SN95 Made Out At Maaco

Joe, I think you should have had the mirrors painted. I did and it was one of the best decisions.
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Wow! That looks nice. I think the newer models have painted side mirrors, right?
 
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$1750 to change the color on the car is a great price. I've always heard that if you were willing to pay, maaco does a decent job. (as apposed to their $500 special)
If they can do a color change for that much, you have to start to wonder why most shops in my area want $4000+ to paint my car red again.

Painting a car in my area is such a nightmare, i just avoid it. Everyone is into insurance work around here, so paint jobs are just fillers, so if they get busy with insurance work, they make you wait and there is nothing you can do. Many shops will just straight up tell you no.

Congrats on good paint job at a fair price.
Thank you. From what research I did the huge price difference ($1750 vs $4000+) is that of disassembly. Maaco does some disassembly, but masks more. The higher price is the other way around. Some guys want total disassembly. However, I couldn't justify the cost. Its a car, I like it, but its not an idol to worship -at least it shouldn't be.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I know maaco gets mixed reviews but they'll be getting my business. Just nice to mark one off The list. Will have to check Louisville and cincy when the time comes.
I don't need a color change. No door jambs, no under hood, no trunk. I'll do all the disassembly. I won't prep it at all (I suck). Single stage OEM color, I'd hope to be in it under $1,500
FYI - they told me that if I did the prep work then they could not give me the warranty. If you decide to try the prep work, check with the shop first.
 
Ok, now some reality checks. The paint job came out well. Here are the issues:
- some overspray on rims, but can be cleaned w/alcohol+water rinse.
- Didn't paint under hood insulation as promised
- small chip about 1/8 inch in rear by license plate
- inside driver side door molding not properly reattached (they will fix)
- left car dirty inside (I will clean it)

*These blew my mind
- Radio inop
- CD player inop
- dash clock inop
- remote entry inop
- pwr door locks inop
- pwr side mirrors inop
- SpeedO inop??? (what in the world?)
- brand new battery dead upon pick-up
- have not tried pwr top yet

The manager disavowed all knowledge of the electrical & speedo, so I called corporate. This is the real world. I don't want to paint a picture that everything was perfect. The paint job was great, but there are other issues. This is further proof that its best, if possible, to do your own work.

Anyone have any clues to the electrical issues and/or speedo? They had the car 20 days, which is fine because I told them to keep it as long as they need to do a good job. However, my speculation thinks that they disconnected the speedo and drove it for 15 of the 20 days. Thoughts?
 
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Regarding the electrics.. I presume you checked all the fuses? It's always the first place to start. Just went through this yesterday troubleshooting a problem with my cruise control. It was just a fuse, but one that kept blowing because of a short somewhere else.

Good luck, I hope it's something easy.
 
Regarding the electrics.. I presume you checked all the fuses? It's always the first place to start. Just went through this yesterday troubleshooting a problem with my cruise control. It was just a fuse, but one that kept blowing because of a short somewhere else.

Good luck, I hope it's something easy.
Yes, agreed. My first thought was to check fuses. I have not had the time yet. A friend mentioned that maybe I outta stay out of it so that Maaco cannot claim that I messed it up trying to fix it. I don't know either way.

I'm still at a loss for the speedo though. That's all mechanical. I replaced the gears myself this past summer and it worked when I dropped it off.
 
FYI - they told me that if I did the prep work then they could not give me the warranty. If you decide to try the prep work, check with the shop first.
Yeah I wont do the prep work, I hate it. No worries there. But my only real concern, and maybe I'm just out of luck, buy I DONT want anyone driving my car. And it's really not negotiable. So that's what keeps be from a place like Maaco. I could never allow someone to have the keys to my car with me not around. Too likely to be taken for a hell ride and I'd be sued when they killed themselves. I'd like to have the bay done though so I guess pulling the driveline wouldn't be a silly idea anyways.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Cheaper work is to be expected but I'd make sure they're accountable for any damages
 
