emooheo

Im looking into getting my beater car painted. Obviously it will not look perfect since its maaco but I want to do all I can to make it look the best it can. Please answer the following questions. Thanks in advance!

1) I am possibly planning to sand the car myself, what grit would you recommend?

2) Is it worth it to sand myself?

3) How far should i sand down, to the primer or just to remove the gloss?

4) The roof has the clearcoat peeling, should i sand down to the primer?

5) The car itself is black, but the doors are silver and the trunk lid is white. The car will be repainted black. Do i need to/should I do anything special to the doors or trunk since they are different colors?

cheers!

gorillafart

iTrader: (1)

1) if u have no body work.. scotchbrite the the whole car, or use a DA with 600 grit
2) very worth it if you know what you're doing
3)just remove the gloss. theres really no way of sanding perfectly down to primer
4)sand the clearcoat as you would the rest of the car... featheredge till u cant feel the lines of where its peeling
5) i think since you're respraying it black, for the most part black will cover any color, soo u wouldnt have to worry too much about having them use sealer. and theres not much to do to the doors/trunk other then sand/scuff them. and maaco will probably charge you extra for the door jambs tho (inside of the door)

if this has helped any, please email me a cookie. thanks

-g.fart

emooheo

thanks! any more suggestions/help?

914b16

im gonna be prepping my car also for a maaco job!

rxbahamut

I would follow what gorillafart says. If you do not have much body work experience then scotchbrite the whole car, they are fairly cheap for a pack. Go with the red pads I don't know the item number but you can check out autobodydepot.com they have great prices also eastwood. While you are at it try to fix any dents, they might charge extra to get them out. They will charge extra to do the door jambs so try to find out how much they will charge extra.

tempban

your gonna prep your car for a shity maaco spray job

Matt93eg

You know, I really hate stupid comments like yours. Each Maaco is independently owned and operated. Some do better jobs than others, some Maacos do a great job, while yes others do a very sub-par job. But people like you seem to see "one" maaco paint job that doesn't look good and then put it in your head that all maaco's suck as well as trying to fill everyone elses head with that BS.

No, Maaco is not a 2500$ paint job but for some people(me included) that's not necessary nor an option. Why would I spend 2500$ on a paint job for my DD 93 EJ1??? The car alone probably isn't worth but maybe $1500. Plus I go to wal-mart, which means its inevitable that you will get a door ding. Most people get "hung up" on orange peel. "Maaco jobs give you orange peel" I went to a dealership not long ago and looked at "brand new" cars..and they even had peel. Start looking at new cars while your stuck in traffic. You'll see.

Check out the Official Maaco paint job thread would you.

http://www.ht-archive.com/showthread.php?t=1563066

tempban

they use the same shitty material it dosent mater who sprays it

Matt93eg

I don't have any argument back to you about there materials. I don't know what they use for paint, etc. What I will argue is that "some" Maaco's you can get a very nice paint job for the money. Is it going to be "show car quality"..most likely not. But if your a person looking for that then you will be the guy that spends $2500..and even then if the guy doing the work doesn't really care it won't come out worth a damn either.

For those of us that do our own prep and spot the painter some extra "side cash" I have seen very nice paint jobs as a result that last quite a number of years. If it only lasts 3-5yrs so be it, by then I will be ready to drop another $600 to freshen it back up again. The Maaco 20 mins from me that I use does good work if you talk to the Painter and slip him a little side cash not the mention the owner is there everyday and is a super nice guy and knows his ****.

One other thing I will mention is I don't know how many countless times I have heard people say that when Maaco takes out a big dent they don't weld studs, they just put a thick layer of filler down, sand it smooth and paint. I had a pretty nice big dent in my drivers 1/4 panel. I had them fix that. It came out looking great, they didn't take away the natural line of the car either and I know for a fact they welded studs in and pulled it out because I took my interior 1/4 panel cover off and saw about 8 welds marks where studs had been welded in. I know that might not be the case at all Maacos but it is in mine.

Good Day.

.Manny.

iTrader: (1)

are you going to do the masking yourself too? Find out who is painting your car and tip the guy

DynastyRacer22

macco can do a pretty nice job if you prep it really well. i laughed at the walmart statement but its so true i work at a retail store and man i get alot dents and dings every other day usually i look for a curb and park really close to it to avoid customers hitting my car with there doors

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

1) I am possibly planning to sand the car myself, what grit would you recommend?

