Anyone have any opinions on Maaco for a paint job?

[timinator]

I'm getting ready to paint my 69 Charger. Most the local shops want way too much money, (7K-10K) and they seem to keep the cars they work on for months! I've heard good and bad about Maaco. I've seen their $300 paint jobs flake off in a few months, but I'm planning on the top of the line paint job with a basecoat / clearcoat. My friend had his truck painted there with quite a bit of prep work for $1500 and it seemed to turn out great and he had it back in about a week. My car needs almost no prep and will have been stripped to metal and primered, etc before I take it in. All the trim will have been removed too. I'm not looking for a show car but do want a decent job done. I was budgeting about 2 thousand dollars. Anyone have any experience with these guys?

[Doc74]

Simply put, the prep and paintjob will be as good as the guys working at that particular shop.No two will be alike.
Check out the work in the shop, see if you're happy with the way they work and their results.

[CB]

only heard bad news.
They even have an expression for a bad paint job: a maaco-paint-job.

[hotrod98]

I manage a dealership body shop and good materials for a complete paint job done correctly using epoxy primer for bare metal, urethane primer, urethane sealer, basecoat and clear coat will run approximately $1000. That leaves $1000 for labor which is plausible I guess. My only concern would be whether they prepped the bare metal properly, block sanded properly and actually used good paint mateirals. Worse case scenario is they don't prep the bare metal, don't block the car properly, and use crap for materials. At least you're only out 2 grand.
BTW, our paint jobs start at 6 grand which includes removal of all trim, removal of hood and deck lid, removal of front fenders, removal of the doors, when necessary and a complete five stage wet sand and buff, just to give you an idea. Doing it this way makes for a seamless paint job that looks better than factory. Total resto paint jobs run much more of course.
Just remember, you usually get what you pay for.   

[79JON]

Hey,   I just posted something yesterday about getting my car painted at Macco.  I went there yesterday and they quoted me 3200.     Thats the highest qualitly of paint- Base/Clear,  Jamming the car out, Fixing a few dents, and Filling in 60 some odd holes.   I couldnt do that price so im gonna tackle some of the dents myself and then get my brother to weld in the holes.  My impression was they were just gonna sand the car down and slap on a paint job from what the lady told me.   I doubt seriously that they would block sand the car before the paint.   They do have various Prep services they do,    I just dont know exactly they do for the Prep Plus option.

[2Gunz]

I suggest you go to a few paint shops and talk to the guys. Alot of them paint on the side, at paint booths or their houses.
Tell them you are after a nice paint job and would be willing to pay them $1000 to do it.

Its a bit unethical to sidestep the buisness. But slapping some paint on a car and calling it a paint job, in my book isnt exactly great.
So I wouldnt lose much sleep over it.

Another option I thought about when looking into mine was finding a college or technical school that has students paint cars.
I didnt ever get around to really looking into it, but it might not be a bad idea.  Donate some money or equipment and maybe they will paint it as part of the class. Dunno what the outcome would be, but I would suspect it would be WAY better then maaco.

Regaurdless, do as much of the work you can do yourself. Talking off the trim, handles and pretty much anything that will come off yourself, will save money and make sure it wont get messed up.

I just had my car painted for $1200. I did most of the body and prep work myslef which saved ALOT of money. If you live near Glendale CA, you can come see the work the shop did and Ill take you to meet them.

Anyway good luck.

[haueter66]

I know a local guy here that took his 68 GTO to Maaco and got it done for $1800.  Looks just as good as my $4000 paint.  I agree tho that every shop is different.

[timinator]

Thanks for the input guys. Actually we have a local college that has autobody classes that I've considered taking, one of them being paint your own car. That's always an option I guess. I'm just leary about not having any experience at it although I'd like to learn. I figured the guys at Maaco would know what they're doing, have all the equipment, etc. Anyone shoot their car in their garage? There's a guy here locally with a beautiful '70 Charger he shot himself in someone's garage I think and it looks like a show car. I thought about it but my friend who used to do bodywork said it's probably illegal and the neighbors would complain about the smell. I'm guessing the new HVLP guns would make it so there wouldn't be much overspray floating around.  Any thoughts?

[haueter66]

I sprayed my car when it was bare metal... used 2 part etching primer... gave myself bronchitis (sp).

so, i dont reccommend it.  but im sure you can pull it off... i even wore a respirator.

[BLACKWOLF]

their maskers ain't worth a damn. they did a Ford Winstar for me and the door jams had over spray   and there was paint on the rubber door seals, glass and trim. if you do it, take a razor blade and a gal. of lacquer thinner with you when you pick it up.

[Silver R/T]

from what ive seen, if they will charge a lot theyll do good job, but for 250 or whatever lowest cost, they dont really mask much, overspray all over moldings, muffler tires, etc. and you dont get clear coat, might as well mask it up yourself for that price and buy rattle cans and do it yourself and youll save over $100

[hemihead]

Maaco paint job = 60's &70's Mopar Factory Job 

[NHCharger]

From what I understand every Maaco shop is independently owned. We had one here locally(went belly up last year). The owner told me that the reason their prices were cheaper was because they got a huge discount on the paint. That still doesn't justify how they can be so much cheaper.
I've priced out paint at a few shops around here. Seems like everyone wants to do nothing but collision repair and insurance work.
As hotrod said, you get what you pay for.
I looked around and found a great shop run by one guy. The two things that impressed me about him besides his work, was a clean shop no matter when I stopped by and no beer cans to be found.

