bad_ta_05

i am gettin ready to paint my car, probably the end of the month and i was wondering about that new maaco deal, its like 4 hrs of body work and a pint job for like 300 bucks. sounds good to me but is it a good job? iv head both ways, good adn bad, so i was hoping one of you guys could help me out

IROCZTWENTYGR8

iTrader: (1)

I have to say that my car was painted by them a few years before I got it and it was pretty good and is still good. It depends where you go and how you go about it I guess.

Rage13

whats a maaco paint job? (hey, some one has to ask the dumb questions )

MetalliCamaroRS

iTrader: (15)

Try a search, this gets asked a lot. You'll find that some people have had good experiences and some did not.

And remember- you get what you pay for.

Boxeat2469

You have to prep it first. Don't trust them to do anything but the actual painting. My mom brought her Bronco to the local Maaco and had the body work done there. The initial results were HORRIBLE!! The paint was sagging all over, there were huge dried up drips of paint hanging from the rocker panels, and there was still primer showing around the wheel wells. It was unbelievable that they were going to return it to her like that. Luckily I went with her to pick it up. I had the manager come outside and infomed him he was sadly mistaken if he thought we were going to accept it like that. They kept it another few days and repainted it. It looked pretty good when we picked it up. Its been exactly one year, and all the body work they did is falling apart. There is rust coming right through the paint and bubbling around the wheel wells. The paint is warrantied for four years, but the body work only has a one year warranty. On the flip side of it, a buddy of mine did all his own body work. Then he had Maaco spray it, and the car looks great.

86IROCNJ

My friend has one on his civic and it blows! He even paid for the $500 job too. He has already had the car resprayed. I am sorry but i would not trust someone to have my car re-prepped, sprayed, cured, and buffed in less than 3 days! That is sick and unheard of, do you want to know why, because they skip steps! You would be better off doing the prep work yourself and then sending it to them. You will have over spray still but that is what you get when these places hire kids that have just got a piece of paper from a tech school! I don't know, maybe it is different in some places but i would never have my car painted by them. My friends car is chipping so much that it is hard to believe that any prep work was done to the car. The first time it was painted they had it for close to 2 weeks and all of a sudden they have it redone in 3 days, yeah right! Just remember, you get what you pay for. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get ****ed! good luck my friend

IROCZTWENTYGR8

iTrader: (1)

Yes, doing the prep work and then letting them do their top paint work is the best idea.

1991tealRSt-topGuy

yeah, thats what i am going to do..............if i would have gotten a $5000 paint job though, i would have killed myself by now, because my front end constantly scrapes bottom, my scratched the paint in so many places, some idiot stood on my headlight pocket, and when we were stealing road signs, my freind tossed the sign into my truck, but missed and nailed my quarter panel pretty badly, so thats why I can not justify $5000 for a paintjob for my daily driven cars...................a 69 'maro or vette on the otherhand, well, their not going to be driven everyday, so a $500 paintjob will be great

i had my RS done at maaco after i rearended somebody, the bodywork on the hood wasnt exactly the greatest, but the paint came out deserving of a $500 price tag, all in all i'm still very satisfied

1991tealRSt-topGuy

what maaco did you have yours done at?

vortechLT1

my sister had her tracker done at macco (her room mate rearended someone) when they put the front end back together they didnt put the hood hing bolts back on, after picking it up she was on her way home and the hood blew off breaking the windshield smashing the hood all to h*ll and scratching everything it blew past, I was not impressed with there work

IROCZTWENTYGR8

iTrader: (1)

I have no idea it was done before I got it, but I know its Maaco. If you get close enough in some places you can see, but its fooled many.

bad_ta_05

i dont think im gunna mess with the maaco paint job, i want it to look good and last a while and right now the negatives outweigh the positives by ALOT! so im gunna take it to a guy i know who said he will do it for 900 bucks, and iv seen his results and they look pretty good.

Aviator857

my car was painted my macco, about 4 years ago. still pretty good, but I didn't go with one of their packages, it cost me about 900 for the paint job. One dent in my pass door, they got it straightThings to remember

Tell them to take the emblems off before painting, otherwise they will paint over them.

Tell them to remove your lights or do it when you drop off the car, otherwise they will get over spray on them, they will just tape off, doesnt work well.

Tell them to not get paint on the seals or they will.

Tell them to watch your wheels with over spray.

Tell them to either paint the wheel wells color or do them in black after you get the car back, if not you will have rough over spray in the wells, I did, had to paint them black.

point out any dent nick etc you want fixed they will not take it for granted you want the nics and dents you dont tell them to fix fixed.

