SN95 Made Out At Maaco

joetrainer31

15 Year Member
Mar 31, 2013
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The original 19y.o. paint on my pony finally started tapping out. After a lot of research concerning paint shops, paint woes, and prices I decided to give Maaco a shot regardless of some horror stories I read.

I thought that the job would revolve around a few key considerations: shop care, amount of pressure, me not being cheap. Therefore, I found a local Maaco that had been a mom/pop paint shop for 38 years before being bought out. I told them to take their time (I left them alone until they were done), and I bought their top package. I'm quite pleased with the results. The before & after pics are below.

I ordered a color change, door jams, trunk jams, under hood, install head lights & tail lights, fix 2 door dings, paint & install wing, 3 coats of red, base/clear, sealer, UV protection, additional high performance clear coat, color sand & buff, 5 year warranty = $1750.

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Damn. Now I'm thinking about it myself. Just crystal white single stage. I'd be interested in pricing for sure
Thanks man. What I did was got a quote from a competitor (Earl Shewab) w/details of everything that they were willing to do for a certain price. I then took the quote to Maaco & asked if they would match it. He was a little hesitent at first, but I told him that I was going to get it painted "right now" one way or the other. Then he knew I was serious so he matched the price.

I wanted Maaco in the 1st place between the two because Maaco is a national chain so that means their warranty is national in case we move. Earl Shewab is now all individual owners and not national in warranty.

But ya, your single stage desire should not be too much. Different Maacos have different specials at different times of the year. Just go look at their work 1st. If there is a nasty shop or cars drying outside then leave immediately. If the shop is in decent condition give them a shot and give them all the rope they want to do the job right.

Let me know what you decide. I'd love to see your car.
 
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You got lucky. I have scratches in my back glass where they ran the power sander over it, a ~6" long streak of flat black trim paint across my bumper, and somehow the engine bay was soaked in power steering fluid when I got the car back. The car looks OK from 5 feet, but its far from perfect. You get what you pay for.

Yours looks good though!
 
You got lucky. I have scratches in my back glass where they ran the power sander over it, a ~6" long streak of flat black trim paint across my bumper, and somehow the engine bay was soaked in power steering fluid when I got the car back. The car looks OK from 5 feet, but its far from perfect. You get what you pay for.

Yours looks good though!
Me being from the same general area(Indy maaco I assume?) that worries me
 
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You got lucky. I have scratches in my back glass where they ran the power sander over it, a ~6" long streak of flat black trim paint across my bumper, and somehow the engine bay was soaked in power steering fluid when I got the car back. The car looks OK from 5 feet, but its far from perfect. You get what you pay for.

Yours looks good though!
Woah. I'm sorry to hear that. What a bummer. Did you say anything to them? Also, thank you. I'm really happy with the paint job.
 
Woah. I'm sorry to hear that. What a bummer. Did you say anything to them? Also, thank you. I'm really happy with the paint job.

Yea kind of. I found these things after I had already made them correct some other stuff, and no way in hell was I going back a third time. In hindsight I should have made them pay for the back glass but my ego was already bruised so I threw in the towel and gave up.
 
Yea the one just South of where 69 turns into Binford on the Northeast side.
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
 
$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.
 
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I talked to the local Maaco when I was going to have my trunk lid and side molding pieces painted, and read up reviews and talked to people, but ended up going elsewhere. Supposedly there are good Maaco's and not so good Maaco's so if you find a good one they can do a pretty good job. A deciding factor for me was taking a close look at a Maaco paint job on a Camry belonging to a guy at work. He said it looked good when it was first done, but 4 years later it isn't so hot. Even when new, he said that if you looked close you could see overspray and dust spots in the paint. Now certain parts of the car have worn differently than others. There's uneven yellowing of the clear in some spots, and non metal parts are now a different shade over the metal parts. What's worst though is some chips in front on the hood that started small, then flaked and grew rapidly because of poor paint adhesion. For various reasons, the guy said, the issues are not covered by the warranty (i.e. rock chips are not considered a defect in the paint job, and the painted rubber parts that are now very faded are not included in the warranty) and the parts that are covered are pro-rated so he might as well get a new paint job to fix them. Mainly it was the lack of standing by their supposed warranty that put me off.

JoTrainer31.. I hope your paint job does better than the one I saw. Certainly looks nice from the pictures. So enjoy..
 
Does look pretty good for sure for the money. You'd think they would of cleaned off that over spray on the sill plate though, or removed it t paint. Either way nice improvement, warranty is a big plus also.
 
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