Yeah I wont do the prep work, I hate it. No worries there. But my only real concern, and maybe I'm just out of luck, buy I DONT want anyone driving my car. And it's really not negotiable. So that's what keeps be from a place like Maaco. I could never allow someone to have the keys to my car with me not around. Too likely to be taken for a hell ride and I'd be sued when they killed themselves. I'd like to have the bay done though so I guess pulling the driveline wouldn't be a silly idea anyways.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Cheaper work is to be expected but I'd make sure they're accountable for any damages
I hear you on no one driving your car. However, I think the only way to totally eliminate that is by doing all the work yourself. The next best thing, which I thought of AFTER the fact, is by installing a performance chip (or Moates) and setting it to valet (i.e., 20mph max). I have a chip sitting right in my living room, but I have not installed it yet.
 
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Like I said, my engine bay had power steering fluid, of all things, puked all over it. My battery was dead too... Twice in the week they had the car.

The people that work at Maacos are tech school drop outs. It's the career that body shop hopefulls fall into when they lack the basic skills to run a spray gun. Maaco is like McDonalds- the employees don't actually know how to properly prepare beef, they just push buttons on a machine that spits out cheap stuff that the average consumer will convert to s**t after a day or so.
 
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for the price car looks decent enough from the pics,but ya,macco workers dont get top dollor so bonus you are happy with their work,to bad for the other issues.....i paint cars for a living at a higher end shop,im glad i can paint my own cars and know it done right....
 
The local Maaco's here aren't really anything to write home about. I've had friends get their cars painted there and while they looked great from 20 feet, you could easily pick out where corners were cut and find paint chipping and cracking several months later. Many hack job fixes as well. One friend had his rear defroster lines hacked up, overspray in the wheel wells and on the wheels, etc etc.

When it came time to get my car painted, i just went to a reputable local shop. Cost me 4.5K, but was well worth it in the long run.
 
When it came time to get my car painted, i just went to a reputable local shop. Cost me 4.5K, but was well worth it in the long run.

People can pay$1,500-$2k for a Maaco "top of the line" paint job and will need a repaint in 4-5 years or you can do it right the first time and pay $4-5k for a real top of the line paint job from a true pro shop and it'll last 20 years to life if properly taken care of. I do understand why people still go to Maaco while knowing this. It's either a point A to point B vehicle, you're not planning on keeping it for that long, simply don't care or will never have the money. This is what keeps Maaco going strong.

I've seen some of the cheap Maaco and Earl Shieb paint jobs, I could've done better with a rattle can and some cardboard.

I still have my new DeVilbiss NIB and I have an itchy trigger finger. Too bad I won't be getting to paint my car for a while.
 
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People can pay$1,500-$2k for a Maaco "top of the line" paint job and will need a repaint in 4-5 years or you can do it right the first time and pay $4-5k for a real top of the line paint job from a true pro shop and it'll last 20 years to life if properly taken care of..

My feelings exactly. I had my car painted in 2000...and in 2014 it has better paint quality still, than my '06 Infiniti has now. The paint is much more durable, and the only damage is due to my own fault vs paint/prep defects.

I wish i took pictures when the car was painte, but it was basically disassembled completely, painted, and reassembled. When I got the car back, you could barely tell it had been apart....other than brand new paint.
 
for the price car looks decent enough from the pics,but ya,macco workers dont get top dollor so bonus you are happy with their work,to bad for the other issues.....i paint cars for a living at a higher end shop,im glad i can paint my own cars and know it done right....
If I lived closer maybe we could have worked something out, who knows.
 
Ok, the electrical issues were due to a fuse. All fixed. All that remains now is the speedo issue and some molding that was not replaced correctly, or is missing plastic pins to keep it in place. I talked to a rep from Maaco corporate and he wants to see my car tomorrow.
 
If I lived closer maybe we could have worked something out, who knows.
too bad,my shop is little more pricey though,but quality is good,if customer isnt happy it gets fixed no questions asked,lifetime warranty also...

i painted mine,this would be a 4-5 g paint job,with minor bodywork if needed,everything comes off though also....hate to say it but it cost me $300 bucks with a wet sand and 4 coats of clear to make it pop more...looks killer in the sun....

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