If I bring my Duster to Macco for paint, will I be sorry? The body is in excellent condition. No rust and just a few dings. Most of the car has never been painted before. I went to several body shops and they all want 5,000. Macco is cheaper. I took everything off the car. Trim door handle, bumpers, all the lights, the grill..everything. I want a nice straight paint job. What do you guys think?
Will I be sorry?
- Thread starter TF360
- Start date
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TrailBeast
AKA Mopars4us on Youtube
Maybe, maybe not.
It's a crap shoot really, and it'll start having problems in a year or two. (Usually anyway)
Better than nothing though.
It's a crap shoot really, and it'll start having problems in a year or two. (Usually anyway)
Better than nothing though.
pntastar69
Well-Known Member
Dustert73
Stripping bolts since ‘10
Like Trailbeast said, I think it is a crap shoot. The maaco I went too was very professional and did a quality job for the cash I paid.
It's a crap shoot wherever you go.
We had many cars done at macco .. They took our cuda , replaced the quarters.. Fixed many things.. The car was rough.. They charged $5,800 for the whole car and it is as straight as an arrow.
R4Sedan
Larry
First off I wouldn't pay anybody $5000 for a paint job, that is just wack. My friend just had his DD painted at Macco and I think they did a real nice job.
charger426
Well-Known Member
Really depends on who's working at that time. I paid for a base-coat clear-coat on my 5th Ave about 5 years ago. It took them about 5 tries before I accepted delivery the first time they painted it. Over the last 5 years I had to take it back in to get the roof re-done then the trunk and as you move from front to back you can see their work improve. With that said it really does depend on the painter working at the shop your going to. Another thing to keep in mind is they make their money on doing a large volume of cars ok rather than a few very good. I wouldn't bring a car back to macco unless I was looking for a quick spray before selling a car IE something I didn't have to live with for the rest of my life with that car.
GEO
Sarcasm Inc.
I've had the best luck going back to the actual painter myself and giving them $50-200 tip directly to the one spraying
TrailBeast
AKA Mopars4us on Youtube
Quality paint, like PPG, can cost over $2,000 just for paint and primer. Add labor and supplies, and $5k for a paint job isn't that much at all, not for quality work.
Maaco buys paint by the 50 gallon drum. It's not quality stuff, and it won't last. As far as the quality of their work, it depends completely on the employees at the one you visit. Some people have had luck doing their own bodywork and prep and having Maaco spray the primer and paint. But I've also heard horror stories about guys getting cars back with tape lines and paint on their windshields, bumpers, trim, etc.
Realistically, even if they do decent bodywork and spray it out well, the paint they use is not going to look good for the long term. I've seen cars shot with PPG paints look GREAT even at the 20+ year mark. With Maaco I would be surprised if it still looks good in 5. My Challenger, which was painted by a previous owner, no doubt at Maaco or somewhere similar, looked pretty good when I bought it. Within 18 months the clearcoat was peeling off, and at the 7 year mark now there's pretty much no clearcoat on it at all, and some of the paint is gone too.
cmorrow
Well-Known Member
For my 2 Cents, I feel that if you take the car there, and prep the car yourself. That is that you sand everything, and then wet sand everything until it looks perfectly flat. If you have rust take care of it properly any bare spots or low spots get them filled. And if possible talk to the guy painting the car and tip him or buy pizza for the entire shop, as so he tries not to sag the car or have dry spray, and everyone else that touches your baby will be careful. The car should turn out pretty nice, keep it waxed and garaged I think it will last longer than one might think.
fratzog lover
Well-Known Member
Whats that age old saying...ah, you get what you pay for. Thats it. An $800 dollar paint job is gonna look like one.
adriver
Blazing Apostle
I think you have done most of the hard work already. (Bumpers off? I would have masked them). The rest of the work is in the body prep.
I'm guessing they are just going to shoot the car.
Buy the stuff and do it yourself if you can.
I'm guessing they are just going to shoot the car.
Buy the stuff and do it yourself if you can.
Serj22
Well-Known Member
You get what you pay for, but I have a personal experience for this one.
I took 2 cars to Earl Scheib. I paid $800 to get my 2004 Cr-v painted Viper Gt-S blue, and I had a coupon for them and everything. The manager was super nice, gave me all the warranty information. He scraped off all the vinyl from the previous owner, and every sticker on it, and he said they'd also do the door jambs for free, since I told him I didn't have enough money to paint them, and he said it would look silly to have red door jambs on a blue car - so he went ahead with it. They spent 5 days on my car, and painted it really nice. I picked it up on the 5th day and it was BEAUTIFUL! No orange peel, no overspray anywhere, and for the next two years i drove it after that I still never saw any overspray and it never peeled or faded.
He gave me info on how to take care of the paint, etc... and gave me a touch up pen he made with the color that was pretty close in case it ever got a rock chip.
Fast forward about 8 months, I take my wife's 2000 Volkswagon Beetle there that was a (used to be) apple green that was faded and peeling bad. I took it there because they did such a good job last time and I wanted to do something nice for her birthday.
Lo and behold the manager is no longer there. He got let go - new manager didn't say why. I had hoped the deal would be the same - no the car cost $950 to paint, wasn't even as big as my Cr-v, and they were just doing a midnight blue which looked like a stock VW color.
I got a call the next day and they said they were done - WOAH - ok, I went to pick it up, it looked ok, then I realized they did not paint behind the mirrors so they were still green behind, left a bunch of tape on the car, it was out drying in the sun, orange peel everywhere, overspray everywhere and you could see where the old paint had peeled beneath - I don't think they even bothered to sand the car... but it looked ok from 20 feet away so they figured they were done with it.
I'd say based on that it's hit or miss. The previous manager seemed to want to make stuff look nice, and maybe got fired for a low turnaround due to the amount of time spent on one car. I don't know.
