I hear that their paint jobs suck due to the prep work, or lack there of that they do. If I was do 100% prep my Chevelle for paint and let them spray it, do you think it would turn out ok?

I have seen some cars look ok when all prep work was done elsewhere. The paint is not the best with colors limited.

Maaco has painted a few cars for me over the years.I do all my own body work/prep,including painting the jambs,etc.
Car is dropped off with no door handles,bumpers,trim,etc.
All they have to do is spray it and I pick it up and reassemble
The paint job is only as good as the prep work.
I never had any complaints.

Maybe, a friend had a 71 Nova that he had painted at Maaco, he did the prep work and let them paint it including a color change. It came out looking good, not a top quality show job but pretty good. They didnt do a great job of masking inside the doors but not terrible. He also didnt get thier cheapest paint job.
You usually get what you pay for with a paint job.
Ron

Do you think I should tape off my frame, and firewall, and take the bare shell in with doors and fenders and hood all seperate? or paint the firewall after the body is painted??

You should supply some quality paint and pay extra for a sand and buff. The paint they use can be real crap.

i would paint the firewall cut in all the parts and put the doors and hood and deck lid back on the send it to them. also see how much extra for some quality dupont or ppg.

Every Maaco is owned and operated by a different individual. They can use any number of paint brands. Ask questions and find out what they use, and look at some of the work from that shop. Tell him your expectations.If he is any kind of business man he will tell you what he can or can't deliver. I have seen some beautiful paint work from Maaco and some not so hot. Sometimes they get the blame for cruddy prep or bodywork done by the car owner.If they don't use a brand of paint you like I would go elsewhere.

I've heard they will take a gallon of cheap paint and use enuff thinner to make 2 cans of paint with it. Anyone heard of this?

from my understanding the people at macco all they do is paint everday so they are good at it. its in the prep work where they dont do a whole lot. Prep works makes all the differnece im having mine painted there yet im supplying the paint etc. and taking the car apart as much as i can before its painted

If your going to put a one day paint job on it, you mind as well save your money even more for that real paint job w/ a clear coat. I heard alot of people coming back for complaints. I know that they have to use there own primer for their paints. If you still want to go w/ a one day, just don't be fooled on what the guy promises you and that going w/ your own paints is a good idea too. Also, if you have the motor in it right now, I would make sure they mask your entire compartment because mine was oversprayed badly. Good Luck w/ that.

So...let me get this straight.
You're thinking of taking your Monaco orange, 69, L-78 Chevelle SS 396 4 speed to Maaco???
Do your self a favor....
Save your money, and find a Quality shop to do your paint work.
The Body/Paint work is NOT the place to try to save a few $$$

Originally posted by Zman:
So...let me get this straight.
You're thinking of taking your Monaco orange, 69, L-78 Chevelle SS 396 4 speed to Maaco???
Do your self a favor....
Save your money, and find a Quality shop to do your paint work.
The Body/Paint work is NOT the place to try to save a few $$$ ..the local Maaco painted a 71 442 convertible for me...dark green with gold W30 stripes on the hood (car had the ram air hood)
They used PPG BC/CC
I wet sanded and buffed the car after it was painted,and did I all the bodywork and prep.
Car came out real sweet.
Drove the car for about a year,then sold it..had all the options,including AC.
I sold it for $14.5K,and that was 3 year ago!
Probably worth 25K plus now.
Its all in the prep work.
No matter who you use,go with single stage urethane,and you won't need base coat/clear coat with hugger orange.
Last year,I had my 68 Cutlass convertible painted in single stage Glasurit 22 Daytona Yellow..came out mint graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I just took my 93 Mazda in for a 1/2 price presidential job (250.00) It comes with sanding and prep, but I did all the sanding and prep. The hood,top and trunk lid was all cracked up so it was striped to bare metal and primed. The color is red and it is a hard color to keep from fading. The car just needs a face lift and is nothing special, just a driver. I will post back the results.

4speed - nicely stated! A solid color does not need b/c but urethane is a must. The prep is what makes the paint, you will determine how the paint comes out more than Maaco by how good your prep is. You don't get 14k for a car with a crap paint job.

