Ok.. i posted my oppinion in the body section on a thread about maaco where i got my car painted.. the pics do the paint job justice.. it came out pretty good all and all.. but i would NEVER recommend maaco to anyone..

here's a pic before i painted my rims..



those are just temp thing to do until my Z06 wheels get in..

here's one of the wheels painted, i'll get full shots later tomarrow




What do you guy's think?

 

looks real good, how long did they take to paint it? and what did it cost?

 

Uhh.. sent it in january 11th.. got it back march 22nd..

paid $2200

 

Looks real good. Why would you NOT recommend Maaco

 

i posted this in the body section under the whole maaco post..honestly, i heard people badmouth them.. but i figured each is their own shop and maybe these owners would be a little more strict on who they hire and make sure they will take pride in their work..

also i forgot to mention.. i got the second best paint package they had..

"i just delt with maaco.. and i can honestly say.. i will never take another car back there for the rest of my life.. i don't care if it's a complete pos.. i droped $2200 for them to replace the front end and hood (which i had already bought) they had my car from january 11th until march 22... the car had no paint and honestly looked bad.. but besides the wrecked front bumper there was only a slight dent on the upper driverside fender.. i went over every inch of that car and i can honestly say.. i knew that car like i know my way home.. then all the sudden after i leave and the estimater already looked too and they say that they found 3 more dents on the rear quarter panel.. so whatever we pay and have that fixed too.. then after 3 trips there with them calling and saying "it's done" and every time they'd miss the biggest things..for example the final time i found somthing big it was that they didn't align the door right and it rubbed aginest the fender and that it was soo obvious.. why didn't they just fix it right the first time?.. and when they fixed my front end they cracked the bumper cover.. and they didn't even fasen the headlights to the headlight bar and they were just hanging out and they expected me to drive off the lot like taht.. i pointed it out and they said sorry and brought it back in again.. a week later i get a call saying it's done.. so i go to pick it up and i just finally said enough is enough.. there was a huge dent in the rear right quarter.. they scratched out the headlight pocket putting the headlights in place.. and they some how managed to crack my dash pad.. they gave me a card to refer a friend.. i litterally walked out and ripped it up.. i would never let a friend take a car there.. whoever made the statement about the comparisin to monkey's nailed it.. a monkey with a paint gun could of done a better job.. there was sooo mcuh overspray.. oh and i forgot to mention.. the first time they said they finished it they parked it up front and some idiot ran into the side.. they were going to make us pay but that was quickly changed.."

 

Where is this Maaco located?

 

i dont think ill let anyone touch my car for that exact reason.
if you want somethig done right, do it yourself. thats how i see it.
yeah i think having them keep your car for over a month i retarted!
im going to be painting my car myself. theres no way im paying $2000 for someone to paint my car. i rather pay $300 or alittle more and do it myself.
and i can do it how i like to do it.

sounds like they need more better mangement and hire people that care for other peoples things.
but i wouldnt know. i never took my car in to get it painted yet.

but im glad your car turned out good tho.
i cant wait till i get my car painted its going to be black like yours
cant wait!!!!

 

This maaco's in kennewick washington.. the estimater was a great guy.. it's the monkey that did the work on the car in the back taht i have problems with lol..

and i agree on the if you want it done right, do it yourself.. the thing i wanted to originally do was have my 2nd uncle paint it.. he's been doing body and paint for well over 30 years.. and he did most of the work on my grandpa's car's.. and jobs here and there for others.. and his work is amazing.. so i'll have him fix things up a little better once the paint cures.. and it really looks great in the pics.. and from 10+ feet away it looks amazing too.. but if you get up close there's little flake's the paint.. and orange peel all over too

 

You might be surprised what a good wet sand and polish would do for that paint now.

 

Yea i gotta wait for it to cure before i do that.. once i do that i'll post up some before and after pics if it was worth it.. once it cures maaco already said they'd take care of my headlight pockets they scratched up.. worse case sceniero they respray those pockets.. no big deal.. they wanna charge me $70 to fix the dent in the back.. which i'm not happy about.. but it's going to bug me till it's fixed.. so i might as well get that done too..

 

You`re lucky to get what looks like a decent paint job from a "production shop" even though it took you 2 months, $2200 and a major amount of frustration. The last time I worked a deal with a production shop, they destroyed my `74 El Camino and spent 3 months to do it all wrong! When I used a custom painter years ago, he had my super stock `70 Dodge Dart for over a year and still did not get it done right! If you can`t do it yourself what are our options? Both of these painters came highly recommended and their work looked good.

 

yea.. i've got family that can paint great.. i myself have painted my rims on this car.. and a hood for my 260Z.. i have no place to paint and neither did my uncle, otherwise i could of had it done a long time ago, and would have known my car was in good hands..

 

Not trying to start any fires here but Maaco is not a production shop ,it is a discount shop. I manage a production shop and give a 100% life time warranty with our paintwork and all workmanship. The differeance is to refinish that car complete at our shop would cost closer to 6 to 8 grand and any reputible shop would do just that. Maaco is great for customers lookin for a quick inexpensive alternative to a lifetime warrnatied repair. Unfortunately Maaco is a get what you paid for facility. But i do have to say the car looks good in photos and some massaging will probably do wonders on that car.

 

No fires started here. I agree Maaco is a half step above the typical production shop. On the west coast, at least in my neck of the woods, paint shops like the old Earl Schieb,(can you believe they used to paint cars for $25?) One a Day, In and Out, Maaco are all referred to as "production shops". Most used to get your car painted in a short period of time and seldom include any body work. These are the kind of shops that low end used car dealers tend to use or someone like me who is broke most of the time. I`ve been associated with these car dealers and paint shops for 30+ years. Most all the cars painted in this kind of shop are going to be sold soon, usually run through an auction.

