Maaco paint job?

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SteveC124

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Wayne NJ
I have a 69 dart slant six that needs paint badly. I'm on a strict budget and don't know whats the best way to go with paint.
Should i just do all the work myself and spray it in my garage? I got a suitable compressor and sprayer, just never painted a whole car before.
Or possibly a cheap maaco paint job? (Anyone recently gotten one? If so post a pic or two)
Also the car has a vinyl roof with bubbling underneath it.
The paint job really only needs to look better than it is now and last me through high school atleast.
Lastly I'm 99% percent sure I want a different color. Right now it is a peachy orange color. Will get pics later probably. Thanks.
 
I tried the first route... learned quickly that there is an art to painting a whole car, and I don't have the talent. In fact I still have a rotator cuff problem from sanding all that crap over and over again.

The prep & body work is the most expensive and time-consuming part, so do as much of that as you can. For a good paint job all the glass, trim and locks/handles have to come off. Get all the rust, dings and waves out of the panels. THEN go to a shop to have it sprayed by someone who has the technique. (Also, if you do it in the garage it's hard to get it clean enough that there won't be bugs and dirt somewhere, usually in the most visible spots too. And paint is not cheap - if you're going basecoat/clearcoat, get the best clear you can afford, probably about $400 for a gallon).

I did all the disassembly/reassembly on my Dart, and roughed in the filler and dent repair. Then took the trunk lid, hood and doors to a small body shop and they made them smooth and shot the paint. Finally I had the shell towed over for the same treatment. It's not absolutely perfect but it's a good three-footer ;) Total investment about $3,000.

If I'd just driven the car over and had them do ALL the work, probably would have cost more than $10k...
Edited to add: I saw that you're on a limited budget and still in high school. But I don't think you'd be happy with the "Paint Any Car for $399" chain store special. It'd look decent, but for how long? I bought Shopline base coat, and good clear coat as mentioned, so the materials alone cost more than that. Might be better to save your money until you can do it right the first time. Just a thought.
 
The vinyl top no doubt has rust under that and needs work. Lots of prep work to get a decent job. The end result will be only as good as your prep. You can do a decent job IF you mask everything off arefully with the correct 3m tape. The big time expensive shops will pull everything off, YOU are not trying for a $100,000 resto job!
You an do a decent job without the highest costs materials, YOU said you need something to get you past HS and into the world right. I would suggest a second line of ppg etc in acrylic urethane single sate. It will not tend to have the shine of bc/ but will be plenty durable and yes you can wet sand/buff it if you apply enough materials. Decent epoxy primer from PPG or Southern Urethanes.
You can do decent work with a $45 gravity gun with some practice. Be aware you need a compressor that will keep constant pressure and water/oil trap. Be careful with these materials they can klll you.
There are lots of threads on the body site here on how to do body/paint work.
 
My insurance body shop used Maaco across the street as the painter and the repaired hood/fender they shot looked like glass. Color matched the 25 year old pearl white and all. I would recommend MY Maaco, your results may vary. My "step above Earl Scheib" One-Day paint and body job was cheap and is very thin, shot right over the old paint, but did I mention it was cheap?
 
Had my son's '46 Chevy coupe painted by Macco. I got the Supreme (Deluxe) paint job and they did an excellent job. I was extremely happy and 8 years later I'm still thrilled!! They didn't mind painting the hood, fenders, trunk lid, etc, etc etc separately.
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The painters at Maaco are very good they spray all day every day. Do as absolutely
as much body and prep yourself as this is where the money goes.
 
Had my son's '46 Chevy coupe painted by Macco. I got the Supreme (Deluxe) paint job and they did an excellent job. I was extremely happy and 8 years later I'm still thrilled!! They didn't mind painting the hood, fenders, trunk lid, etc, etc etc separately.

That looks nice... did they do anything but mask and spray? What kind of paint... how much did they charge?
 
That looks nice... did they do anything but mask and spray? What kind of paint... how much did they charge?
8 years ago.........having trouble remembering what they charged me....it was either $1295 or $2395 for the top of the line paint job (Deluxe or Supreme). It's well worth the money, still don't believe it...everyone else wanted 4-6 grand. Base coat clear coat. They finished the body work on the roof (had hail damage) and finish body work in about 6-7 other areas. No rust repair, just dents and blending. But the best part is that they had no problem spraying many, many (25) separate parts as part of the deal. I assembled it myself because they wouldn't have known how. The paint job came out EXCELLENT. My son has had a thousand complements on the paint. When he tells people it was Macco their jaws drop.
 
The painters at Maaco are very good they spray all day every day. Do as absolutely
as much body and prep yourself as this is where the money goes.