Ok, we all can agree that the paint job is only as good as the prep work. That said, it also takes a Good painter, and quality products. A cut and Buff can make just about any paint job look decent, provided there's enough paint on the car.
If Maaco will paint your car for $250, how much do you supose they pay their painters?
I don't think they use PPG, or any other quality brand for the $250 paint jobs.
I've been in the business for a lot of years, and Maaco is known for their prices...not their quality. You get what you pay for.
I won't even get my paint gun dirty for less than $250.
On another note, Single stage Urethane is great for solid colors, but if you plan on any stripes other than decals, BC/CC is the only way to go.
From my own experience, Clears also tend to sand, and buff better.
All I'm saying, is that with ANY shop,I would do a little research before I'd let anyone paint any of my cars. Check out their shop, look at their work, ask questions, what kind of paint are they using, do they use sealer, how much extra to cut, and buff, etc. then decide.

I have done TRIED to do business with Maaco and another "McPaint" shop Miracle a number of times over the years, I was always bit in the butt. They lied, outright lied to me about a number of things, price, what they will do, product used, etc. OUT RIGHT LIED.

First off, there is NO WAY I would bring them some other paint I paid good money for. You might as well take that money and flush it down the crapper. If you have the money for better paint, find better shop as well. When it comes out like crap the fact that they didn't use THEIR paint will only be another excuse. I tried it, it came out like CRAP and all they could say is something to the effect "you are SOL, what do you expect you didn't want us to use our Super Magnificent Ultra high tech HyperBonic Resin paint"

FORGET the "clear coat" they offer unless you pay the TOP dollar paint job which is about $1500 or $2000 bucks and even then I wonder, I am only assuming you would get a real base coat clear coat job. I do know that with the $1000ish "clear coat" you get a third coat of paint with a little clear in it, NOT a clear coat.

The brand of paint as mentioned is going to be all over the board. They do have a nationwide contract with S-W and "could" use a pretty decent product if they wanted to. The thing is, they use ANYTHING they can to bring the price down. So you could have any one of a number of products used, or mixed together.

"Look at the work in the shop" LOL. They always seem to have a friggin show car or two owned by employees parked out front. DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT! The work will likely be very shabby.

I don't doubt for a minute that there are some "McPaint" shops out there that would do a nice, honest job. There are a lot of them, there has to be one. But the ones I personally have dealt with, three different shops. The ones I have tried to sell to when I was a paint rep (four or five) "looked" like exactly the same kinda work and attitude. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

Remember, these shops are owned by "investors" NOT bodymen, painters, or even lovers of cars. They are people who fell into a few bucks and walked around a franchise convention looking for a way to invest it. They were tossing around the idea of a Starbucks but that was just a dream, too much money. They had gotten down to a choice between a "Jamba Juice" and Maaco and decided to go with Maaco. These franchises are ran following a strick formula set by the franchisor to MAKE MONEY. They have over the years whittled down every dime in extras that could result in some quality work, all for that bottom line.

I don't know what to tell you, there is a BIG difference in cost between the McPaint shop and a real body shop. But, doesn't THAT tell you? Like my article on buying tools says, if the cheapie tool costs only a fraction of the quality one, how can it be any good at all?

Maaco paint job $750.00, real shop in town $3500.00. How can that be? Have you walked into the paint store in town and checked on the price of a gallon of paint and gallon of clear with hardeners and reducers? (five or six hundred easy) How about a roll of tape and DA paper (about four dollars and forty or fifty dollars). It costs between $600 and $1500 for materials to paint a car. How in the living crap can Maaco do even a "decent" job for a grand?

The LAST, and I mean LAST time I tried was with a Honda Accord that the insurance was paying enough to paint a few panels that I could get the whole thing painted at Maaco for. It had a cheapie paint job on it from before (it was only a few years old, what a shame) and was faded bad. I hated to send it out with three panels all shiny bc/cc and the rest dead as barn paint. So I suggested to the cars owner that we should send it out for a complete. I really talked the thing down, I didn't want him to think he was getting something he wasn't. Well, I had hoped that it would come out much better than the picture I had painted for him (please pardon the pun). I mean, it HAD to, I beat them up pretty bad, they HAD to do a better job than that. I talked to them you know "shop to shop", they really sounded like they were going to do a "special" job for me. First the price changed when I got there and it went down hill from there. The job came out so funky I was very happy I had "talked it down" to the customer. I mean, it was all one color and all, but very little gloss (paid for the "clear coat", yeah right) there was paint on the textured black area of the brand new bumper (not PAINTED understand, just poorly masked) there had been tape on the body where they tried to tape a moulding leaving a bare spot with no paint, there was ONE scratch on the car, ONE when I gave it to them, that ONE scatch right by the drivers door handle was STILL there. No, it looked pretty shabby.