If you have any bad spots make sure to tell them to strip the spot or what ever is necissary.

I would also go with the complete, body prep IE primer the car first.

All in all its a decent paint job, you get what you pay for. The paint they use is a little softer than I would ever use again though. and the paint will react with all aftermarket touch up paints. Bring an old nail polish bottle to get some touch up paint from them when you have it painted.

I had to do alot of detail work when I got the car back, that is where they save the money other shops charge.

after 4 years the only pait problems i have had other than things hitting my car and scratching it. The insert in the power bluge hood started to peel, I stoped by there to see if I could buy some paint to respray it, the manager told me they would re do it if I took it off, and they did. I had same thing happen there on the orginal paint so I think it was a factory primer causing it. So I striped it and primed it before I had them paint it.

There paint is horried on the rubber spoiler also, doesn't flex well.

Also make sure to tell them to use a flex attative on the paint on the bumper covers and other rubber/plastic parts.

Aviator857

I was going to attach a pic but forgot to.

here it is, kinda in a shadow though

Hg

Aviator857: That sounds about like what I did. I put mine in at Maaco a few days ago, I get it back tuesday or wednesday so I can let you guys see how it looks. I took off EVEYRTHING I possibly could - headlights, tail lights, 3rd brake light, ground effects painted seperate, hood louvers removed, etc. I didn't tell them not to get paint on seals though, didn't occur to me, and I also didn't tell them to paint the fender wells, I planed on doing that myself, I removed the fender lining. And I have new wheels, so I left the old ones on while it gets painted. It's about 1300$ total, because they are supposed to take out some dents I have. Hopefully they do half decent body work, lol. This place seems to be ok. They had this 91-92 RS that somebody had done a bright green with metallic flakes, OMG, it looked like total @$$. I think mine will come out better, all the ones they had out weren't using the same thing they were using on mine. Some new urethane thing they were trying out a year ago that they've switched over to. I'm probably going to wax/polish the crap out of it after a few months, but I can't decide if I want zaino or formula 113.

86IROCNJ

You guys have it all wrong! You should not have to tell them ****. They should already do it. Common sense would tell you to avoid getting paint on seals, emblems and lights, among other things. Most places like Macco are a bunch of Jerk Offs that want to get a specific number of cars done for a quota! After all, you do really get what you pay for in most cases! good luck

Slo86TA

I figured that I should just drop a line in here. One of my friends were fired from Maaco because they were too slow! All that Maaco see's is $$$$$$$. They could care less about how the car looks.

86NiteRider

iTrader: (10)

The MAACO thing comes up about twice a month. All of them are independent owned. This means INVESTIGATE. SEE their work before you drop your car off. KNOW who is doing your car. And everyone is right when they tell you to prep the car YOURSELF. Don't accept the car if it is not HOW you want it. Know your WARRENTY and use it. Don't be shy. Even though you may not be paying $5000.00, $500.00 is still a lot of money and it should demand that their work be of some quality. My MAACO paint is going on 3 years and is really holding up quite well. I was a pain-in-the-butt. But considering how it looked coming in and the end result I was happy. And after wetsanding I received many compliments. My next paint jobe will be to the metal. top of the line stuff so MAACO will never do for that. They are what they are. An ALTERNATIVE to a high end paint job that you can fake and make decent if you are willing to be PERSISTANT.

FLYNLOW92rs

iTrader: (53)

When i plan on getting my car painted at Maaco, I will make sure to get a signed paper saying that they will do certain things when they paint it.....
I'm only 17 so i can't afford more then $750 for a paintjob.......so Maaco is the only option.......I will also be taking off as much stuff as possible.......

redbird_400

Macco, never.......... I would rather try and paint it myself.

Jay87Z

iTrader: (2)

My Maaco paint looked like crap 2 years after it was done. Good thing the old owner paid for it and I didn't.

I'd go to Home Depot and paint it myself with a bucket and brush before I'd let them touch any car of mine ever again.

Gunny Highway

iTrader: (1)

My friend had the same thing happen to his Mazda 626....and this was after he had already sent it back once for defects.

So it's concluded....Maaco sucks. Everyone agree?

White Ninja

agreed. my friend painted his bronco black, and 4 weeks later it was chipping off .....

oldblueZ

I used maaco, it was my only choice at the time. I think the blue it is now looks much better than primer grey, but I still like the primer grey color. Yes, my paint is faded, cracked, and peeled. That was only three years ago too. It's already time for another paint job and minor body work. I think I am going to try it myself before going back.

