I'll be picking up my new 2006 Civic Hybrid in a couple of weeks, and I'd like to have it repainted in a different color sometime in the near future. Yes, I know it'll cost a few thousand. Yes, I know it'll lower the value of the car. Yes, I know they won't paint everything. That's fine. Yes, I know it might be wisest to at least wait until some idiot inevitably bumps into me before painting the car, and indeed I might do that.

Now then, is there any particular body shop in the southern California area you guys can recommend to do this? And can it be done without disassembling the car? I don't need the engine bay, door jambs, wheel wells, etc. to be painted, just the main exterior. I wouldn't want anything done that requires the car to be stripped since it's new and that would be time-consuming in any case.

Any help would be appreciated. If you're curious, I'm hoping to have it painted VW Gecko Green, a pale green you may have seem some New Beetles in.

 

Maaco?

 

maaco for cheap paint.

if you want high quality paint where they take apart your car and paint everything, look into mob works.

 

What exactly is "cheap paint"? Does it not last long or something? Does anyone have pictures of cars painted by Maaco or a similar place?

 

expect to spend at least 5k for a decent paint job.

macco is **** in general (exceptions to a few places), but it's either a mediocre job or massive orange peel.

 

Though I know we have seen some members on this board come back from Maaco with a "decent" paint job. But if your are looking for a long term paint, avoid Maaco or any other "discount" paint job.

 

OK but then that leaves me totally clueless as to where to go. There are hundreds if not thousands of generic body shops around So-Cal; does anyone have experience with any of them, even just having a damaged area repainted, that can attest to the paint quality?

By the way, Maaco's website describes several paint quality levels they can do. The cheapest is just enamel, the most expensive is a basecoat, clearcoat, and urethane. When you describe crappy paint jobs Maaco has done, were those the base/clearcoat ones or the cheaper ones?

 

how good of a paint job do you want, i know several places. well known too.

autowerks in elmonte which does all the tein cars with widebody and the blue illmatic c class sedan which is now black. the tein cars they have done is the xB and what not. right now in progress is the civic si. i see it widebody. their work is superb.

m1autobody. theyre coverage is widely known and work is very good as well.

 

Thanks for the reply, chart. m1autobody looks promising so maybe I'll try them.