Earl Scheib $299.00 Paint Special

[55 Fargo]

Seems like Earl Scheib has a special on single stage urethane paint right now. The Bronze pacakage is $299.00, not bad for a Urethane paint.

Anyone on here ever have their cars painted at Earl's, wish they had them here in Canada.

Well if they were in Canada, the special would be no doubt $499.00 not $299.00.

Just wannted to know if any of you guys ever got paint jobs at Earl Scheib's, and how they compared with a Maaco paint job.........Fred

[Bingster]

I've never had a car painted at an Earl Scheib place or any other like that, but I have a friend who owned a body shop and says that it really all depends on who's shooting the paint. That, and the prep. If you're going that route, sand and prep the car yourself and just let them shoot the car.

My dad had one of those paint jobs years ago on his Bonneville and the paint eventually started coming off the hoods and flaking. They do a minimal amount of sanding and prep for that price. Also, the brand paint they use makes a big difference. Ask what brand they are using and see if you can specify a certain known brand like PPG, even if it costs a little more.

[GeorgeLeonard]

I had a car painted by Earl Scheib once. They wanted to spray the wheels to match the color of the body so they painted them as well. Trouble is, they didnt mask them so that the tires were painted red- same color as the body. I couldnt believe it when I picked it up. They acted as if there was nothing unusual about this and couldnt understand why I didnt like it.

[Bingster]

As an afterthought, what I'm doing on my '47 Desoto is doing the prep and masking and having a good auto body shop shoot the base and clear. Really, the major part of a paint job is the color sanding and blocking to get the primer smooth. You can spray primer yourself a section at a time and sand it down till it's where you want it. Once you get the car into a spray booth, why not have a pro shoot the paint? And since you're using a one stage paint, it should be a piece of cake for a pro shop. Plus these days they may be hurting for complete repaints.

[Dennis Hemingway]

I had a VW painted at Earl Scheib in 1966 while stationed in San Diego. They painted everything. (crome, tires, hubcaps) The only thing thay didn't paint was the windows. So I've never gone back to them. Of course it was only $19,95. The old TV Ad said: "Hi my name is Earl Scheib and I'll paint any car any color for $19.95."

Dennis:eek:

[55 Fargo]

I had a car painted by Earl Scheib once. They wanted to spray the wheels to match the color of the body so they painted them as well. Trouble is, they didnt mask them so that the tires were painted red- same color as the body. I couldnt believe it when I picked it up. They acted as if there was nothing unusual about this and couldnt understand why I didnt like it.

Your Joking, please tell me your joking, are you really serious. I woulda slapped that sucker upside the head, thats unbelievable...........fred

[55 Fargo]

I do my own body/prep priming, and blocking, just need the bodyshop to lay on the paint, and possibly do some final sanding.

Who knows, I amy end up shooting the paitn myself yet, with the help of an experienced painter friend of mine.

[plymouth49]

Sheib and Maaco do cheap paint jobs. If you are lucky they will DA the car, tape it off and shoot. They don't sand or tape or anything to a high standard. Their employees are usually compensated on piecework so they are motivated to get the cars in and out as quickly as they can.

That said, I know folks wo have gotten these cheap paint jobs and who have been pleased. But - expectaion is everything - they were not expecting much.

If you car is Glee (as in ugly) and you need a quick and dirty ten footer, then why not?

The more prep work you do before you give them the car, the better. Remove chrome, degrease, etc., etc. Especially smaller parts. Note that these prices do not include any body work - sometimes the promos will include a modicum amount of body work. Usually this means they slap on some mud right over the dent, cheese grater it down and it is ready for paint.

Try to be the last job of the day so that your car spends the night in the paint booth. Otherwise, it might get dust in the fresh paint as they roll them in and out.

The prep guys - usually the masker - is the critical path to how long it takes to get the car done, so again do not expect quality masking.

[old woolie]

Hey, you get what you pay for.

[JerseyHarold]

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, there was an Earl Scheib nearby. Their method was to spray the wheels without masking, then paint the tires black with a brush.

It stands to reason that if you're painting 20-30 cars a day, you should be pretty good at spraying because of all that practice. As others have said, the key to a decent paint job is proper prep work. I've seen a number of very nice Earl Scheib paint jobs applied over well-done bodywork. You wouldn't have known Earl did them. Mindset is important, too.....if you're expecting a $5000. paint job from one of these places, you're only kidding yourself.

