My roof likes like somebody did the irish jig on it, and my door is smashed up a bit. I've got a body guy who does really good work for a really good price.. but his price for my car, including putting on a new door or skin, and a new roof, and a full car repaint, is 3000. I mean.. I could probably talk him down a few hundo, but do you think macco will do good body work and use quality oem paint or what?

 

well depending on what car you have you can probably find a door at a junkyard for less than 100 bucks easy. for the roof unless the dents also have wrinkles you can probably pull/pop the dents out


as for the price....3K it better be a damn near show quality job.....I would personally stay away from maaco....too many horror stories from them out here in CA......earl schieb is a little better and I've heard lots of decent things about 1 day paint/body shops. personally I say go to a cheaper chain like any mentioned so far(or something comparable) and get their top of the line paint/body work package for around a grand(for an extra hundred or so ES is now offering wetsanding after they paint your car), and put the other 2K you would've spent @ the other place in the bank, or whatever

 

I'm in need of a paint job too. I don't have much money so this seems like my only option. I was thinking of doing the prep work myself but it's too damn cold.

 

No dude you dont understand.. it looked like a gang of hookers did the irish jig on my roof.. it's BAD. The guy said the old roof will have to be removed and a new one put on. I mean, the dents aren't deep, there are just half a million or so of them. And he said if you use bondo on the roof it will probably all crack off.

The 3k$ covers a 1200$ job of putting the new roof on, and also installing the new door or skin.

 

hes right, the roof is pretty much the last place you want to do bodywork, its very flimsy and bends and bows with the slightest of pressure. a new roof is a way better idea if your wanting this to look good.

3k dollars is what paint jobs START at in our paint shop, yes you get back show quality perfect paint work that will last you your entire life, because thats what we do. People come in asking to pay 1k dollars for a paint job and we have to turn them away cause they are looking for low quality cheap paint work. in the paint industry you get what you pay for. quality materials cost alot of money, shitty materials dont. You need to think about if your keeping this car forever or your gonna sell it in a year. Maaco, earl sheib use very cheap materials, think about it. They are about QUANTITY,not quality. Most of them shoot super cheap single stage paint and thats it, they offer there clearcoat package or whatever but its still crap *** clearcoat. 90 % of the time they prep ONLY with a scotch brite on your already jacked up looking paint and dont remove a damn thing so overspray, lack of prep around vital pieces and edges is a big issue, and paint longevity is not going to happen. I just cant stress enough that when it comes to QUALITY work you get what you pay for, its takes us well over a week to paint the outside of a car, everything comes off everything gets prepped two times, everything that can be spray seperately is , than everything gets reinstalled. Getting a car one day, and then finishing a car the next day with a full paintjob is just absolutely obsurred and unrealistic to me. Unless of course all the bodywork is done, everything is taken apart and everything is already prepped. than it might be feasible.





although im sure you think its a good thing that they wetsand and buff your car, have you ever thought of just paying the loot for a quality paint job that doesnt need to have the entire thing wetsanded and buffed. You do know that when wetsanding all your doing is taking off clearcoat right ? thats the last thing i want to do is to remove the material that protects my car that ive paid for. When you can lay the material down nice enough that you dont need to wetsand and buff the entire car because its already mostly perfectly flat, dirt and defect free, thats quality. We of course have to spot sand and buff because of a defect, but rarely do we ever sand and buff an entire car, its just not needed.

if you ever go look at a car that was sprayed at maaco or earl sheib youll see just mass amounts of dirt, peel runs etc. and they just give that **** back to you and then expect you to pay for them to make it look better. thats kinda ridiculous if you ask me. But thats just my opinion, I have a different aspect of quality.

 

I got a question. What if you where to take it too Maaco and have them paint it and then right after take it to a regular shop and have them throw clear coat on it would that help maintain the paint? Is that even a good idead?

 

Huh.. thanks for that explanation brother.

This is my daily driver, just my gas-mileage car.. but I want it to look good. I just want it to look like a nice, clean Si and thats all. I'm hoping to keep it for many years.