Overall sanding, wet sand with 400 grit the whole car, then spray a sealer, let it dry for 24 hours, then dry sand with 400 grit, just scuff it, no need to sand it down

2) Is it worth it to sand myself?

if you have no experience, let maaco handle the prep

3) How far should i sand down, to the primer or just to remove the gloss?

do not go through the clear, you just want to scuff the existing clear, clear is the best barrier you can have vs imperfections in previous work

4) The roof has the clearcoat peeling, should i sand down to the primer?

you dont have to sand to the primer, but you need to sand those rough edges out where the clear is peeling

5) The car itself is black, but the doors are silver and the trunk lid is white. The car will be repainted black. Do i need to/should I do anything special to the doors or trunk since they are different colors?

same concept applys, wetsand with 400 if the clear is good, do not go through the clear, spray a sealer, otherwise, let maaco handle the cut in work for the color match.

scottdh20

if you dont care to much about it i would spray your jams, underside of trucnk lid and under door panels with black spray paint, and clear coat....same prep applies as before.

i find the largest complaints and see is there poor masking job. i plan on macco myself. but i do suggest going to walmart or an auto part store and picking up either the blue or green masking tape. tape all the trim and around the windows and things....no need to completely tape off your windows...lol they can do that, but you can do a better job and take your time to tape every thing off to avoid overspray


p.s. personally i would at least rattle can primer (black primer) your trunk and doors to make sure the color matches better(if your not having them prime the whole car)
good luck

Luis.

Yes, if you mask/sand, they'll do a decent job.

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

please dont rattle can your car after paying for automotive paint, do yourself a favor and pay the money to have maaco do the cut in work

scottdh20

simply stating if he is going to go for the like $150 dollar deal they do a crappy very quick tape off and then paint...no primer, no sanding, no nothing.....this can turn out ok if he does a little work (i.e. primer, sanding). if he wants to pay 1000+ bucks macco will do a great job tapeing, sanding, primering, painting, and clearcoat. but people dont associate maaco with there good paint jobs they associate them with there $150 presidential paint special....which includes 0 prep and barley tape.

i have rattle canned primered cars before...again with proper prep they come out great...paint on the otherhand is best left for a spray gun. you can get the 1000+ dollar paint job for $150 + $50 for primer, sand paper, tape, and a day of hard work.

Matt93eg

Spawne32, Nice to see another person that has some faith in Maaco.

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

has nothing to do with faith, maaco is a franchise business, the quality depends on which shop you go to and whether or not they take pride in their business. Their paints that they use are fine, their prep work is fine. People just don't know what their talking about and they like to act like they do.

Matt93eg

Your correct, faith really has nothing to do with it. That word popped back into my mind because I had my car painted by my local Maaco a month ago and after reading all the hate posts about Maaco I knew they would do a good job if the guys cared..the painter and owner seemed top notch but I still remembering thinking to myself after I dropped my car off that "I had faith in them" to do me right. Felt like I was taking a gamble, it was my first experience with Maaco. Next time I go in there I know without a doubt it will be good as long as Tom is still running it, he hires people that care about what they do. I paid $674 and couldn't be happier.

BigDaddy

Thumbs up on the Maaco....MONEY IS MONEY!! I just bought a DelSol for 2400 bucks, it's three different shades of red. I am NOT dropping two grand on a $2400 car. I figure a Maaco paint job with one color is still waaay better than three shades of red that's on it now... GOOD LUCK!! and post up pics!

SVOHK

I have a question.
What about those "ready to paint" aftermarket exterior parts.(example.fake si front end from jdmcarboy)
Do those parts need prep work if your planning on painting them?

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

if they are plastic you need to use an adhesion promoter before spraying the basecoat, that would be bulldog, you can get that in a spray can at your local parts store, if they are metal parts like fenders, hood, ready to paint means that they are primered already, if it means that much to you, you can just primer right over them with whatever primer your gona spray, sealer, or whatever. Just scuff them with a scotch pad first.

SVOHK

Alright, thanks for the info Spawne.