a maaco paint job? Sorry for the long post.

Consider yourself lucky to find a shop with a manager that cares about third gen cars. Hope everything comes out good with the paint job. Post some pictures when you get it back

Yeah, I am just waiting to see what the final product is. When I was talking to him about the work their doing, he even said that he didn't want the care to look nice and then have me have to come back in a year needing the paint fixed.

They did a great job on my wife's car....I'm thinking of going in for my Z-28....

My firebird came out great. I had seen their work on a friends car and it held up great. SO i took the plunge an did it myself. I spent pretty much the same amount you did. Post pics up when you get it done. I did the disassembly of the car myself, otherwise they would have just masked everything, that's what really makes the difference in a maaco job.

-Jim

PS you can see my car in my post, It's finally done...

i hope your works out better then mine did..mine lasted long..but they didnt sand down the car good enough and afew years later the under surface paint came threw and cracked all my paint..

I will be happy if it lasts a few years until I can afford to completely disassemble and strip the car. I just wanted a decent paint job, and to protect the car from rusting.

Yeah man. Good luck. Let us know how it turns out. Hopefully we dont see "Finally getting some more new paint at maaco" a year later. lol

Yeah please post up!

Well I got my car back yesterday. In my opinion the paint looks great, at least as good as factory and for $1200 I can't complain. Their are some imperfections on the ground effects but their were some major gouges and rock chips in them to begin with. The only things I noticed on the main body is that they didn't get a good coat behind the rear part of the door handles which can be a pain when they are still on the car and taped off. Also the paint has some orange peel which is fine and they oversprayed on my banks tailpipes which is nothing a little acetone can't fix. The owner wants me to bring it back when I get it all reassembled so he can take some pictures and I will bring the doors up then. When I was putting my lights back on the painter came over and was talking to me about how him and the shop manager made sure that the body got prepped well before they laid down the paint, because they liked my car and it wasn't a rust bucket like most of the ones around here. Over all for the price I am very happy, although I will have to wait and see how it holds up. I haven't gotten the car completely back together but I should have it done next week once we get some nice weather up here, and will post some pics.

Here are some pics. I will post some more when it is completely assembled with new clear side markers and front turn signals, the new silver/black emblems are on, and it is a nicer day.

Looking good, should have pulled the door handles and locks out though. Their easy enough to take off, I did it on mine. Like the wheels too!

Looking good, looks like a great job especially for the price. ANd ya gotta love Red paint.

good looking car!

conlinj - I am not worried about the locks, but I know I should have pulled the door hands. How do you take them off? They got some paint behind their but it wasn't really a good coat. You can't even see it unless you look right behind the handle so I will pull them and just touch up the area to make sure it is protected.

Thanks for the compliments. I can't wait to get the new lights and the front valence on then I will post some better pics.

what package did you go with? can you email me some pics?

shawn18jgr@aol.com

Looks nice and the price was right. That looks better than my paint job by the Chevy dealer.

shawn18jgr - I went with the signature service or their base clear package. I also paid for their prep plus package, and to have them pull a couple of dents. However, like I said the shop manager did alot more prep on my car than is normal at no extra cost, like completely stripping my hood and pulling 4 or 5 more dings. I don't really have anymore pics right now because it has been constantly raining. I will gladly send you some more when I finish assembling the car and get some better weather.

sharp!!! love the color

I wish my car looked that nice.

My 87 looks perfect when you're rinsing it off after you just got done washing it, and from a distance also. once you get close you can see the rust seeping through the fenders and all that jazz...

maybe someday mine'll look as nice as yours!
Brandon

[quote=Nazzz28]conlinj - I am not worried about the locks, but I know I should have pulled the door hands. How do you take them off? They got some paint behind their but it wasn't really a good coat. You can't even see it unless you look right behind the handle so I will pull them and just touch up the area to make sure it is protected.
[quote]

Its not that hard to do, I recently replaced them on my 89 Formula because mine had so much play/slop in them. Might be a good time to replace yours if your going to take them off anyway.

Naturally you need to take the door panels off to access the two nuts that hold the handles on. I think they were around 1/2 inch sized nuts on the posts of the handles. Remove them, pop the clip off the linkage and pull them off...

If I ever get around to having my 92 Camaro painted, I'll be pulling all that stuff off also.

I have had 2 of my cars painted by maaco, the first one i had for 10 years and still shined nicely after waxing, no bubbling or chipping. I decided to get another painted, it wasnt as good as the first paint job but not bad at all for $800 bucks.

Here is a pic of it in the sunshine after giving it a bath. I am sick of waiting for year one to send my emblems, because hate the open spaces without them.

Wow.....they did a bang up job.

Nice camaro.

MAN DUDE! that does look great... $1200?? wonder if there is a macco in tulsa