I took my 86 Trans Am to maaco recently to get an estimate to replace a few things and paint the entire car, and the price seems reasonable. i was just wondering if anyone has ever used maaco and what kind of quality i can expect if i decide to go with them. Thanks

I had a Chevelle and two 67 Mustangs painted by them. I did all of the body work myself because I wouldn't trust them with that. Most of a paint job is in the body work. I had to take the Chevelle back to them for a total repaint because they rushed it and missed spots, and they also got paint on my interior. The Mustangs were both painted a different color than what I picked out. One was supposed to be a gunmetal grey and came out more silver. The other one was a medium metallic blue and came out baby blue.

So... personally I am going to find a good shop to paint mine. I think I am done with Macco, but you get what you pay for. Maybe if you drop over $1000 they might do a reasonable job...

I've never heard a good story other than, if you want something painted cheap...

I have a friend that brought his 75 Corvette to a local Maaco here in Massachusetts and it came out awesome. And I've always been told not just anybody can paint a
Corvette.

One word:

DON'T.

MAACO is a franchise . some are good , some are garbage . i suggest looking at some of your local shops work . then decide from their past work . good luck .

My dad told me that back in the day he had an 1981 nascar 4.9 Trans Am he had painted white at Maaco. He said he took one of the Nascar decals on the back off because he didnt like them on the car and they pulled off the paint with them.

Macco does a decent job, we send our work trucks there, its incredibly cheap!
its not the best paint in the world but decent yes, but beware, if its on the carit will be painted!!!!!!!

best bet is to remove all the trim, lights and everything possible and get a cheap tow to thier shop.

all in all, if my paint looked like crap, i wouldnt hesitate

Thanks guys, i really appreciate the help. The paint is pretty rough right now and was hoping to get a decent paint job before summer. im only 19 so i cant afford too much right now, the estimate seemed to good to be true so i thought i would ask and so far im glad i did.

what was the estimate? if you strip the car down yourself, do most of the prep work and keep a good coat of wax on the paint (dont buff it a whole lot or anything) your car will look good for a little while.

yeah sure, it will chip with door dings and stuff but you will be stylin for a couple years at least, and buy the time it gets too bad to handle, you can have enough saved up for a good professional job.

thats just my 2cents being 21 myself. chicks will never know it was a cheap paint job!

The estimate was for 2500 and that was for replacing the hood, front bumper cover, fog lamps, and passenger rocker panel and repainting the car white again. that does sound like a good plan to do the prep work myself

2500 is good for replacing all those parts, also do some research and be prepared to take some overspray off of windows and weatherstripping just in case!

thats what they want to spray one of our big trucks with them doing zero prep work

I would replace those parts myself and then get an estimate. For 2500, minus parts of course, you get a great paint job at a local shop.

local shops in my area want about 16k or more :O
one is a 5yr waiting list, but you get an option to put your car in their showroom after

i didnt read everybodys posts but here goes my reply/story

I took my car to a local Maaco to get a quote, the co owner came out to evaluate my car(its pretty rough right now) he told me all in all without replacing any parts and only doing Body and paint work it would be 1100, i said ok sounds decent, he showed me around the shop and there was even a thidgen Bird being painted(but it didnt turn out too good, and the co-owner tried to blame it on the cars owner)

the tricks he told me about getting a "better" paint job out of Maaco are as follows(i did see these above, just stating this is what a co-owner told me to do)

-First get a tour of the facility(if they will let you) look at cars being painted or just finished being painted(most of the time if they say "oh this car looks bad because the owner did the body work" they are probably lying)
- Do all body work yourself if possible(my maaco will not give you a warranty if you do it yourself, but he said its the best way to get a good paintjob)
- Remove all Trim and body panels (ie. door handles, GFX,Tails,Spoiler, ect.) then get a tow to the shop
- Tape off any area you do not want paint, including interior, but covers over everything inclucing your hatch area

those tips will not only get you a better paint job out of maaco, but it will lower you cost significantly if they are an honest franchise, i decided i didnt want them to paint my car because i can do the body work and i have a friend who does auto paint, so im going the do it yourself route
.............................................................................

If you dont mind the hour drive, bring it down to the McHenry Maaco, my buddy is the head painter there, he owned his own paint shop before the economy took a crap, he painted my 72 GTO that turned out well. Im going to take my 91 there this spring to get painted.

As far as i can tell with Macco its a combination of you get what you pay for and where you go. Some are most definitely 100% better than other. Also when you go in there and get there bottom of the line paint job you get what you pay for. What i recommend you do is to all the prep work. Body work isnt too hard just time consuming. The masking is also very important and the do a pretty horrendous job at that. The only people who i know have taken their cars to Macco for paint and had good result are when they did 100% of the prep work right down to masking off the windows and stuff in the parking lot. I know one of my cars was painted there 2 years before i bought it and the pain was checking/chipping and they even painted over the black grill inserts and fog lights!

I had decent success with Maaco. Of course i sanded and primed the entire car myself before I took it in... They WILL NOT remove tail/headlights, weatherstripping, or anything similar - you must do that yourself after you park the car. I learned this the hard way after removing all but JUST 1 screw from each taillight, they were practically hanging off and still just got masked over. Overall for the price they did a well enough job but as said by a previous poster, every Maaco is different and some are vastly better than others.

My results right after maaco finished painting:

I might have to check that out. I've been wanting to make it to Denny's Third Gen Fest in Crete, IL for the past 2-3 years, but I have yet to get my car painted. My car is sitting in primer and with out registration but I'd hate to pay for a tow from south west Chicago out there

Yeah, that was my goal for this year to get my 91 running good and have it painted for TG Fest...but...my wife's brother is getting married that weekend so I dont know if I can pull off both, gonna try, and wife says I have to go to the wedding.

Maacro is horrible. they use cheap paint and even if you get the 500$ package or the 1000$ + package it's all the same paint and will last all the same( which is medeocre at best). they don't get paid enough to do that good of a job either. And from what i've noticed and heard they're horrible at masking and prep. i know quite a few ppl who after a year or so already have their paint starting to crack and chip
(i'm in new york)


i would never reccomend them to anyone.

MAACO will paint the car ther way unless you tell them. tell them you want the car prep, tell them you want the car sealed and tell them you want it taped. and theyll do everything you say. the only reason people get ther headlights painted and all that is because they dont tell them. ther cheap what do you exspect. you have to treat them like a child and tell them. my friend has his truck painted (it was barney purple) and he got it black and the thing is mint. gorgeous looking.

they got some paint on my grill and I had just bought a new one from hawks about a year ago could have been avoided if they took it off. I figured they would have. Its not that hard. and some over spray on my door weather stripping. other then that they did a good job. I will post up some pics once I take care of those things

which shop did you go to

3 words...proffessional body shop...