Ok, so as some of you may have heard, i've had the worst experience with maaco and i will NEVER recommened them to any of my friends, or fellow thirdgen owners..

long story short.. 6 months later and 3 paintjobs later they finally almost got it right.. accept now i have overspray all over my rims.. or somthing.. basically...

i have black Z06 wheels with a mechined lip.. but now the black part of the wheels is fadded and has a weird texture to it.. does anyone know what products i could use to fix it, or is the finish just shot? (keep in mind the day i brought the car in, the wheels finish was perfect and looked new)

 

Can you throw up some pics of them in that condition first.....?

 

i tried taking pics but none show it well.. i'll see what i can do with the better light

 

try a clay bar

 

is the paint set already? apparently wd-40 will loosen fresh paint... its just something I've heard though, so don't take my word for it. It would be worth a try imo.

 

Tell Maaco you need a new set of rims.

 

1. NEVER send your car to paint with your "show" rims on it. It could of been Maaco or the best paint shop in the world...it is bound to catch some overspray. Consider that a lesson learned.

2. Take the car back to Maaco and have them remove the overspray or have them buy you new rims.

3. Ask Maaco to use some reducer. That should take it off.

4. Read the small print and see if they are liable....if they are go at 'em HARD

5. Don't expect world class results from a bagain basement shop.

 

Alright, maaco has the wrost owners possible, their in it for the quick buck, they've already denied any doing in it, and are saying that it happend after i left their shop..

and as for me letting them take the car with those rims i have 2 things to say... number 1, the stock set of rims has snow tires on it, and we couldn't afford, or had the time to go get the rims and tires swaped, it was litterally a next day thing due to their "warrenty work days" and second, i'm not a painter, but if you cover the wheels right the way your supose to, you should NOT get anything on them, when i had my stock rims on there and they came back there was not a drop of paint anywhere on them, i firmly believe that maaco kept half-***ing it and got tired of us not accepting it, now i've got an almost flawless paintjob and messed up rims..

and would claybar be safe to use on the rims?

 

Go buy a clay bar. It will remove the overspray and yes it is safe for your wheels.

 

A claybar will remove overspray, but depending on how much overspray there is you might not get it alll off. I would talk to a lawyer and have them call Maaco.

 

clay bar yes... take it back could be bad... they would probably try steel wool or laquer thinner and fade them worse or scratch them, in witch case you should get them to replace, you may have them replace or have sent to a wheel tech at their expense. but I'm sure your tired of talking to them and they feel the same about you (i work at a body shop) i see the behind the scenes lol

 

they are right about the clay bar... be warned there are 3 different types.. you want the most least abrasive claybar there is. and no need to use the spray that comes with it... if you get
Meguiar's G1016 Smooth Surface Clay Kit

you can pick this up at say autozone, checker, pepboys or whatever you have.. its cheap and comes with 2 bars.. the bars are perfect for things like that... just use soapy water and make sure to keep it wet ( the rims ) the more liquid the better the bar will work...

ps I have those rims in chrome and black very nice

 

You would'nt put the stock rims back on your car because they had snow tires on them? Hell, I would've driven my car there on four doughnuts.

 

I used to work at a body shop when i got out of high school the 3 years i was there we never never never had anyone come back with overspray on their wheels. We used wheel covers no matter how big or small the job was and there was never a issue so i have to say you got screwed, but if you had the option of not taking the car in with those wheels on it you should have, but oh well. Try what everyone else is recommending and if you still have no luck there is a brand of grease and tar remover that paint suppliers sell cant remeber the name but it is potent, it will remove double sided tape and its residue try getting some of that, i have used it to remove light overspray before.

 

Alright, i've written down that claybar, i'll pic some up this weekend and give it a try.. and if i'm going to get bashed for driving my car with my z06's on then flat out thats maaco should have covered them right, as i stated before, i never had anything on my rim's the other 2 paint jobs they had to redo.. why all the sudden do i get it the 1 time i bring the car in with nice rims... to be honest, i thought they at least had the talent not to mess up the rims

thanks to all who had helpful input tho

 

Opps...I was not trying to bash you at all. I am sure you did not take your car there with the intentions of them messing up those beautiful rims. I was trying to be direct about the fact that if given an opportunity to screw something up they will. And your rims were that opportunity. I have had a Maaco job before so I am speaking from experience.