FWIW, I just saw the Maaco 'Winter Special' ad...their Ambassador job for $199.

[Norm's Coupe]

Actually, I thought Earl Scheib went out of business years ago. At least they did around here. Sometime in the late 80's/early 90's. Use to see a lot of those $19.95 paint jobs with the painted wheels back then.

[JerseyHarold]

Earl Scheib owns all their locations. They restructured a number of years ago and closed many of their shops in cold/rust belt cities because it was difficult to turn a profit in them.

[Norm's Coupe]

Earl Scheib owns all their locations. They restructured a number of years ago and closed many of their shops in cold/rust belt cities because it was difficult to turn a profit in them.

That would explain why they are no longer around here.

As for Maaco, the shop near me does do nice work. I've seen their jobs and had a tour of the shop a few years ago. However, those cheap jobs are only if you are repainting a car the same color, or close to the same color as it was. They will sand, mask and paint for those prices.

That said, I took my 95 Lumina van over last summer for an estimate to just do the top of it. Original paint is disappearing on the top. Thought I would at least get the same price as one of their cheap jobs. However, the quote they gave me was a little over $1,000 to just paint the top. So........not sure I want to put that kind of money into it. Needs a few other minor repairs besides that (nothing critical). Just a refresh of the interior etc. Only have about 82,000 miles on the van now. So now I'm thinking I'll just hold onto it for about another year as is and see what comes out of all the changes the auto industry is making. If the quality, prices, fuel economy, warranty, etc. at least becomes equal with the foreign cars, or close I'll then buy a new Chevy.

[speedyshark]

Like they said you get what you pay for. The guys will not do any bodywork and will use a scourer pad on the old paint(if lucky) then spray it. Talk about orange peel, and some spots will have more paint then others so color will look diff. Just depends what you want. Most of the time the car gets pressure washed and that is the extent of cleaning.

[55 Fargo]

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, there was an Earl Scheib nearby. Their method was to spray the wheels without masking, then paint the tires black with a brush.

It stands to reason that if you're painting 20-30 cars a day, you should be pretty good at spraying because of all that practice. As others have said, the key to a decent paint job is proper prep work. I've seen a number of very nice Earl Scheib paint jobs applied over well-done bodywork. You wouldn't have known Earl did them. Mindset is important, too.....if you're expecting a $5000. paint job from one of these places, you're only kidding yourself.

FWIW, I just saw the Maaco 'Winter Special' ad...their Ambassador job for $199.

The ambassador job here is $400.00. The key really is prep, my car if it goes to one of these places wil go in with chrome, trim removed, and possibly the windows too, the car will be in primer with it's final blocking too.

I do not expect a $5000 paint job, just a reasonable job, I have seen a number of Maaco paint jobs that looked pretty darn good.

Yes you get what you pay for, and sometimes you pay a lot for the same thing you could have got done else where for less or done yourself, for an F of lot less money too............Fred

[JerseyHarold]

Norm,

Was the clearcoat on your roof delaminating or does the van have rust issues? That can up the prep time considerably.

Are there other Maaco's near you that you can try?

Fred,

When I lived in New York, plenty of local shops would prep and mask professionally, then send the car into our local Maaco to be sprayed. They would then charge their customers a lot of money for the 'complete repaint' that was really a sub-let job. I worked at the Ford dealer and our service manager even sent a few new cars through Maaco. The scam there was that Ford would pay the dealership 'warranty price' for the repaint, which cost them about $200.

[55 Fargo]

That would explain why they are no longer around here.

As for Maaco' date=' the shop near me does do nice work. I've seen their jobs and had a tour of the shop a few years ago. However, those cheap jobs are only if you are repainting a car the same color, or close to the same color as it was. They will sand, mask and paint for those prices.

