I am gonna get a Macco paint job and I just want it to look good for my senior year, right now I want it to look good for my senior pic. I should do the prep work myself, but what all would I have to do. It is a 92, but the paint is really bad, just really worn out. So, I just need to know what kinda prep work needs to be done I read past posts of the boards but had a hard time putting it together, in what order should I do everything before I get it painted. Then how much do i need to shell out for the paint? Thanks.

 

To prep the car, you should d/a the whole thing with 180 grit paper, and hand sand everything the d/a can't get with 320. When you sand every little tiny stone chip most of them you'll see the little spot get as big as a dime with rust under the paint. All but the smallest spots should be sand blasted, or they're going to come right back.

D/a'ing takes practice though. If you're not good at it, the car is really going to look like hell after it's painted. You need to hold it *almost* level and be very fluid with your motions. It takes a TON of practice. I'm still not very good at it. I had my father do my IROC.

After you d/a, it's probably not a bad idea to hand sand the whole car with 320. I wish I did mine. The sealer we used didn't seal as well as it should have, and after we laid the paint down, a bunch of sand scratches became visable in the paint.

Anyway, you should remove as much stuff as possible before it gets there too, because they have a reputation for just painting over whatever is there.

Plus, make sure to be prepared for the reality that this paint job will look good for 6 months or less.

------------------
The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

I would ask yourself:
Are you keeping the car?
Are you going to sell the car?

If you are keeping it you may regret the Maaco paint job. Please understand the painters at Maaco are for the very talented painters the they have good equipment, but they use cheap paint, for good reason.

All business are in business for a profit. On a $300.00 or $400.00 paint job from Maaco consider that some of this amount is profit. What does this leave you?

Chemicals and paints that are costing you $100.00 or $200.00.

Is this what you want on your car?

A complete paint job with high quality paint can run $600.00 to $800.00 JUST for the paint and supplies. This is dealer (bodyshop) cost. That is one reason the paint job will run $3000.00 up.

I am a great believer in doing it yourself. That is how you learn. I help my friend in the bodyshop business. I am still learning myself and I can't tell you how many things I have screwed up and that's with "two experts" looking over my shoulder and helping me, but letting me make my mistakes.

So I'm not slamming you or Maaco but rather making sure you consider that it sounds as though you are a beginner in bodywork also.

So no matter how good your work is you're still going to wind up with amateur bodywork covered by a cheap paint job.

There's a big difference in "looks great" and "looks great for $400.00.

If you can hang loose for a while I will be posting step by step instructions for DIY here:

http://www.gmtips.com/3rd-degree/

Under the tips section.

 

Thanks for the tips guys, I just really need the car to look good for a couple of months to look good through my senior year of high school. After that I'm gonna strip it down competely and reuild it, its got 140,000+ miles on it and I was planning on doing more work, but with that many miles on it, I would be better off taking my time rebuilding it. So I just need a temp paint job that will look good for a little while.

 

Better get Maaco........

(sorry I couldn't resist)