 

i personally dont think that would be a good idea at all, first off **** ball basecoat underneath good clear is still **** ball basecoat. I highly doubt a reputable shop would even touch a car that was just painted at maaco without stripping it all off, we damn sure wont. And the prep is what is the most important in the first place, good quality beatiful clearcoat will still start to seperate if the basecoat underneath starts to seperate because of poor prep. Metal, plastic, and all materials heat up and cool down, shrink and expand, if you have a crap prep surface for your primer,sealer, basecoat to grab onto than your top coat doesnt matter, it will start to seperate and peel.


The best idea if you absolutely have to take it to maaco or earl sheib is to dissasemble everything and prep it all yourself, prep the living crap out of it so you know your material is going to stick. Granted even if you do that you still have to live with the fact that your probably going to be getting the cheapest crappiest material available being sprayed on your car. But if your not looking for a show quality paint job than that is your best option as far as longevity of the paint, again youll have to worry about paint fade, and clearfade if they are using cheap materials because they most likely do not contain any sort of u.v protective additives. The stuff we use at our shop is one of 3 on the market that does have u.v protection and its guaranteed forever against any fading, yellowing, cracking or peeling, Dupont will pay us to fix it if anything happens, that right there is piece of mind for what your paying for as the customer. Again I will say this, you get what you pay for. end of story.

 

Ya I think I might pony up the cash for the reputable shop I've been using, and maybe try to talk him down a bit. I dont wanna spend a ton on this, but I'm tired of driving a busted *** car lol.

 

dude might as well go for the rostoleum $50 paint job...

 

Macco is bottom end of automotive painting industry you may save ur self a few buck but ull be back in the shop within a few years paying someone twice as much to fix the paint job u cheaped off on the first time. Ud be better off taking it to a smaller shop wher u can negotiate wat you want and a price. Since the smaller shop are competing with these large chain theyll usually go the extra mile to work with you and ur budget.

 

^good advice. Thank you. I'm gonna do just that and go to my local I usually go with for body work.

 

even with macco you get what you pay for. my bro had his car painted there and they did a fantastic job. it also costed around 2500$ dollars and that was like 12yrs ago

 

damn 2500$? His paint is still good 12 years later though?

 

like someone els had said you get what you pay for i got a macco job 2 yrs ago and got luck actually came out mint with very little orange peel lol...cant expect it to be perfect. i suggest taking the lights out and taping anything you dont want over spray on like the muffler. also steelies isnt a bad idear.

 

I think I'm just gonna stick w/ my primary guy.. he does a good job, and I know that it will last.

 

actually the car was sold years ago,but i see it once in a blue moon but the paint still looks good.

 

Nice nice.

My personal dude was gonna fix some body damage AND paint the car for $3k.. and I know he does good work.

 

If youre gonna keep the car awhile its worth it to get it done right. If its too much money than I wouldnt worry about it.

 

ya thats what i'm saying.. i plan to have it around for a long time.. so i might as well do it right.

 

Omg! I've got an appointment with Maaco for this coming Monday (Oct 8) and really asked a lot of questions and was open about my concern about the paint job...they aren't going to paint the whole truck, just blend the paint over the body work that is needed on the passenger side and the tail gate. I was quoted a bit under $2000.00. The other body shops were all just under 4K and would pull off the truck bed to repair the side and replace flare that was damaged instead of fixing the damaged one that Maaco says they can do.
Now, after reading all your comments I know I'm going to lose sleep tonight, but I have two days to back out of my Maaco appointment. I have a 2003 S-10 Xtreme with only 22K miles on it...I want to keep it for a long time. what to do? arrgh

 

I bought a car off of someone who just had the front end painted at Maaco, I would have never known if he hadnt told me because it looked that good.
Still looks amazing a few years later

 

Good input then horror stories.....how about Maaco's body work? OK? Then I could take it elsewhere for the paint to be done....??

addendum: decided against gambling with my truck and cancelled with Maaco. I'll just have to bite the bullet and take it to a reputable auto body shop...sure wish I still lived near Baja....

 

nice i might go