That said, I took my 95 Lumina van over last summer for an estimate to just do the top of it. Original paint is disappearing on the top. Thought I would at least get the same price as one of their cheap jobs. However, the quote they gave me was a little over $1,000 to just paint the top. So........not sure I want to put that kind of money into it. Needs a few other minor repairs besides that (nothing critical). Just a refresh of the interior etc. Only have about 82,000 miles on the van now. So now I'm thinking I'll just hold onto it for about another year as is and see what comes out of all the changes the auto industry is making. If the quality, prices, fuel economy, warranty, etc. at least becomes equal with the foreign cars, or close I'll then buy a new Chevy.[/quote']

Norm, no doubt they can do there lower end complete paint jobs, less than they could have done your roof on the Lumina, which is BC/CC.

They probably buy there Acrylic Enamel paint probably at a super low cost, they scuff,clean tape and mask the whole car, shoot on the paint done, Total price $400, plus extra for door jambs, underhood/trunk etc.

Now in your case, thye would have had to sand down the roof, prep, primer, shoot on base, then do clear, more time + more expensive paint system= More Total Price, in your case $1100.00.

So they could probably do 3 or 4 cars or more than it would take to do just your roof. Just maybe they way they do business................Fred ps, should had them tape and mask the van and shoot with enamel, probably would have been only $400

[Norm's Coupe]

Norm,

Was the clearcoat on your roof delaminating or does the van have rust issues? That can up the prep time considerably.

Are there other Maaco's near you that you can try?

Harold,

Clear coat is not delaminating. The paint is just disappearing along with the clear coat. It's not peeling either. It's just sort of wearing off the top. Hood and rest of the van looks like new. Has no rust because the van has the composite plastic body.

The excuse for the high price they gave me was for what they would do to make it look like new, and blend with the rest of the car. Unlike the cheap whole car paint jobs, they would strip the whole top. Sand, prime, sand again, paint, sand again, then clear coat. So.........they were doing a lot more than you get with the cheap paint jobs.

There is another Maaco not too far away but didn't go there. I do know that the other shop also does good work because I met a guy with a 55 Dodge Lancer that had his car painted there. That wasn't a cheap job either though. It's the three tone Rose and White color. His car looks great too. Don't know what he paid for that job. His Mr. Norm Dodge was also painted there and it also looks great. But.........asking him how much would help me much. He retired from there and gets a discount. Probably gets a few extras at no charge too.

Since a whole car repaint using the same method will usually run between $3,000 and $4,000 at other shops, my guess is, I'll get about the same price anywhere I take it. That's why I didn't bother checking into other shops.

[Young Ed]

Fred here you go. $500 macco job. Dad and I sanded and did the rust repair on the outside. It was a color change so we painted the interior jams and as much under the hood as we could. The 500 job included 4 hours of body work and sealer for the old paint. It wasnt perfect but it was certainly nice. Like you I'm tempted to go this route with my coupe. The same macco that painted the jeep quoted me 5K to fix the dents etc on my car and paint it.

[55 Fargo]

Hi Ed, that looks great, nice color a Jeep too.

I would imagine if I took the car into Maaco right now, it would be a $5000 job too. There is no rust work, but plenty of panel filling sanding etc. My biggest deal will be the roof, it has plenty of dents on it, nothing too deep, but lots of dents none the less.

I will do all the body prep, if I go Maaco, they can tape mask and shoot paint, and hopefully nothing more..............Fred

[Young Ed]

Fred my car has roof dents too. Real shallow ones. Not sure from what. The smaller deeper dents like in the fenders etc I think I could handle. Not sure about those subtle roof dents.

[Captain Neon]

The roof dents are more than likely hail damage from once upon a time.

[Young Ed]

They dont look like hail dents. Way to big. They are very subtle almost waves in the roof. Probably had old tires or something thrown on it when it was in the junkyard.

[JerseyHarold]

If you're dealing with many small hail-type dents, maybe it would pay to investigate Paintless Dent Removal (PDR). You wouldn't want lots of little spots of bondo on a large flat surface like the roof, and if the headlining is out access should be fairly easy.

[knuckleharley]

Guys,if you live in or near a city,don't overlook trade schools or community colleges that teach auto body work. You can get a really good paint job at one of them for the price of the materials alone. No labor. The students need cars to learn on,and being students learning a trade,they try really hard.

The downside is that it might take weeks or months before your name pops up to the top of their schedule.

DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR TO ONE OF THOSE PLACES AND JUST DROP IT OFF UNTIL THEY CAN GET TO IT! Get on the list,and deliver the car there the day they say they will be ready for it.