[haueter66]

shouldnt worry about a few beer cans... helps steady the hand ...

[GTX]

My brother in law went to Maaco when I couldn't do it for him when he needed it. Actually, he didn't want to help me with the taping,masking, prep etc and didn't want to pay for good PPG B/C paint.

I can't remember what he payed but he got no jamming done, no prep work and certainly no body work, I could tell that they only spot primed and he had moderate to severe (to my eyes) orange peel all over the entire surface. Also ended up with overspray everywhere and I mean everyehere!
I really have my doubts that they even bothered to mask it. You could tell where they cleaned off the glass surfaces, dirty smears everywhere.
The bumpers were still painted on the corners when he sold the car.


Back when I was doing it, if someone wanted to pay me $1000 and they were pretty cool aka a Mopar owner, I'd probably do it although I never counted myself as good enough to do a show quality job. 
The problem is that you really need to see their work before you let them touch your car.
I always royaly screwed up my own cars, you can tell my the paint on the GTX although my work for others was pretty good.

[Drop Top]

This is just my opinion. You get what you pay for. If you want a paint job thats going to last more then a few years. Maaco is not the place for you. If you don't mind that your going to need to repaint after 3 or 4 years then Maaco will do OK.

Its kind of like a restaurant. You don't go to Mc Donalds for a good steak dinner. You go there because its cheap and quick. If you want a good steak you go to where thats what they do. Or if your a good cook. You go get the stuff you need and do it the way you want it at home for a whole lot less. Its entirely up to you. But don't go there and then come crying on here latter about how bad you got screwed. You have been warned. By many others, other then me.

[MichaelRW]

Here are some facts about Maaco, not guesses, speculation, conjecture, etc. Why can I say that? Because I own a Maaco in California.

Maaco’s are production shops, not custom shops. So you are not going to get a custom paint job from a Maaco.

You can get a very decent job though for the money. Make sure EVERYTHING you want done on your car is documented on the repair order. Leave nothing to chance. Assume that if it is not written on the repair order that it will NOT get done. This alone will help ensure a decent job and recourse if you don’t like the job.

Have realistic expectations. If you don’t want overspray on trim items, bumpers, etc. remove them before taking the car to Maaco or pay Maaco to remove them. Even when cars are masked properly overspray can happen. Remember, it’s just masking tape and paper. We get cars in here that have a lot of Armorall (sp) on them. Tape doesn’t stick too well to silicone even if we wipe the parts down with a degreaser/dewaxer first. The more “things” removed before painting, the cleaner the job. Ask if they will guide coat and block it. If they say yes, get it in writing on the repair order.

The Maaco BC/CC is a decent quality paint job. I use Dupont paint and 2K primers and most Maaco’s use either DuPont or Sherwin Williams.

Ask if the BC/CC are cut & buffed or is that extra or a particular Maaco may sublet the cut & buff to a detail shop.

You do get what you pay for. Don’t expect perfect for a few hundred dollars or even a couple thousand. There will be minor imperfections. Remember you are not paying for a custom paint job so don’t expect one.

The higher quality Maaco paint jobs (urethane single stage & BC/CC) will last a long time. They are guaranteed for 4 years for loss of gloss and will last longer than that if you wash & wax the car once in awhile.

Are there bad Maaco paint jobs out there? Of course. I can’t tell you how many customers I get that don’t want to pay for anything and get things done the right way. They routinely decline prepping for lacquer checking or surface rust or whatever. Some people won’t pay to have dents repaired. They want us to paint over them and we do what the customer wants. Now when the customer gets that car home and it doesn’t look real good because the customer declined to have the proper prep done what do you think he/she says? They blame it on Maaco. They don’t tell their neighbor or friend or whomever that they were too much of a cheapskate to get the job done correctly.

Hope this helps you. PM me if would like to.

BTW, that's a Maaco paint job BC/CC, cut & buffed on the B5 blue 1970 Charger.

[PocketThunder]

My car is at Maaco as we speak and will get painted next week.  I'm paying $4000 for the BC/CC.  That includes 40 hours of body time, 3 coats of clear and they are subbing out the cut and buff.  And they are putting the R/T stripe on for me, and painting the tail light panel black..

I stop in once a week, and check things out.  They work on it when they are not busy with the production side of the business.  This particular shop does about 4 musclecars every winter when they are slow.  I'll have pictures next week.

Paul
in St. Paul

[BigBlockSam]

i've seen some decent paint jobs come out of macco. i would bring them the paint , just to make sure they use the one i want. Rene

[MichaelRW]

i've seen some decent paint jobs come out of macco. i would bring them the paint , just to make sure they use the one i want. Rene

I understand that your intent is good but bringing the paint to the shop is like bringing a steak to the restaurant. I refuse to use any products brought to me by customers since my painter is not or may not be familiar with the products they bring. Maaco painters are familiar with the Maaco products. BTW, Maaco painters are probably among the best painters in town since they paint the most cars.

[BigBlockSam]

Yea , i see what you mean. Rene