Yes clay bar will work. Also look into Ice's Liqiud Clay Bar as that may be an option too. Works well for me.

Once again sorry I was not trying to offend....just trying to make a point.

 

Wow, I feel bad for your troubles, but given the choice of going to Maaco or painting it myself with spray bombs, I'd choose the spray bombs. Those cheap paint jobs are just that. I had one done once only to make a car look good enough to sell. I also taped everything myself because I knew they would just paint right over the emblems and weatherstrip.

Hope you get it resolved to your satisfaction.

 

Why don't you tell us where this Maaco is?

 

idk what maaco did paints over all that, they did good when it came to taping things off..

and this maaco's in kennewick washington..

 

WOW that freaking SUCKS! i thought MAACO was a top notch franchise place with good painters and whatnot. hell i dunno where im going to get my camaro painted then, because i was hoping for a name brand place not a hole in the wall shop....i think ill do better my self from trial and error. i havent heard of one good place to get a paint job! and all these horror stories....good luck with those rims, btw hows the job coming along??

 

yea whatever you do.. don't give maaco any more bussiness.. the day i heard the maaco i went to went outta bussiness i'd blow every penny i have to celebrate it... i can honestly say i regret going there so badly i've lost sleep over it (no joke)

as for the rims.. well 2 day's ago i had one of those days... you know... nothing goes right.... started out.. i was on the highway at about 7 in the morning and the front pin of my t top didn't pop open for some reason.. it flew off... so i go pick it up.. it's broken obviously.. but it was still able to stop people from getting in the car.. so i put it in the trunk and left.. about 5 min's from where i was going, i heard a strange "kunk" sound.. and the car started lugging like it was out of gas.. so i go to get off at the next off ramp.. and the car won't move anymore, and dies if i try to move it.. so i thought i was just out of gas.. called a friend, they came and gave me a ride, i got gas put it in the car, but that wasn't the problem... after looking at it today i find out my fuel pump went out.. and the t top i bought leaves little bit of a crack between the weather stripping and the top.. no clue yet if it leaks, have to run the hose and see if it does.. does anyone know if it's possible to adjust it to where it hugs the front a bit better? the back fits fine

 

WOW crazy, well like i said i dunno where im gonna go now, ive heard horror stories about paint jobs. well what all did they not get right when you took it in, did they have to do body work? or just paint? man that sucks, so you gotta drop the tank now and replace the pump? thats your only solution. i have no idea what T tops even look like from the inside, lol. only seen im from the outside in pictures. but i know if you go to kargen or local autoparts store they have this cool stuff that dries into black wheather stripping its a little messy but dries up quickly like rubberish. that migh help??? i used some for a crack i had next to the side mirror.

sorry to hear about that shitty day. i know how those go.

 

all they had to do was put on the front pieces of the car we supplied them with.. and paint the car, it was straight when we brought it in accept for the front.. but all the sudden i have a ding i never had before that they want $100 to fix.. and i have a cracked dash now.. paint was on my air filter.. umm.. car got ran into after the first time they painted it... massive overspray was on the car... they didnt tighten my headlights at all.. they didn't adjust the door right after they replaced the bushings and the door scraped... they don't want to take responsibility for that.. and my front "spoiler" doesn't fit right..

i'm sure i forgot a few things.. but that's the major things that come to mind.. and keep in mind.. we got the prep plus (extra 200 if i remeber right) and we got the top paint job... and the intagrated clear coat (also around an extra $200) so if what they gave me was their best.. then they couldn't achieve prefection on their best day

 

They are individually owned and operated stores, like subway sandwich shops. Just because you had a bad experience at one particular store, doesn't mean they are all like that.

As stated before, NEVER take your car to paint with "good" wheels.

Anyways, sorry about your luck, but you get what you pay for. I feel for ya.

 

yep macco screwed my car up to... lot of runs. new dents... lot of painted over stuff and alot of overspray. im actually gonna print this out and bring this thread to them so they can see how much they suck lol

 

I'm not trying to be anymore of a jerk, but when i hear "you get what you pay for" in this case it's pretty upsetting, we ended up paying about $1,200 just on paint alone.. and in the end with all the new stuff we had to pay for in body, we gave them about 3 grand total.. i've got every single workorder from them.. once i get the car running again i'll worry about fixing the rims, i should have it done by saturday and i'll give claybar a try.. and i know maaco's are all independently owned, but if you go look through the threads, there's about 5 pages of negitive stuff about them, all from different city's and states.. and about a half a page of "they did ok"...

macco has the lowest standards.. i actually talked to one of their old employes who works at another body shop now, and he told me they've gone as far as to use magic marker on paint as a "touch up".. he also told me that some older folks who came in there to get their car's repainted they would do the quickest job possible, knowing there was overspray all over, and sometimes they would not even prep the car and just paint it...