-Jesse

Azure

Old Blue, you got any pics of your car...? If it'
s the one in your avatar, that ride looks badass....

redbird_400

Think about it. Some shops take 3-4 days to paint the car. 4 hours?

oldblueZ

Azure,

Thanks, yes that's my car, even the MAACO paint job too. If you can see my sig or profile, I have a link to my website with lots of pictures. I sent you an email too.



Everyone:
I guess I make out the paint to be worse than it is. Chances are that I will take it back to them anyways just because they are so cheap. As someone else pointed out, this is a daily driver, not a show car(yet), and I can't afford $5000 paint jobs every couple years, but $500 I can probably do. I just don't have any close ups of the damaged areas online, for obvious reasons.

I guess that the key with Maaco, if you go that route is to know and use your warrenty, unlike me! Had I used it, i would be in good shape, except for the 1/4 panel that someone hit while I was parked......go figure. That's the third time I've been hit parked too.

Later,
Jesse

Kj Rockz

Macco sux at prep work....

If your just getting them to spray it, they dont do to bad a job....

camaro6spd

I work at an autobody shop(not a Maaco...a real one) and all the guys there say that if you do your own prep work and just get them to spray it, it should come out good for the price you paid....I did this once to resell a lumina, did all the prep work and then the $200 paint job....it had one run and that was it....not bad for $200

Aerodragon911

I'm in the middle of the prep work, what kind of primer do I need to put on it before I Drive it to the paint shop, or should I just Let then prime it.

90v6rs

what exactly is meant by prep work

and i know that i would have to take off everything like my gfx spoiler etc at maaco but would i still have to do this a "real" paint shop?

joshp14

prep work meaning sanding, priming, de-trimming (removing lights, panels, trim, decals, mirrors, etc.), fixing high spots and low spots, cracks, dings, dents...basically all of the work except for painting it.

joshp14

use a roll-on primer...no overspray

91tirespin

Yeah don't go with MAACO. Go with a reputable paint and body shop.

BlackBeast'88

Yeah I a Maaco painted my 88 back in 2001. I had to take it back to them because they did a pretty sh*tty job. I'll say the did a great job the second time around.

91zconvt

When I went to Macco in October, All I did was sand the car down to the original paint/primer, no metal. I brought it to them just like that. I took nothing off, covered nothing up. And I just have to say, I've heard a LOT of bad things about Macco, but I'm 18 and din't have much money. Anyway, I took it there, and they did an excellent job. To this date, I have not been able to find a single spot of overspray (I didn't look extensively, so there is probably some, but none noticable, or that I've seen). Now, keep in mind, my car is a 'vert, and the top doesn't make a perfect seal, still no overspray. They even lifted the top up and painted under it in the back. I forgot to tell them to do it, so I figured it wouldn't get done, but they did do it. Anyway, from all this rambling I just wanted to make the point that you should really look around, get everyone's opinions, just because Macco in general has a bad name, they're not ALL bad.

The only trouble I've had with the paint is it's chipping off the front gfx, but that's my fault for driving it in the snow. The snow plow effect isn't good for paint, but that's why I brought it to macco in the first place, it's a daily driver.

Ok, I'm done now.

eightTfourTA

iTrader: (3)

When I still used my '84 as a daily, I had Maaco prep and paint the car. The owner of the shop was pretty much up-front with me about the prep work though, but comparing it to the other estimates I got, I figured i'd get what I paid for. I was working 60hr weeks and had no time to do the prep myself. They took six days to prep & paint it, I got their Sterling Service package. It didn't turn out perfect, which I expected, but a lot better than it was, which is all I was after. After two wet-sands and buffs it really cleaned up nice. Not perfect, but great for a daily. You get what you pay for.
The only thing that pissed me off actually, was they never had any space inside their fenced area to put my car, but they could put all the other grocery-getter, econobox pos's in there and all the plain-jane fleet vehicles they were painting; they'd leave my car outside in front, unlocked, totally exposed to the riff-raff that were usually associated with the locale. I finally went off on them for that and stormed out of there, leaving two big stinking treads out their nice new concrete lot.

89rsIMPRTETR

i guess it depends on which maaco building you bring it to, ive heard some do a really good job, and others are horrible, i know that in my experience, i had maaco paint my rear bumper for $200, the paint looked like ****, it was really thing and crackes easily, so i had it fixed