maaco bc/cc quality questions

[fivespeedsteed]

me and 94gtho have been sanding and bondoing his 89 4 banger getting it ready for paint and we just found out that they will only charge us about 300 for 2 coats of color and 2 of clear. and 100 they'll charge us for going over it all with 320 and then sealing and spraying. so 400 out the door. we were about to pay 800 to cardinal to spray 3 base and 3 clear. should we go with maaco? we are going to get all the bondo and bodywork right before it goes anywhere.

 

[MAC'n89Blckstng]

MAACO. Base coat is only there for color, not protection or anything. Some colors take six coats to cover, some take only two.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

whyd u say maaco? because of their reputation or does it need to be all caps?

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

At Maaco you get what you pay for. Don't expect a show car quality paint job or even a stock quality paint job for $400. I know a guy who had his fox GT painted there and it cost him $1800 and it looked fabulous, and it was even black.

Personally, i'll buy the materials and paint it myself before i have them do one of their cheap jobs. I've seen some real disasters come out for their Ambassador Special deals, and i'm 99.99999% sure i could do better than that.

Oh and to add reason to why you can't expect good results for that price...go to a supply store that sells automotive paint and price a gallon of base coat...just the base coat. For good paint you can actually pay $300 a gallon. When you factor in all the materials and prep work, plus the primer and wet sanding (if they even do any), and then clear coat (if you even get any) then it's gonna add up to well over what you're paying in just the cost of materials, let alone what they're paying the guy in labor to prep and paint it and then whatever money they're supposed to make off the job. They have to cut every corner they can to get a car painted that cheap.

 

[Deleted member 87397]

Maaco = crap most of the time. didn't someone on this board get their car painted ther a year or two ago and the whole thing cracked apart after some high speed driving?

 

[88lxconv]

i had a car painted by maaco about five years ago and it looked good for about three months then started to have cracking all over it.....i had it perfect before it went in they just had to spray it......... i would never suggest using them...... didn't look like they preped it before they sprayed the first coat or somthing????

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Maaco = crap most of the time. didn't someone on this board get their car painted ther a year or two ago and the whole thing cracked apart after some high speed driving?

My buddy's last Mustang had a Maaco paint job and it honestly looked really good. It came with the paint job when he got it. He owned it for about 6 months before one day at the car wash he literally power washed the paint off one of the doors..


Years ago his brother had a Javalin (badass car....full fiberglass tilt up front end, 460 with a C6 trany....it was nasty) and he took it to get it painted at Maaco. I can't even put into words how terrible this paint job was...seriously, i swear my 5 year old could've done better with spray cans and that's NO exageration. You could see bare metal through the paint where they did the body work and didn't primer it, some spots were solid color and some looked almost annodized like aluminum. There was orange peal anywhere that there was enough paint to orange peal, they painted over all the emblems and window trim and over sprayed the windows and wheels...it was absolute crap. That was probably the worst i've ever seen them do.

Then there's a guy up the road whos family owns the gas station on the corner. He has this huge Silverado that he had them paint. I don't know what he paid but it's black and it doesn't look bad from 10 feet but it's orange pealed and has runs all through it.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

oh I'm real sorry but I forgot to mention that it is their 1000 dollar paint job before prep. the reason we are getting it cheap is because we work at advance auto and we know someone there that can get us the dealer price. this is not their single stage crap paint. and I have also heard of people with 3000 dollar jobs from maaco that were amazing.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

I hear from a lot of people that it's not the people doing the paint work there, it's what they're MADE to do. I've heard stories like they're only allowed 1 sheet of sandpaper per car....stuff like that. I'm sure the guys doing the paint are capable of doing good work, they're just pressured and forced to do crap work because they expect them to get the cars done so fast.

 

[MAC'n89Blckstng]

You get what you pay for. the cheap paint jobs only get a quick scuff and shoot. If you prep the car yourself and just have them shoot it I dont see why you couldn't get a decent paint job. And also, some maaco's are good some are terrible. Its a chain, cant expect much for that.

 

[Juggalo95]

get what you pay for...I do autobody for a living and good paint cost more than that and as said some colors take more than 2 coats of color to "cover"...they should also always put sealer on if your doing a color change and on anything that has primer on it. I could go on and on but you get what you pay for.

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

Well, coats of paint is important. 3 coats did not cover my black notches metallic red color. It took four coats to cover it. So, if you go with Maaco, make sure they get the thing covered. 2 coats of clear is enough for wetsanding, but I ALWAYS lay 3 coats of clear. My notch got 3, my Lightning got 4, and all other Mustangs I have done have got 3. 3 leaves a ton of room for wetsanding. I would pay the extra money, for some sealer, paint and clear.

 

[gtcobra302]

I had a 92 5.0 LX that I had painted Bimini blue one time from maaco and I did all the prep work, sanding, body work, etc. It was base coat clear coat it only cost like $300, and afterward they baked it, and it looked great, I didn't even have to sand and buff it afterward. I was vury happy with it. Of course the the prep work will dictate the paint job in terms of results and longevity. If the guy doesn't doesn't wipe it down with wax and grease remover and then wipe it off with a tack rag in the booth of course you will have troubles later on down the road but a lot of places give a warrenty with their work. Just my two cents.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

they say they always spray sealer, and she said that sometimes it will take 2 coats sometimes 3, so they will lay color until its covered. and i asked how much for 3 clear coats and she said not much more for one more clear to be added. also, 94gtho was gonna throw the painter 100 dollars or so to make sure it gets done right. think that will help?

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

That sounds great. Get it sealer, get it covered with paint and get 3 coats of clear. That way, you can really wetsand the orange peel out the way you want it.

 

[1990Coupe]

Prepped the car myself.. the rest is 100% maaco 500 dollar paint job.. one stage, no wetstanding or anything..

never had a huge problem with macco.. Always did my own body work and prepping.. brought them a stripped car to paint (even taped some of the stuff i know they would eff up on)..

 

[Mustang928]

Prepped the car myself.. the rest is 100% maaco 500 dollar paint job.. one stage, no wetstanding or anything..

never had a huge problem with macco.. Always did my own body work and prepping.. brought them a stripped car to paint (even taped some of the stuff i know they would eff up on)..

That looks pretty damn good.... How long ago did you have it painted?

 

[Juggalo95]

No offense but the red stang with the single stage probably doesnt look so great paint wise in person. Single stage will fade a lot faster and if you attempt to rub it or buff it youll pull paint off since theres no seperate clear coat. One good thing about a good cheap single stage over a cheap base coat/ clear coat is with the single stage theres less material to sand off lol and makes good guide coat for blocking the wavy doors and shoddy body work.

I got a car in my garage getting ready for paint...there are no windows,trim,door handles,hatch,fenders,hood atteached right now....just a shell...thats how you properly prep a car for paint.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

well were not going for a show car here. its all oxidized and heat cracked. were just fixing it. making it presentable.

 

[dcurtis]

Prepped the car myself.. the rest is 100% maaco 500 dollar paint job.. one stage, no wetstanding or anything..

never had a huge problem with macco.. Always did my own body work and prepping.. brought them a stripped car to paint (even taped some of the stuff i know they would eff up on)..

Yours looks damn good