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The Camaro was on the verge of a steep decline. Peeling clear coat, faded paint, cracked dash, torn upholstery, grease stained carpet. It was getting a little embarrassing, especially since I still drive the car to work and it's visible to everyone.
I'm at a point in my life where I can pay for a $10000 paint job, but would rather spend it on something else. After all, that is a ridiculous amount of money to put into a car that is worth half that. I painted the car in my garage over ten years ago and was very happy with it, but swore I'd never do it again. For any of you who have done it without the most efficient tools, no booth, and attacked the task without any help, you know what a several week long headache it can turn into. I'm glad I did it, but never again.
Next I bought new carpet. After a decent amount of research, I learned that all of the carpet available for our third gen owners is ACC made, meaning get it from the cheapest vendor possible. I chose RockAuto ($308 for passenger and cargo area with mass backing). It fit great and was a huuuuge improvement.
Before, during, after:
Next came seat upholstery. Once again went with RockAuto at a price of $322 for vinyl upholstery - opted for vinyl instead of the original velour. The velour samples they sent me simply felt of a much cheaper quality than the originals, and I've heard from several members on thirdgen that the aftermarket velour is disappointing. Was again extremely happy with the quality of the vinyl and color match (Smoke) for my 82B dove gray color code.
Before and after:
Finally came the paint. And I fully expect to get a little Maaco sucks but I found a guy outside of Baton Rouge who does very quality work at Maaco prices. At his shop they use a quality Dupont paint, do good prep work, and have a brand new booth. He let me walk through his shop and see some of his work... outstanding. Let me be clear, I pulled as much trim off as possible (Maaco's policy is that they take NOTHING off and just mask). So, he let me take off whatever I wanted after I drove the car to his shop. Mirrors, grill, tail lights, emblems, spoiler, license plate, door handles, hood louvers, etc., and then didn't charge me anything extra to paint these items separately. I paid him an extra $100 for an extra coat of clear, and $300 body work to fix the nose. I highly recommend Huey at Maaco in Prairieville, LA just outside of Baton Rouge. Check out the pictures in the next post on this thread.
Total cost of paint job including body work, taxes, base/clear package, extra coat of clear (3 total clear layers) was $1668. He fixed tiny little dings along the body that we didn't even talk about. I almost wanted to give him more money after it was all done.
Tried to attach the closeups of the mirrors but the files are too big to upload. Anyway, a couple of notes:
I rebadged the entire car with emblems, striping, lettering. Also I redid the window sweeps. So that stuff wasn't included with the paint job, but for $1668 out the door I am extremely happy. I asked him to spray the headlight buckets, louvers, and door handles gloss black and they came out awesome.
Have Maaco'ed several Camaros and have been very pleased. I have paid for the 275.00 plus tax out the door job and was surprised at how much better the car looked. Can't hardly by sandpaper and bondo for the 275.00.
Just materials alone are $1000 for my car. Luckily for me my dad has painted cars for about 40yrs. We may tackle it this spring. The $ spent for this MAACO job was a steal!
And I fully expect to get a little Maaco sucks but I found a guy outside of Baton Rouge who does very quality work at Maaco prices.
(Maaco's policy is that they take NOTHING off and just mask).
The paint looks really good!
I got similar advice from a Denver high quality/high price painter;
1) SOME Maaco shops are better than others. Which translates to: SOME painters at Maaco are better than others. He recommend one shop/guy, and against others.
2) Same comments about taping... Remove as much as you can yourself, so you don't have tape edges (that aren't buried somewhere)... That is a big source of labor cost. And the paint/tape edges look like poop and are weak spots where peeling can start.
3) Spend extra on the clear coat (pay for the better CC product) because that is what protects the paint/ takes the most weather abuse. Better product will last longer than cheap CC product.
Looks really good! Never underestimate the power of a "good" detail shop either. In the late 80s we used to take those cheap paint jobs from Earl Sheib and wet sand them out and work our way down with a good compound and polish to get the orange peel out, and wax them to near perfection. Its still possible to get those results from a clear coated car too.
I got similar advice from a Denver high quality/high price painter;
1) SOME Maaco shops are better than others. Which translates to: SOME painters at Maaco are better than others. He recommend one shop/guy, and against others.
2) Same comments about taping... Remove as much as you can yourself, so you don't have tape edges (that aren't buried somewhere)... That is a big source of labor cost. And
the paint/tape edges look like poop and are weak spots where peeling can start.
3) Spend extra on the clear coat (pay for the better CC product) because that is what protects the paint/ takes the most weather abuse. Better product will last longer than cheap CC product.
Car looks really good, props to you.
But let's be honest for all the haters out there, THE advice DIRECTED towards MAACO (in general) just applies to any independent shop, NOT just MAACO.
Bottom line is you get what you pay for; if you want to save $$$ on a paint job you only have prep and materials to sacrifice....so pick one....or 2.....anything other than 'NEITHER ONE' results in a less than stellar outcome. Bottom line, The cheap bastards should stop their bitching!!
12-07-2015, 11:13 PM
Maaco sucks 
I Remember Those Commercials.