I did my brother in laws car. Make sure it's all prepped and completely sanded. Wait for a special for a low price. Car car out great. I painted my cars in my garage but as said you better be able to spray,sand,and buff.

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does your school have an automotive body shop you could take? use their equipment and learn as you go.

That would be a better alternative
That would be a miracle! They're taking the stuff out of schools as fast as they can and adding computers... They just rebuilt my old high school and the auto shop and metal shop are long gone now...
Actually they were put long out of commission before they even started Construction...
in a couple years I would like to get my car done as well and I'm interested to see more of these reasonable cost paint jobs...:thumbsup:..
The last thing I want is to have my car caught in a three-year $10, 000 paint job purgatory...
 
I ended up having an acquaintance that owns a bodyshop shoot my Barracuda for 1200 including paint. I was happy...
 
Its ashame that our society doesn’t encourage hands on vocations anymore.. no wonder jobs go over seas ! Most guys dont know the difference between a tire and a piston anymore .
 
Body and resto shops will first punch you in the gut then kick you in the balls and then take all your money. They will take all the wind out of your sails on your body
work project, take short cuts and leave you bleeding. DO AS MUCH YOURSELF AS YOU CAN, But would stop short of investing in expensive spray equiptment, Maaco has that already and experienced painters.
 
Honestly my plan a right now is one of these Falls to completely disassemble my car down to the last Nut and Bolt. Leave the rear axle and and the lower front suspension on just enough to make it a roller.. I wanted to get as much body work as I could myself and if I needed any professional stuff see what I could do to bring it in on a one or two-day basis... At that point either have a Maaco paint job on it or ask to rent somebody's booth and equipment and do it myself..
I'm far too full of horror stories to let my car get out of my hands for more than a couple days.. I have a car trailer and would be more than happy to get it at the end of the day and have it there before the day started and do all the work rolling it on and off the trailer..
 
I have a 69 dart slant six that needs paint badly. I'm on a strict budget and don't know whats the best way to go with paint.
Should i just do all the work myself and spray it in my garage? I got a suitable compressor and sprayer, just never painted a whole car before.
Or possibly a cheap maaco paint job? (Anyone recently gotten one? If so post a pic or two)
Also the car has a vinyl roof with bubbling underneath it.
The paint job really only needs to look better than it is now and last me through high school atleast.
Lastly I'm 99% percent sure I want a different color. Right now it is a peachy orange color. Will get pics later probably. Thanks.
Check with your local VoTech school for your body and paint.
A gent I know had his 65 GTO done by the VoTech and it looked really good. All it cost him was materials and 6 months.
 
Its ashame that our society doesn’t encourage hands on vocations anymore.. no wonder jobs go over seas ! Most guys dont know the difference between a tire and a piston anymore .
There's a few on here. LOL
 
Check with your local VoTech school for your body and paint.
A gent I know had his 65 GTO done by the VoTech and it looked really good. All it cost him was materials and 6 months.
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I'm helping a customer with a 65 GTO right now and I appreciate the tip cuz after we get these panels back on it's going to need some professional body work LOL..
 
One good thing about Macco is that they're on a tight schedule and absolutely will not hang on to your car for an extended period of time like paint shops typically do. My son's car was done in 2 1/2 weeks. They have a gang of guys to do body work, sand, paint, finish etc. Your car gets in line and they don't stop working on it til it's done!!!
 
Old Mentor body guy once told me about
Body/ paint.
"If you (owner) can live with the end result,
Thats all that matters."

I usually tell people that want to paint their own car, get a good bodyman( not me anymore lol) to prep/block
To final primer first.
Then give it a gallant effort.

Putting shiny paint over sand scratches and feather edges/ imperfections, doesn't make them disappear......
 
I was at a car show this past year and saw a nice looking 67 Camaro that had body panels and rust repaired, then painted. All done for little more than materials at a junior college. Check the JUCOs and VOTECH schools around you.
 
That would be a miracle! They're taking the stuff out of schools as fast as they can and adding computers... They just rebuilt my old high school and the auto shop and metal shop are long gone now...
Actually they were put long out of commission before they even started Construction...
in a couple years I would like to get my car done as well and I'm interested to see more of these reasonable cost paint jobs...:thumbsup:..
The last thing I want is to have my car caught in a three-year $10, 000 paint job purgatory...
I forget they are doing that at the schools...our community college has an auto body class but the car has to driven in and out the same day. at least they have/had it 30+ years ago...
 
The guys with lots of $$ will pay a shop to do the body/paint. Seldom will it be an insurance shop. The rest of us better learn to do it.
Many things we learn by doing. Sometimes when doing, some figure out it ain't fort them, no way! Bodywork is hard dirty work.
 
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