BlueWrath92

iTrader: (1)

Is Maaco OK to get a paint job from? I know nothing about paint but they said they would refinish the whole car for about $800 with there "signature" paint job....supposedly there best paint job. Input with people who had experience or kno about paint please. I just hear everyone say they do **** work.

white gold 88

ya git wat ya pay fer.

Dante93GTZ

iTrader: (5)

I've got a buddy that just had Maaco repaint the top half of his two-tone Lexus LS400.

They did such a shitty job, it's just sad. They clearly didn't know how to spray metallic, as was evident by the cloudiness were the metallic collected.

He thought he'd get a good deal for $700, but its just terrible - Not to mention, that they never even talked about body work with him - He assumed that they'd fix the couple small dings and a 1/2" scratch that went down to the metal.... NOPE - Its a nice shiny paint job with dings and a painted over scratch in it.

Personally, I'd stay away, and DEFINITELY do your own body work and prep. I've heard others have had better luck, but my thirdgens are worth more to me with an old factory paintjob than a really poor Maaco one any day.

bitchin_buick

From the job I saw on a friends S-10 a kid in kindergarten could do a better job with "rattle cans"......

Mathius

Every shop is gonna be different and it completely depends on your expectations.

Mathius

spurgeon76

They painted my 82 Camaro way back.The good part was the paint was laid down nice with very little overspray, and only one small run. The bad part was they did absolutely no prep work, ie sanding, priming, removing the body stripes! Needless to say the paint lasted about 18 months. That's what you get for a $600 paint job though.

wiweeds

some good info here


https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/aftermarket-vendor-review/595317-maaco.html

murukalo

you know ive taken a few cars to the macco by my house and they are all good paintjobs it all depends on the store and the painters



theres a picture of the car ive just taken to maaco, if you do it pay for some extra clear to make the paint last longer and a better finish

puma1552

iTrader: (1)

Why chance it?

For every one person that says it's ok, 50 people say it's crap. Even if I found a shop that supposedly did ok work, I still wouldn't chance it.

Get what you pay for no doubt.

BlueWrath92

iTrader: (1)

screw it im ganna chance it, I went in and talked to the owner...he loves my car, hes got a C4 and he said he would love to paint my car personally... Im gonna have him do my hood now because it needs it...if Im pleased I will let him paint my car entirely in the summer.

MotorMouth

I had a friend that got a paint job done by the local Maaco on his '72 Roadrunner. It looked good for a few months until the rust bubbles started popping up. They didn't do any prep work on any part you didn't see when standing. The front and rear piece of metal that tuck under the car never seen any sand paper. All they done was spray over the rust.

F41eatsFords

Check out other cars that particular shop has painted. I got the cheapest one, and payed for the sealer coat, which they applied before the paint. I did the prep, and stripped everything off that I could (mouldings, lights) and the spoilers and had them painted separatley. the only reason there's a couple bubbles here and there is because I rushed a bit on the body work, so I deem those as my fault. :/ Oh, and the rear wheel wells are pealing a bit, but nothing I can't deal with

Do your research; sounds like you've got a good test bed with your hood. If the shop does a decent job, and you take care of it, it'll last for your money's worth. A guy at work was impressed that the orange peal looked factory, and wasn't as bad as he thought. My only real complaint was that they messed up the mix, so it's lighter than the original color. I like it better than the original, but I can't match it.

It all depends on the individual shop, though. Maaco's a franchise; the same person doesn't own all of them, they just buy into the name.

BlueWrath92

iTrader: (1)

Im very skeptical now, I asked a friend about Maaco...he does body work for a living, he told me he started at Maaco and when he did prep work they would have him put moist paper inside body parts to bring customers back.....!!!!!

Dante93GTZ

iTrader: (5)

That sounds a little fishy to me.

Anyway, do what you want, but clearly most will tell you to avoid it - If its a money thing, fine, but consider this: You'll ultimately spend the same amount on 3 Maaco jobs that you would if you just spent it once on a decent job - And you wouldn't have the months of peeling, flaking, rusting, etc in between paintjobs.

If its a money issue, believe me, I bet most of us can feel your pain, but if you love your car, buy it a decent paintjob.

puma1552

iTrader: (1)

If it's a money issue it's better to just skip it altogether and save that cash until you can paint it at a proper bodyshop. Maybe a car looks rough now, but if you are saving for a nice paintjob that's all you have to tell anyone.

punzak9

I have been thinking about maybe going to Maaco too. It sounds like the worst part is that they don't do any kind of body work. I was thinking about sanding it down to metal and getting it all preped and ready for them and just having them start from there. Anyone think that would be better than just giving them my car and telling them to repaint it? We also have an Earl Schiebs paint i was considering or a guy at my fire station said his dad used to paint car professionally some years ago. I think I would lean towards preping the car myself and then giving it to Maaco, after talking to the guys and seeing if they have any kind of warranty.

I agree with the somewhere above post that it depends on the shop in the area. You get a shop with idiots then the paint will probably suck, get a shop with painters then it could be good.

GTA50

I shake my head when people will talk about spending money on headers, cams, intakes......and then want to cheap out on paint

iroc-z_23

iTrader: (1)

maaco gives the states a bad name..pshh. americas body shop; youd be suprised how many maaco jobs we body shops see. if the owner is doing it as his personal project, check out his car and see what kind of a job he did on it, or if you have a friend thats got an eye for body work have him go with to look at it. chances are it wont look any better than his car

punzak9

How many people here have actually had, know someone, or personally seen a bad Maaco paintjob? I personally have never seen a Maaco job, so I don't want to give a good or bad opinion. I know they get a bad rep, and maybe it's for good reason, but I hope nobody is saying that Maaco is bad just because thats what everyone else says. Maybe a few shops ruined the rep for everyone, or maybe Maaco as a company doesn't give a crap about how their employees paint their cars, IDK.
(By no means am I accusing anyone of doing this, I'm just saying)

GTA50

The best response is that you get what you pay for. Years ago I had Maaco paint my '75 Chev Blazer (I was naive) -they also did some basic bodywork(I think to a max of $100). At the end of the day, the paint looked good, but where they did the bodywork (on the quarter panels) you could see the humps from the filler and there was overspray onto the chrome, etc. .

My advice is to do the prep work yourself then take the car to them to shoot. But, also ask a higher end shop the cost to shoot the car. You won't get the guarantee if you did the prep work, but the end result might be better. Just make sure you do a proper job on the prep. Remember, if you do it yourself, the labour is cheap

puma1552

iTrader: (1)

I guess the way I see it is if you are going to do all the prep work and bring it to them just to shoot it, then I would just do all the prep work and bring it to a normal body shop to shoot it; probably wouldn't be too terribly different in price, but you'd probably get a much better paint job.

torque_is_good

buy an hvlp system and do it yourself inside your garage.

Have I used Maaco in the past? You betcha. It was many years ago, I sanded and primed the car myself and just needed it to look purty. I wasn't willing to spend big dollars on a vehicle that wasn't worth it. For the money, the car looked fine. It lasted 2 years before I sold it and still looked great after a wax.

If you are comparing a $3,000 paint job to a Maaco job then that isn't fair and it seems like that is where these types of threads always lead.

I don't order chuck steak and expect it to taste like tenderloin; do you?

punzak9

Thats about all I'm looking for. I'm switching the hood and front bumper because they are damaged so I don't want to ride around woth a blue body, red hood, and black bumper. I'm not expecting this to last a life time. I just want a good paint job on my car for 3-5 years and i'll be happy with it.