I am not calling anyone a liar or a duef or something who says they left Maaco with a good job. Like I said, there has to be some out there who will give you one. I am only speaking from MY experiance.

The brand of paint as mentioned is going to be all over the board. They do have a nationwide contract with S-W and "could" use a pretty decent product if they wanted to. What's S-W? $h*tty Williams?

So what would a good shop (ballpark) charge if you told them you wanted a decent paint job....decent as in no runs, no dirt in paint and minor orange peel?

(minor orange peel asin you can see it only if you really get up close but from 3 feet away you can't tell)

From my experience, you usually do get what you pay for, but if its only for the final paint after body work, it could be okay...

Like Brian (MartinSR) was saying, each shop is different...

I have had several cars painted by these places...

The first was my 1966 396 powered El Camino.
I was restoring this car, and the paint and body were very nice, but a family friend put a 10" scratch/gouge in the quarter panel (only in the paint). I removed all the trim/bumpers/weatherstripping, D/A'd the whole car and took it to the local Miracle... For under $400 they painted the entire car, the door and hood/tailgate jambs and the 5 stock wheels I brought in... There was a slight run in the door that they fixed. The only problem that I had was that the bed was not sealed (the rest of the car was). My fault because I didn't specify. The color was a bright red (fire engine red). The "original" color was Cameo Beige (yuk!) and the color was a metallic maroon when I bought it.

It wasn't the cheapest paint they offered, but it was "their" choice.

Two weeks later, the car won second place in its class at a large show(Kool April Nites, 1000+ cars). Several people I worked with including guys that painted cars semi-professionally could not believe the car was painted at Miracle...

I sold the car a year later, and another 2 years after that a subsequent owner contacted me to ask about the history of the car... He was still impressed with the paint 3 years later, and was very surprised when I told him who and how much it cost...

Not the norm, but certainly not out of the realm of possibility...

Someone mention how much do these places pay their painters if they are only charging $250 for the whole job... But not all the jobs are "$250 specials", and even those that are, how much time is actually spent "painting" (they have the cheaper "shop boys" for prep, etc...). How long does each coat take to apply, including mixing up the color and cleaning the gun? 1-hour? maybe two?


I also had my father-in-law's car painted at "1-Day Paint and Body." For about $400 they stripped the hood (factory clear coat peeling) and repainted the entire car, matching the factory color (Dark Metallic Blue). There were a few chips that were not feathered much or filled (but that was an option for us before they started work), and still the car looked as good as a new car (except those few minor chips)... For my father-in-law, it was great...

Now I wouldn't take my 1000-point resto job there, but a daily or semi-daily driver, no problems in my book...

You do often get what you pay for, but with something as delicate as a paint job, are you really going to enjoy driving with that $2500+ paint job?

I agree with Brian, that the materials alone are alot (I spent $750+ about 9-years ago), but remember, the "cheapie specials" you see advertized have the minimal prep with cheaper materials, not several coats of primer sanded in between each coat, etc, 3 coats of color and another 2 of clear... They are usually a sealer and a color coat, thats it...

OK...Now that Martinsr has chimed in, does that change anyones opinion?
There are a lot of knowledgeable, EXPERIENCED paint and Body men on this board.
There are also plenty of "Back yarders" that have painted a few cars, and think they have all the answers. If I were asking for advice, I'd listen to what the experienced pros have to say....
I think Tony's example is the exception...not the norm. If you can live with a $400 paint job, thats fine, but there's no way in hell I'd put a
half a$$ cheapie paint job on my Classic/Muscle car.

Thanks Brian! You have a way with words that I apparently can't match.
I wouldn't let Maaco paint my lawn mower!