[Christien]

I was once told that anyone can learn to spray paint fairly quickly, but it takes real talent to do body work to prep the car. So I think a lot has to do with the condition of to body to begin with.

My 911 had a Maaco job done by the guy I bought it from. Having been through every last inch of the car, I know exactly where the overspray is and isn't. In general, it's not a bad paint job, though there are some notable flaws. They didn't mask the side mirror, so what was once chrome is now red. There was light overspray over the side windows, though that came off fairly easily with a razor blade. They (or the PO) removed all the rubber trim pieces, rather than mask them, so they're nice and clean (they were in a box when I bought the car). The bits that were masked were done pretty well. A few spots were missed, but even a year or so after the fact, the paint comes off with a bit of rubbing compound and a rag, with very little effort.

The big downside is that the quality of the paint isn't great, so my front hood has a ton of rock chips - it chips very easily. I've also got some small chips in the doors from very lightly bumping things in the garage - stuff that wouldn't at all show on a car with a better paint job.

Now that my paint looks like that, I'd probably have it done again, because it's a 5 footer already. I also think of what I could do mechanically for the cost of a proper paint job ($5-10k - I could rebuild and hotrod my engine for that) and I just can't justify spending that much on paint.