 

haha, now that we're on the subject of used car's painted at maaco.. a buddy of mine bought a S-10 from a dealer that just had maaco paint in not even a month after they painted it... he bought it, washed it.. took care of it like they said.. and the whole bed of his truck (sides and inside the bed) were all peeling off and the ugly green that was under started showing.. so pretty much it looks like they got the really cheap paint job.. idk,it's been said now a million times.. but you get what you pay for.. i'm hopeing my paying close to $800 is going to carry me through a few years.. its warrentied for 5 years.. and i hope by then to have a candy apple red camaro.. or a very very nice thick black with matillic flakes..

 

Since Maaco's are independently owned, the level from one to another varies GREATLY.

There might be a few decent ones out there, but for the majority, they aren't very good.

Prep work is 90% of a paint job. Something most cheap paint job shops (Maaco/Econopaint, etc.) cut costs/skimp on.

 

Your paint job doesn't look bad from the pics, but what you say they forgot is ridiculous. I can definitely see Macco doing that.

My family just got a car that was painted by Macco, but it was the $250 job. For the money, I guess its ok, but as far as paint goes, it is absolutely horrible. The entire car is orange pealed, they apparently forgot to tape off a door handle because 3 are not painted and one is, there is overspray on the rear window, they painted the exhaust tips, they didn't do door jams, didn't get around the weather stripping at all, and apparently can not tape correctly.

Granted it was a cheapy job, but come on, how do you forget to tape a door handle?

 

Yea they just taped off the windows on mine and called it good, they even painted half the antenna for me too lol... and that cheap paint job they did the litterally brought it in there and painted over the old paint more then likely unless you paid extra for the prep work..

 

I guess taping is a hard concept for them lol. I am not sure what the car was like when it was sent in, but my bets are on that Macco just painted over the old paint. I guess if your going for a cheap and quick job, Macco is alright. For just needing paint over the old cop paint, $250 was a good deal for my families car.

You gotta love a police motor...

 

Painting over the old paint is STANDARD for ANY shop. Nobody strips it 110%.

The level of sanding & scuffing is what separates paint jobs. Painting isn't that hard. It's the prep work that determines how good your car will turn out, more than paint application.

 

Sad but true, many of the production type shops don`t even wash your car before they shoot it. I always spent a great deal of time going over every single item I wanted done and was more than willing to pay for. I always insisted that the salesman write down every detail of what I wanted and not once did any paint shop come through. When I had my `74 El Camino redone, my ex-buddy car dealer told me to get it done through the paint shop he used for his used car lot. They said they would do for $600 what another shop wanted $6000 for. Stupid me, I thought I was going to get a killer deal. I asked the shop to remove the windshield molding because I did`nt have the tool and did`nt want to buy it since I would never use it again. When they called me to come get my car, 3 months later, I could see deep pry marks all around the windshield where they pried the molding off. I found it behind the seat bent up like a pretzel! The rest of the car was worse and I finally, after 2 years got 3/4 of my money back. They redid the car 7 times and I finally gave up and drove it like it was.

 

my buddy's paint that showed after maaco's paint job flaked off looked almost flawless.. so they didn't take much time scuffing it up there.. i know they did on my car because i went down there and snapped some pics just to see how it was coming along..

 

Do a light wet sand or maybe wax bar then buff it good with a light compound it will look amazing. Overspray can be washed easily with mineral spirits, rags and q-tips. It looks like they got the body gaps done really nice and everything looks nice and tight. I think they did a pretty good job for maaco besides the orange peeling witch can be buffed out.

 

i got my car painted at macco, within a week i noticed many defects, its been 6 months and its starting to peel. I am going back down to bitch this weekend.

 

Yea i've got a 5 year warrenty on my paint.. and like i said i hope that by then i can afford to put a really nice paint job on there.. that is.. once i redo t he interior (which i'm having trouble deciding wether to keep stock seats.. or bring in some racing seats) and i've got a nicer engine in it..

 

dude, those wheels looks pretty good, but you seriously need tire shine

 

Yea they didn't come out too bad for a rattle can and wind blowing.. lol, those tires and rim's are going up for sale once i get my other rims in.. guess it'd help a lil with the sale to have them shiny.. lol

 

This post makes me sad :-( that's the shop I was gonna take my car to!

Thanks for the heads up on that!

 

Go look around a little bit.. like everyone's said.. macco's are independently owned.. and maybe that one by you isn't too bad?.. ooooorrrr you could be safe.. and go ask around.. i did a little bit of that and found out a shop that is local here has been around for almost 40 years.. and the guy's had a hand full of complaints.. and a girl friend of mine's dad took his 69 chevelle there and they spent about 4 months and turned the car from a rusty piece of crap to a very nice smooth candy red.. and her dad is a picky guy and he had no complaints.. so from now on i'll be taking my business there.. but a little research never hurt anyone.. go to the body section and check out "macco paint job"

 

I'm pretty sure that is the only maaco in the TC area... When I said that shop, I ment "that" shop.

 

oh wooow lol, didn't even look at your location, where abouts in richland are you? towards hanford or moreso near kennewick

yea i just washed my car today.. and there is a bunch of stuff that i never saw before.. now i found out why the front of the car was all nice and clean when i got it and the back was dirty.. there are little white lines on it where they didn't realyl spray too good..

as for a shop to paint your car.. Jack's auto body in downtown kennewick would be your best bet i'd say.. they did the work on our suburban and it's flawless.. and also (idk if their still in bussiness) but my uncle got his el camino painted at Riverside collision about 15 years ago.. and it's still showroom quality.. inside just looks like crap now lol...

 

I'm actually in Kennewick now. Just haven't updated in a while. I live near the fred meyer.

 

do you live directly across from that light?...