 

well ill put it to you like this, if i were to ever EVER take my car to MACCO to get painted (which is now going to be a last resort) id have to personally go to that shop and look around at some of the work that they do. its all about appearance and just talking to the mother fu--ers makes an impact. i remember i went to a midas for a free brake inspect, something was wrong but i figured id get a professionals opinion before i just start buying new products, well when i actually talked to the guys about what was wrong i had more knowledge than them and they didnt even make sense. so i can understand just because its macco doenst mean crap.

 

Its all about whats written in the fine print that you sign your name to.

I personally think that you should be able to bring whatever the hell you want in there and if they get ANY overspray on anything, it is their job to fix it. But I'm sure they've covered their *** somewhere on this.

I used to do bodywork and we covered every part of the car, just like the above guy said. Overspray is BAD.

 

Sorry to hear of your experience, '86 Camaro BoSs. Wishing you all the best for you and your Camaro.

Note; taking your car to Maaco for a paint job is much like taking your ride to Jiffy-Lube for and engine rebuild! They are the WalMart equivalent for paint shops. Painting large numbers of cars for cheap.
A really good paint man would not be plying one's trade at Maaco, much the same as a really good mechanic would not be found selling mudflaps in a WalMart automotive section.
He/she may start there for experience, but generally not stick around. Of coarse there are always exceptions and some may luck out, but as they say, "buyer beware".

 

alright, still no update on how the claybar worked, fuel pump went out.. i got under the car and found out i'm missing a strap for the tank itself thanks to the previous owners, i am also in the process of looking for a new tank with a hopfully good sending unit


btw, on a side note, i also went to see batman, definitly a great movie, i'm going to see it again this weekend

 

Had My T/A painted by maaco about 6 months ago. I was happy with the work for the price I paid($350). I knew going in that there was going to be overspay and it wasn't going to be show quality. I've painted cars myself. Could I have done a better job? Yes. but I don't have the time to spend on this car as it's a daily driver. I just wanted a uniform color as the original was about 3 shades of white. You get what you pay for guys.

 

Best way is to do as much of the crappy work as you can on your own, then take it to a GOOD painter for a quick spray. I live in a rural area, and there's a few good paint guys out here that just do collision jobs on run of the mill cars day in and day out. Talk to one near you, buy him a beer, and mention the word CASH for a good spray on a prepped car. These guys get payouts from insurance companies, that requires waiting, cash in hand is tax free, and if all they have to do is minor masking and a spray on a cool car, it's fun to them.

A good example: My buddy sanded and prepped his 99 firebird, contacted a local guy. Guy painted his car on a saturday morning, helped him mix a custom color spur of the moment (looks awesome) and wouldn't accept more than 100 bucks. Guy stared at the car like it was the *** of a model and you could tell it was a "labor of love" for him. Best paint i've seen for less than 600 bucks including paint (ebay) and sandpaper.

 

i too would NEVER have a maaco paint job unless it was for a POS i didnt care about. like its been said you get what you pay for. I worked in a body shop for several years and on a car that came in wanting a new paint job we would spend a minimum of twenty hours just using a DA to sand the old paint and primmer off until we hit the bare metal on the entire car. Then came the metal prep and the masking, which was always done meticulusly(sp). Masking all the jams and cracks and even putting paper covering the entire engine bay(even though hood was closed). And yes we would use complete wheel covers on all rims and tires. Then it went to prime, sand, paint, clear and bake(all in a booth with vacuum). These cars very very rarely had any overspray and the ones that had that tiny little bit we would immediately take care of with either the 2000 grit wet sand or clay stick, then buff and polish the entire car. We never ever had a dissatisfied customer, but we also werent the cheapest around either(hence the "get what you pay for"). My 88 rock was just painted 2 years ago with a "House of kolors paint) expensive paint but man does it shine and is brilliant as hell..... In fact I won 1st place for best paint at Thirdgenfest this year with it. sorry for the long story just felt like sharing...

Tim