Sale At Maaco And I Aint' Ready

[John Burke]

The 49'er is closer to being ready for paint so I called Maaco and talked about it. After explaining what I was looking for he said they had some kind of special on a single stage metalflake paint job which included the sealer/primer for $275.00. I told him I had the paint and primer and he said sorry...but they had to use their products. I paid way more than $275.00 just for my paint and primer. I wonder if that is telling me somthing....He did say that did not include the door jambs...they were about another $100.00...APIECE!!!!...He did say they had about 30K colors to pick from. I think I'll run in my Hi-buildup primer for a while till I sort this out. I bought a swing pedal and power booster set-up for the car..I think that goes in today...jb

[Ed Griffin]

John, this is just my 2 cents worth an that only comes out worth abt a penny but here goes. You get what you pay for. All of these "quick run" paint shops are a risk at the least of getting a high dollar looking paint job for the "sale" price they advertise. Been there, done that yrs ago.

I'm not saying you cant get a half decent paint job from some of these places but it also can depend simply on who's going to spray it and how much experiance they have. What they told you is a simple and common way they lure you in then they hit you with "do you want the dr jambs painted, do you want the clear coat, " They did the same thing in the 70's when I had a camaro painted. Turned out the car was wrong color, overspray was terrible and the side reflectors were painted right over.

You can do all the body work and prep work which is the best route but afterwards ask yourself if you want to chance that you'll get a paint job with no runs, orange peel, overspray....after doing all that hard work? Using one of these discount paint shops is like a roll of the dice, you may or may not get what you want. I'm not saying I wouldnt do the same thing because I dont have the funds do get a truely professional paint job but if using them I wouldnt have high hope as for the results without the idea I may have to do some wet sanding afterwards.

[Shawn F.]

Maaco IMO is not worth the risk to take... Do it yourself. Get you a cheap 100-200 dollar HVLP spray gun and set up some kind of tent with fans and lights in it and do it yourself. That way you learn something new and save money. It isn't hard and if you screw up then it's not a big deal, just sand it and move on. Run's are nothing, just sand them and buff. Heck just 1000 bucks IMO is CHEAP for materials only. Maaco is cheap because first off the materials are cheap, second is they dont prep the vehicle well like it NEEDS to be and that is the most important step there. I did the body work and primed a old Camaro for a friend and he brought it to Maaco to get the paint done with base coat and clear coat for extra and they painted it and didn't pre clean it before painting and it fish eyed... They tried telling him that I didn't do the body work right and that it fish eyed because I didn't use metal glaze over my bondo! Haha, first off metal glaze is just a thinned out bondo to fill pin holes and small imperfections so you dont even have to use it. You can tell it was that one of the idiots haven't got in the habit yet of NOT touching a car with their hands and got oil in a hand print sized mark on the door that left fish eyes.

At our shop we paint cars and charge 65 an hour and it can range from 3500-10,000 bucks depending on what you want but when it's done you can count on that paint job lasting for 20 years sitting in the sun. Maaco I'd give about 5 years and you need another paint job.

Save up your money, get you that spray gun, compressor, buy some nice Epoxy primer and sealer then PPG paint like OMNI base coat and 2021 Concept clear and do it yourself. That will last for years and years and years! Sure it might cost 800 bucks or so for all the paint and primer but it's worth it and you can say that YOU painted it and YOU will learn a LOT doing it.

[John Burke]

What you guys are saying is true....I have the equipment to do it as I have painted 2 of my cars myself....Problem is my asthma is telling me not to. I am looking for somone with a little talent to come out and spray it for me after it is all prepared......Oh well.. somthing will work out I am sure...John B.

[Norm's Coupe]

Maaco is just like any other body shop. I've toured a local Maaco shop and saw the low cost paint job John mentioned. I thought it looked good myself. Also, that low cost job does not include any prep work, so a lot of time and labor cost is saved there. You have to do all the prep work and masking for that price. You can also get the more expensive jobs just like in any other body shop.

That said, I know several new car dealerships sends their cars to be painted at the local Maaco shop. If they did bad jobs that didn't look good or didn't last those new car dealers would not use them because the dealership has to stand behind the job.

For my money I'm headed to Maaco when I finally get ready to paint the car. Like John said, you can't buy the paint for that price. Remember, you are only buying about 1 quart to 1 gallon of paint or so. Maaco buys hundreds and thousands of gallons each year direct from the manufacture, not a store. So their paint cost is far below what you can buy it for at retail. That's why they can do those jobs so cheap too. Their paint is probably about a third of what you pay for it retail for the same paint, regardless of the type of paint used.

For what it's worth, my son had some minor prep work done on his 80 Firebird, then the body shop (not Maaco) painted it. Ran him about $5,000 for the job. The first time he drove it on the freeway he got a rock chip in the front of the car. Now, who feels better. The guy who gets a rock chip in a $275 paint job, or the guy who gets a rock chip in a $5,000 job?? It will happen even on the side roads, no matter who you are.

[Allan Faust]

John.....

They just want to make money off of their products, and I wouldn't worry about their paint job.... get it done right.....

Allan

[JerseyHarold]

Norm's comment about new car dealers sending cars to Maaco is right on the money. Back in the mid-'80's, I worked as a service writer at the local Ford dealer and there were problems with the black paint on Escorts and Thunderbirds. Ford was quietly authorizing dealers to have the affected cars repainted under warranty. We had our in-house bodyman prep each car, then send it to Maaco. Worked out fine. Funny thing....one woman came in to see if her Escort was ready yet, and when I told her it wasn't, she smiled and asked "Oh, it's not back from Earl Scheib?" I gave her a shocked look and told her we'd NEVER do anything like that. Little did she know.......

[Norm's Coupe]

As JerseyHarold pointed out, they sub contracted some of their paint jobs too. I've never worked for a dealer, but dealers farm out a lot of other work sometimes too. On a 78 Aspen I had, I needed a new manifold pipe to the converter. Car was only about 3 years old so took it to the dealer I bought it from. At the time, the dealer in question was one of the largest high volume new car dealers around town. When the car wasn't ready as promised I ask where it was. Dealer said they didn't do any welding in their dealership so farmed it out. Where was the car? At a small shop that had 6 bays and was also an ENCO gas station. So........dealers farm out of lot of work that we don't know about for various reasons. Bottom line though. I could have taken the car direct to that gas station and had the work done cheaper, and the same guy probably would have done the job.

[Rodney Bullock]

I don't know if you all know it, Maaco bought house of color. They have 25-40thousand diffrent colors because of there computer system. When I pick a color from my dupont fleet book, all they do is cross ref. it and they have the color. It's not like buying the color , they do not have to do that. It's about color codes. The next time you go to Maaco look on the walls , you don't see those little metal slabs with paint on them like the 80's. They have you look in factory books, the large multi make interior and exterior books. If they use a basic single stage paint. It cost them nothing, the 275 is for the masker to get paid, that keeps the painter in practise until the busy season. You are right that paint job will last 5 years. If it fads before they will honor there contract. Save your money and pick a good color and get a base coat/clear coat you will be glad you did, because they are a franchise they have state of the art booths, prep work is important after that they lay it down nice, my opinion!

[Young Ed]

You are right about the color thing. They were happy to paint my 48 whatever color I picked. No issues converting the code I got for cruiser maroon to their brand. Now if I could just afford the body work......