Maybe you should take it to maaco, pay for the paint, drop the car off, then head into the paint shop with a crisp - fresh from the ATM $100 bill. Wave it in the air and say "who do I give this to to make sure that car gets painted perfectly?"
I took 2 cars to Earl Scheib. I paid $800 to get my 2004 Cr-v painted Viper Gt-S blue, and I had a coupon for them and everything. The manager was super nice, gave me all the warranty information. He scraped off all the vinyl from the previous owner, and every sticker on it, and he said they'd also do the door jambs for free, since I told him I didn't have enough money to paint them, and he said it would look silly to have red door jambs on a blue car - so he went ahead with it. They spent 5 days on my car, and painted it really nice. I picked it up on the 5th day and it was BEAUTIFUL! No orange peel, no overspray anywhere, and for the next two years i drove it after that I still never saw any overspray and it never peeled or faded.
He gave me info on how to take care of the paint, etc... and gave me a touch up pen he made with the color that was pretty close in case it ever got a rock chip.
Fast forward about 8 months, I take my wife's 2000 Volkswagon Beetle there that was a (used to be) apple green that was faded and peeling bad. I took it there because they did such a good job last time and I wanted to do something nice for her birthday.
Lo and behold the manager is no longer there. He got let go - new manager didn't say why. I had hoped the deal would be the same - no the car cost $950 to paint, wasn't even as big as my Cr-v, and they were just doing a midnight blue which looked like a stock VW color.
I got a call the next day and they said they were done - WOAH - ok, I went to pick it up, it looked ok, then I realized they did not paint behind the mirrors so they were still green behind, left a bunch of tape on the car, it was out drying in the sun, orange peel everywhere, overspray everywhere and you could see where the old paint had peeled beneath - I don't think they even bothered to sand the car... but it looked ok from 20 feet away so they figured they were done with it.
I'd say based on that it's hit or miss. The previous manager seemed to want to make stuff look nice, and maybe got fired for a low turnaround due to the amount of time spent on one car. I don't know.
Maybe you should take it to maaco, pay for the paint, drop the car off, then head into the paint shop with a crisp - fresh from the ATM $100 bill. Wave it in the air and say "who do I give this to to make sure that car gets painted perfectly?"
racerkilla
Well-Known Member
I know a few people local that had a roadrunner, charger, truck done at maaco and it is a pretty nice job. For the money I couldn't even buy the paint, primer and clear and it wasn't fleet colors. It was plum crazy, hemi orange and a factory blue. They had the prep work done, bumpers off, tail lights, side markers etc all off. If I didn't paint my cars in house I'd do maaco. Local Shop here wanted 3k to paint my camaro that didn't have a spot or rust or ounce of bondo in it.
Dustert73
Stripping bolts since ‘10
When they painted my duster it was sanded down and I removed pretty much everything other than body panels and glass. They did the body work on the roof also and did a pretty good job. But like everyone is saying it's probably hit or miss with the employes. I personally talked with the guy that painted my car and we talked for a good 40 min about cars, cool guy.
Yes.. It is true that it depends on the painter.. We bought our own paint so we know it is good .. From PPG and the painters and body men at our local one where we brought the cuda are perfectionist and do a great job
Treblig
Well-Known Member
I paid $2395 for their deluxe paint job which comes with a 5 year guarantee. Not only did they paint every single piece separately (hood, trunk, bumpers, grill, fender extensions, front and rear fender, etc, etc, etc) but the paint job was so beautiful I had to wear sun glasses just to get near the car. It's been three years and it still looks as good as the day I picked it up. Shiny as HELL!!! I built this car for my son to drive to school and I knew it would get dinged up in the parking lots and at the store where he works. For that reason I got the Macco paint job thinking I would get a super professional job in a few years. As it turns out....they did so good and they were so accommodating I bought a $25 gift certificate from Outback Steakhouse for the owner and the general manager to thank them for a job extremely well done. The last four pics were taken a week ago....It's still shiny as Hell with no paint issues!!!!
Yes...those are Saturn Vue electric mirrors, they just happened to have the exact same body contour where the mirror mounts.
Treblig
Yes...those are Saturn Vue electric mirrors, they just happened to have the exact same body contour where the mirror mounts.
Treblig
Macpherson
Member
Jumping in a bit late, but... If you can do the prep yourself, that's usually the weak link in the paint jobs from franchise shops, whether it be Macco or the Earl. Have everything sanded, trim removed, dents filled, etc., when you bring it in. Bring your own paint if you have special desires that they might not be able to match. But when it comes to the actual painting, those guys shoot more cars in a day than you'll do in a lifetime, so they've got the skill and the tools. And they need to get it right the first time because if they have to reshoot it, they lose money, so there's plenty of incentive to get it right, especially if they can see that it's a project car and not just someone's daily driver in need of a new look.
pishta
I know I'm right....
My pearl white LS400 had a fender get wrinkled and the bodyshop outsourced the paint to Maaco across the street. I could not tell the difference in paint from 2" away, same finish, color and shine from OEM Lexus on hood to Maaco painted fender. I got my car painted at 1 Day years ago. Looked good but had a run on the bottom edge that I didnt notice for weeks. didnt bother me as you cant see it and it was dirt cheap anyway. Surface prep is where you get what you pay for.
Depends on how many crack heads are on the pay role.
340wedge
Well-Known Member
- Joined
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The one thing to remember is Maaco body shops are independently owned. I had two cars done years ago by Maaco and was very satisfied. A new Maaco opened in a nearby town and they ruined my car. I went back to the Maaco I had been using and the owner told me "that new Maaco is killing my business because of his crappy work, we are all independently owned". My advice check on the individual shop.
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