Maaco Paint???

[morstad]

I have a '79 SC that the old (really crappy) paint job is bubbling up in places from water sneaking in under the seals. I am looking for a affordable good looking paint job to replace it and was thinking about doing some of the prep work myself and taking it down to Maaco for one of their mid grade $600 paint jobs. Any experiences with this? Does anyone have pics of cars done at their local Maaco? Thanks for the advice

[BGCarrera32]

I'll get flamed for this but I had a few cars in school that I had them shoot. Did a nice job actually. But, you need to pull *everything* off the car (lights, lenses, window seals, exhaust tips, door handles, glass, get the hint yet?) as they make their money by masking everything off best they can, and if something gets overspray or paint shmootz...oh well. Their "2 hours" of free body work that they include with their specials occasionally is largely b.s. though. If I had a bare shell, and specified the paint I wanted them to use, got it all in writing up front...what the hey...?

Better than $4-5k for a paint job that still might turn out wrong (my opinion anyway)...

Good luck-
BG

[TerryBPP]

Don't even think about it! I think the pelican parts forum rule book says anyone using the word "Ma**o" will be for ever band from this forum and the porche will be confiscaded for its own well being.

-I got my car resprayed w/House of Color paint for $1500. Just save a couple of more bucks and ask the forum were a reputable paint shop is in your area.

[pyite20v]

You are crazy! You don't take a Porsche to Maaco. Maybe a ****ty Audi Wagon or something, but man you have a 911!

Worst Idea Ever.

[Jdub]

Go in for a consultation. Tell the manager how you will prep the car, deliver it already taped as you can, with a minimum of fuss for them. The idea is to have them not have to perform peripheral jobs, but instead get right to the job of final prep (tack rag, etc.) and spray.

Promise the guys at the shop pizza at lunch. Donuts in the morning. Whatever it takes show them you have The Love. Most of these guys have to redo cars the owners are preparing for sale or otherwise. They do have pride in what they do and will feel professional pride and rise to the challenge should you deliever them one of the finest cars on earth all prepped for painting.

Try it. Pay for the top-end job so they know you expect it to be very, very good.

John

[johncj8989]

Well actually, my first Porsche was an 84 944. When I decided to sell I thought it needed a little freshening up and I definately wasnt gonna spend big bucks on that car. I let Maaco paint the car and to tell you the truth the paint quality was really good. Yes they dont spend alot of time masking off trim and such so if you were to prepair the body yourself and take it in for a spray I think you might be surprised. If your cars is a daily driver I cant see investing thousands into a paint job. Take a trip to their shop and ask to see some other jobs before you decide, thats what I did anyway.

[BGCarrera32]

That was my point...you want them to shoot the paint, not do all the other stuff. The same people that slam Maaco are the ones that insist on taking their car to the dealer for every oil change and paying through the nose for it. Is this car you're museum showpiece, or a daily driver? Most people make their judgements on Maaco based on the neighbors bondoed '88 Buick Skylark that got the $200 Ambassador paint job.

Looking at my 911, I'm sure it go Maaco'd. But nobody did any *real* prep, or bothered to remove anything. You get what you pay for. I've seen too many posts on this board where people were less than pleased with their $4k paint job, the long wait, and the goofed up color. I'd be willing to bet Maaco has the same paint, the same guns, the same booth...take your chances...

[Chuck Moreland]

As BG says, if you do all the prep and strip everything off the car they can probably do a reasonable job of shooting the paint.

However, they use cheap paint that will oxidize fast and won't last. And forget about color matching.

[JackT]

I have never had them paint the whole car, but I have had a Carrera tail painted and a door painted by them. I asked them to do the sanding and I took off the trim that they would normally tape over. They love to use the tape. My car is the Rosewood color that is hard to match, and they did a great job. The color is a perfect match. They charged $250 to paint each one.

[morstad]

I am not worried about color matching as the car is not the original color. This is my daily driver and I am not looking for a concours car here. Just something that looks nice when I go rippin around town. I like to do as much work on the car myself as possible and am very concious about spending lots of money for something like a $4000 paint job that IMO arent work $4000. I appreciate the feedback from everyone. I think I will take the advice of some and prep and strip the car down as much as possible then wheel it in for a spray. I will let you guys know how it goes.

[RickM]

Each shops quality will vary as this is a franchised business. Insist on their most experienced paint guy. Take the advice already given if you must go to Macco. Also be prepared to have them, another shop or yourself color sand and polish the final paint as runs are common.

What will you do if they run into rust or other unseen problems?

To protect rubber seals from overspray, such as the windshield seal: peel the edge of the rubber seal up with your fingers. Then push some small diameter rope under the seal. Continue this all around the seal. The rope will hold the rubber seal up off the windshield frame so you can mask the top and underside of the rubber. When the painting is done pull the tape off and remove the rope. The protected seal will fall back onto the frame and will be overspray free.

[pyite20v]

Yeah but morstad, your car is bubbling right now, a new paint job wont fix anything, it will just be new paint on top of bubbleing old paint, what good will that do? Maybe if you strip the car down yourself, but do you know how to do that?

How hard is it to strip a 911 to the steel? And don't you need special primer to stick to galvanized steel? Does maaco have this?

[pyite20v]

I say you use this as an excuse to put on turbo flares!

[Dantilla]

A friend owns a Maaco franchise.

If you bring in a classic, he will tell you that you are better off someplace else. That being said, they actually do pretty good work at his place. He's got a guy that masks things really tight, and his spray guy is pretty amazing with a gun. It all depends on who works there. Their paint quality has vastly improved in the last couple years. As soon as I find a tailgate for my old chevy truck, I'm having him respray it.

My 911 was just painted somewhere else, but that included adding Carerra flares, and making the early bumper ends match, rolling fenders and taking it down to bare metal, yada yada....

[Rich911E]

Sorry to have broken the faith, but I had two painted at MAACO and they did a pretty good job. I did all the stripping and such. It was about $1,000 for everything but the alternative was $3500 and I wasn't about to spend that much on a $8000 car. Actually, I have had many compliments on the paint and people cannot believe it was from MAACO.

[72 four door]

First off a paint job is alot more than spraying out paint. What type of paint are you using? 2 stage paint is what you want for a quality job and thats a base coat and clear whos gonna sand the clear? Thats what makes the job its called color sanding .I dought maccos gonna do it. Thats what makes a paint job is the sanding. If you want a crappy soso look and lots of orange peel Better take it macco Its your choice.

[chumphries]

I can speak from experience on this, the previous owner took my baby to maaco for the rock bottom paint special and it is awful. There isn't a black seal anywhere now (they had it painted maaco's version of guards red) and their is overspray everywhere they could have conceivably gotten it.

Just hold off, save a little more and go anywhere else.

[morstad]

Pyite btw if you want to talk **** you can just come down stairs from you miserable cubicle and say it. Christ all you do is cause problems on this board. I am getting really good advice from people and I have to filter our your little peanut gallery. Go back to your ricer Audi board and talk about the next set of 19" Chrome rims your going to install on your 1.8 to compliment your kick ass stereo system and knock off S4 bumpers.

[pyite20v]

I dont have an Audi, I have a Saab, so shut it.

[morstad]

Yeah...good one... btw.... can I have my Saab back.... cause the P-car will be at Maaco for a couple of day.