JDM EJ2

Well my car is going to Maaco on Sunday... I know its not the best but its what I can afford. I'm going to prep the car myself just so it gets a better job. Any one have any suggestions on what I should do myself. Here are the things I am going to do already:

Wet sand the car before paint because the paint is destroyed and I don't want them to paint over the terrible bumps in the paint so after Maaco I can wet sand again.

Scuff and prime the side skirts.

Tape off fog lights.

Circle all rust that needs to be fixed with a Sharpie.

Show where they need to fill the holes where the stock license plate bracket was and the holes where the side moldings were with a Sharpie.

Other than that I'm removing the carbon fiber hood and front lip and putting the stock rims on. Did I forget anything? Any input is appreciated. I'll have pictures up after paint.

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So yesterday, (5-4-07), I finally went to go pick up my car after waiting about 2 weeks. I got there and I saw the car and it wasn't finished the way I wanted it finished. The front bumper was shaved but for some reason, the guy at Maaco decided it would be a good idea to screw my license plate onto the freshly shaved front bumper. Also I wanted the ENTIRE front and rear bumper painted and to make sure that they did not leave the little strip on the bottom of each bumper black, but they did. Its extremely noticeable when you have a white Type R lip and a black bumper underneath hiding. I told the guy what was wrong and he gave me an attitude and I couldn't believe it because it was written right on the work order what I wanted done. Also I literally wrote on the car what needed to be painted and what didn't. Other than that the paint looked tight and I can't wait to get it Tuesday and get all my parts back on to it.

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Well I went to pick it up yesterday (5/8), and once again they decided to not paint the bottom of the bumpers, front and rear, so I said to hell with it I'll take it because I couldn't stand not having a car anymore. I figured the lips would cover the black so I really wasn't too worried. They fixed where they drilled into the bumper and it looks good. The guy ended up knocking off $100 for the second screw up... It ended up costing $1398.98 all said and done with. Overall I'm extremely happy with the way the car came out and honestly, I think it was worth the money... Tell me what you think.



















Modified by JDM EJ2 at 7:28 PM 5/9/2007


Modified by JDM EJ2 at 7:41 PM 5/9/2007

IGotNoSwap

sounds like a plan to me. what color are you going with?

usually when maaco sees a car that has been prepped outside of maacao, they usually tend to do a better job.

MilanoLude

If there's anything you dont want painted, make sure to let them know... or cover it up. Otherwise they may paint everything.

JDM EJ2

I'm just going to go for a stock coat of Taffeta White. I was going to go with a color change but once I realized I was going to Maaco I changed my mind. Back in another life my car was kitted out and the guy who painted it used an extreme white, almost transparent looking and it looks terrible. Aside from the white, there is so much rust from living in the Northeast, so hopefully it will look like another car once I get it back.

MilanoLude

I've also heard that if you tip the painter before he sprays your car, you might get a better than usual quality job.

JDM EJ2

Yeah when I bring it there I'm literally going to write the things I want done on the car with a Sharpie. I'm going to mark all the rust I want fixed, all the holes I want filled, and all the dings that need to be fixed. They're going to cut and weld and I'm a little bit nervous about that.

JDM EJ2

How much have you heard people tip them?

MilanoLude

50 bucks or so. A little something to let them know you trust them enough to do a good job that you're willing to tip them beforehand for their extra effort.

I know I would feel pretty dumb if I got tipped beforehand and did a crappy job. Hopefully your painter does too.

JDM EJ2

Seriously, I think thats a really good idea. I'll hook the guy up and hopefully he hooks me up because hell, if I got a $50 tip, I'd do a better job.

Genuine Rolla

cant wait to see how this comes out...!

Ohgodzirra

pull the rubber moldings if you can, its definetly worth it. Also, priming the skirts isn't really necessary, you can just scuff the skirt fairly well, the primer itself is going to have to be redone since its just going to lock in moisture and the odds of you using a primer that isn't just going to lift when paint is applied is fairly slim. Ask them to also paint the bumpers and skirts seperately otherwise you are going to get a river of paint in the cracks between the panels. Definetly don't have them wetsand it, they are horrible at that and usually use waaay to low of a grit. If you have an exhaust make sure to ask them to tape it up and it woudln't hurt throwing a new coat of paint over the radiator when its all done since you are going to have over spray everywhere. I'm not saying any of this to be a dick, I have a maaco job that is white on my eclipse and this is everything I did / wish I had done.

Phil DeVtec

Absolutely pull the rubber and weather stripping, they tend to spray them. Take off your taillights, headlights, door handles, and bring the car on steelies. You should be good to go after that.

burnitdown

i just bought a car with a maaco paint job, and they will paint EVERYTHING. rust, moldings, trim, windows, whatever, overspray all over the inside of the car. so if you don't want it painted, cover it or take it off. it also looks patchy/blotchy. not trying to deter you, just giving you a heads up

Ohgodzirra

oh another real good thing to do would be to pull out the handles and get a can of tafetta white (or whatever you decided) and paint them on your own, maaco is going to paint the locks and surrounds for the handles and itll look like ***, they also have a tendency to create runs below the bottom body line and dismiss it as "well its too low for anyone to see" so get ready for some serious 1500 - 3000 grit wet sanding

JDM EJ2

Yeah I'm ready for the overspray but basically everything is going to be white anyway because thats the way I want it... The side skirts are getting painted and so is the rear lip. Other than that everything is already white because the guy who painted it last time decided that it would be a good idea to paint EVERYTHING white. Its sad because I would rather have Maaco paint my car rather then the private guy who had a respectable paint shop do it. By the way its getting painted Taffeta White, nice and stock.

Danger

whatever you dont want paint on , REMOVE it ! seriously , i have never seen a car that was masked off right from macco .

IGotNoSwap

updates? when do you get the car back?

JDM EJ2

I just dropped it off so probably next week or so depending on how much rust needs to be fixed...

Genuine Rolla

did they give you a pick up date or..?

JDM EJ2

Nah, but really its not that big of a deal because this weekend Im going to Florida so I really dont need my car but to be honest, Id rather them take all the time in the world as opposed to rushing it and screwing the entire thing up...

JDM EJ2

Pick up date: Tuesday- Thursday next week

SIred91

In for relults

Im having my Rio Red crx painted at maaco in 2 weeks.......

pumpkyn

nice maybe getting my EK painted in a month

TurboCoop

It is a major company so if they dont do a good job just take it back and make em fix it. Get whatever you can in a written contract so if they finish and it looks like crap you can say fix it or were going to court... I think it just depends on which maaco it is cause the one around here seems to do a pretty good job, but Ive seen some terrible crap come out of there

Chekz

any updates??