I have a 70 velle spent the past 3 years in college working on it when i have time. put a 350 and a 6 speed in it and it is in running condition. I had new rear quaters hung a year ago and it hasnt left the garage since. I want to get paint on it before i let it out in the weather. Lease is running out in May and need to get paint on the car. i could afford a nice paint job, $1200 max, but more comfortable afford 5 or 6 hundred. Do you think i'll regret getting a cheap paint job now and a nice one in a year or two when i have the cash to spend? i am eager to drive the car since i havent had it on the road since i bought it. If i get a macco paint job now will it cause more work in the future? Since i am gonna change the color to maroon eventually should i paint it that color and do door jambs and everything, or should i just paint it white and not worry about jambs now. it is currently half butternut yellow and half primer. thanks for any and all advice, opinions ect.

Do you have a compressor and spray gun available? If you do I suggest degreasing the car real good, scuff the paint with scotch brites (available at the paint store) and shoot the whole car black wit DP 90 LF by PPG. This is a catalysized primer that is VERY durable and weather proof. Then when you go to finish the body work sand it off or scuff it again with scotch brites and shoot over it.

I have a 5.5hp craftsman comp. and a HVLP gravity feed gun. Garage is a little tight to paint in, but could probably make it work. What do i use to degrease the car? how long will the primer last in the weather? I probably wont have a garage for at least 6 months. Thanks again for all the help.

With the small compressor you will need to shoot it a bit at a time but that is fine with the DP 90 LF. YOu have a week to 10 days to reshoot over it without having to scuff it. On a day over 60 you can shoot it outside. Be sure to use a proper filter and mask too. The paint shop will sell the degreaser. Use two rags with one wet to wash with and the other dry to wipe with. The scuffing and degreasing allows the DP 90 LF to get a good bite and it won't peel or chip so don't skimp on either. This primer is very easy to shoot and very forgiving. If you get runs sand off just the run and shoot back over it. It will blend in perfectly. It will look like a satin black finish when you are done. It looks good enough to drive with this primer on the car. It will hold up for years if you put on a couple of coats. Buy a gallon as you will neeed it to get two good coats on the car. I estimate the cost for the primer, catalyst, scuff pads, new clean towels for degreasing and degreaser to be between $225. and $250.00. Add a few dollars for the lacquer thinner to clean the HVLP gun and you will have the car ready to work on when you can do it right.

This reminds me of my car, I went to start sanding down the top coat only o realize that the top coat was 1 of 5 coats, graemlins/angry.gif

So I got angry, went to the paint store and bought a bunch of sanding pads, spend alot of hours taking it to bare metal, car was so shiney looking lol. If I were you I'd just sand down what you've already got there and hit it with another coat of primer, it will last 6 months no problem.

I would definitely buy the best paint job you can afford. The primer would be a great method to get by for several more months. Also consider a car cover to help keep out even more of the elements and any thievs prying eyes if you have to leave it sitting outside.

I have seen some decent paint jobs done at maaco on cars that were owner prepped and dropped off. If you can get the car straight and a good primer on it, why not drop it off and supply them with the paint you want to use? Then you are paying them to just shoot the car, but they have the spray booth and experience painting. I dont think it would come out bad, if it is your first time painting you can make a real mess. I paint my own cars, and the first few I painted were winter beaters with cheap enamel just to get used to the actual spraying. I wouldnt do my "nice" car as a first without a little practice on some junk fenders or something.

I agree with drptop70SS:

While I paint my own cars now (and still learning/making mistakes),

I have seen quite a few nice jobs come out of Maaco-type places...

I had a 66 El Camino (396 powered) that I restored, I did all the body work, primer, etc and then brought it in for a $350 paint job (including the bed, door jambs, hood-jambs...)..

Two weeks later I have all the chrome back on the car, and won second place in my class at a large show...

I sold the car and three years later, a new owner called to ask who did the paint, because it still looked good after three years...

Sure, the Maaco prep might not be great, and they will just mask the chrome, and their cheapest jobs use cheaper paint, but you can still get a good color coat...

One of these places recently painted my father-in-laws car, and they even matched the factory metallic paint color for no extra charge, so they could probably paint it what ever Maroon you wanted...

Because you have the compressor and gun, it wouldn't be too bad to shoot some primer yourself... But it won't save much money or time in the long run...

Maybe this is in the dumb question catagory but what is a macco paint job? I see that referred to alot and from the context of the conversation i gather it is "not good"

Maaco is one of these places that will paint your car for $399, but first let me say Parkhil2 that $1200 doesn't even buy that good of a paint job in most places. Decent materials can easily run $5-600 by themselves. I agree with Redrum that the best route might be to put a sealer/primer on it that will protect if from the weather, (regular primer will hold moisture which means rust), and do it right when you get the time and money. Sealer/primer can even be tinted to almost any color and I have friends that have intentionally painted their cars in it for the old nostalgic look. Its easy and forgiving to put on and you don't need to be a painter to do it, even in a cramped garage. The object here is to protect the metal from moisture but still have a material that is a good base for a decent quality paint job in the future.

A cheap Maaco paint job can actually cost you more in the long run as a friend of mine found out. He was in the same situation as you and decided 3 years ago to go the Maaco route. Now he has the money to do it right but to do a nice job he now has to strip all the old paint off at considerable time and expense. The Maaco job did look ok for the first 6 or 7 months but the lack of good prep and quality materials started showing thru. Maybe if you did like drptop70 said and do the prep and supply good guality material yourself and just pay them to lay it on, it might come out ok. Problem is they probably wouldn't warrant it.

I'm not putting down Maaco, I'm just trying to make the point that you put 3 years of work and money into your car to get it where it is now so you must be planning on keeping it for a while, don't cheap out now. If all the other better quality shops want $3000 plus to do it and Maaco will do it for $399, just remember, you get what you pay for! :D

macco jobs are pretty crummy if you let them do the prep work. My sister had a grand am they were supposed to prep and paint. It was like a 300 dollar job they did, didn't even bother to sand the rust, oversprayed quite a bit. The real kicker was that they painted right over the parking lights, we noticed this cuz they were red when they came on. :mad:

I'd only let them spray my car after I prime and straighten the body.