I need to paint my crx. Can I just take it to maaco? Anyone know how much it costs to get a full paint job? I dont really care about quality I just want my peices to match (red front si bumper, silver rear, primered fenders), and I suck at painting.

 

the paint will last a month, trust me dont go their, any reptuable body shop will do it and it will last

 

yea, maco sucks big time!!!! they just tape off all the weather stripping and tail lights ext. you will end up with a painted radiator and overspray on everything. I say no.

 

maaco really really really......sucks. But i know they run occasional speicials for like $200- $300. but i mean, the paint looks like absolute ****. Zero prep work (and i mean they dont even wash cars). The one around here has been known to paint leaves and other crap into truck beds. I say black primer until you can afford at least a mediocre paint job.

 

Out here the cheap places are Miracle and Maaco. Ive had 3 miracle jobs done on a previous car because of accidents (only one was my fault lol) and my buddy has a maaco job. My miracle jobs were really good if i prepped it myself and used dupont two part primer. Though clear coat would go in about 18-24 months if not covered. And at only 350 it wasnt bad. Maaco is about the same here. Just sand it down right and prime it properly now. Then when it comes time to paint touch up ur prime job and have them check it out and ur good to go.
just my 2 cents.

 

For all the people bad mouthing Maaco, just wondering how many of you actually had there car painted there ? As far as them painting the grill and the radiator, thats not true, they will tape of things that you ask them to tape off. About the paint lasting a month, thats not true at all. I have had my car painted by macco, its been about 3 years since and the paint still looks brand new, and over here in Chicago we have some of the worst weather during winter. You do need do some prep work, or have Maaco do it for you. They will tell you what all needs to be done before the paint. Here is my car with the maaco paint job.

 

Maaco isn't very reputable because of their shotty prepping and priming work. That's what makes the paint stick to the car, it's tidious and sooooooooooo crappy to do but so important. DIY and get them to spray, and you're honestly set!

here in Edmonton, guy had done up an isuzu imark [obviously custom everything - body kit, homebrewed turbo] -did his own prepping and priming and Maaco spray job, the 2nd highest you can get [canadian prices, it will range from 300 and up...the top end one would be a quote] so i think he ended up paying 750CDN(??) for the spray and he actually won best radical sport compact car in one of the shows back in spring.

there is another guy here that painted his beretta this weird lime green, prepped and primed by himself, sprayed at maaco as well - he had it done i believe 3-4 summers ago, drives it through our nasty winters and i still see it around, paint job is still intact

i honestly was going to go with maaco myself because the imark and a fellow of 25 years body work experience convinced me that it's not in the paint...and to go to certain maaco in the city...but my friend got his jetta sprayed at another shop and i was sold when i saw his car, they had to match his wheels and it was bang on. my car is still in primer...still....

hope that helps

 

yeah be really descriptive on what needs to be taped off, cause they've used that oh i didnt know that excuse before. and have ur car color sanded when the paint has finally hardened down.

 

oh really?
well, good info

i was told that to leave it to them for taping off the car instead of DIY 'cause they're gonna rip it off and do it themselves anyway

 

they didnt take off my tape. but my car had everything take out. no head lights, windows, etc. used plastic sheets and 3m removeable tape ( the blue kind )

 

i love it when topic like this come up....the typical h-t's "i talk **** even tho. i never experience 'em before" people speaks. cracks me up.



Does this look fine to you? $350 ($299 special plus 50 bucks extra for the clear coat).

The maaco by my house is very good. The only problem I have w/ 'em is that I would sand the whole car down myself because they only "lightly" sand the paint down...

Also, my crx's are my daily driver. They go through harsh NJ/NY roads so w/ this $350 paint..I don't feel bad when somebody scratch it. Even if it last me 2 years (mine's been on for over 1 1/2 now). it's still worth it.

Jeff-

 

When i was 16, my mom bought me my first car. An '87 Civic sedan that was primered. I got it painted at Maaco for a little over $300. I had it painted the stock Maroon color so i didnt have to do the door jams or engine bay. There were two minor runs , one underneath the turn signal and another near the tailight, other than that the paint job turned out nicely. It held its shine for the 3 years i had it and probably longer . The overspray was minor also. A little on the side windows but nothing to complain about. I think it was definitely worth the money. This was about 5 years ago, but if i needed a quick, easy paint job for cheap i'd definitely go back.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JustJeff &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Does this look fine to you? $350 ($299 special plus 50 bucks extra for the clear coat).

The maaco by my house is very good. The only problem I have w/ 'em is that I would sand the whole car down myself because they only "lightly" sand the paint down...
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nice rex what colour is that?
did you just prep and let them do the priming as well?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jockette &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

nice rex what colour is that?
did you just prep and let them do the priming as well?</TD></TR></TABLE>

actually..they prepped this one...it's viper grey i think.

i prepped the EG which my gf drives now. i'll post up pics later.

Jeff-

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JustJeff &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

actually..they prepped this one...it's viper grey i think.

i prepped the EG which my gf drives now. i'll post up pics later.

Jeff-</TD></TR></TABLE>

oh really? how long ago did you get it painted? must be really well managed maaco. actually, i'm interested in see more pictures of this car, colour looks awesome. i'll pm you

 

do a search in the appearance forum and hundreds of pics will come up. I just finished getting rid of all my rust and adding all my body pieces and my car is multi color and I still dont know if Im going to let them primer or not.

Still the 400(cdn) comes with a warranty and as long as you stay away from the low end ones where they mix the paint and clearcoat then your fine. Just pay the extra 75 bucks for the seperate clear and itll turn out amazing. I cant wait to see what mine will look like

 

ok well i have never had them paint my car before, but my friend got a macco paint job on his 93 Si and it lasted a month before it started cracking and peeling, i'm from michigan and we have just as bad **** weather that you do in Chi Town
edit: thinking about it i dont think he preped his car at all, thats probally why... oh well he's a dumbass for not leting me paint it anyway

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JustJeff &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i love it when topic like this come up....the typical h-t's "i talk **** even tho. i never experience 'em before" people speaks. cracks me up.



Does this look fine to you? $350 ($299 special plus 50 bucks extra for the clear coat).

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does it look ok? its a pic of your carbon fiber hood . lets look down the sides and across the roof .. lets see a pic of the paintjob and not the hood. im not sayin its not a good paint job but lets atleast see it.

 

yeah but what you can see of the paint it looks alright. It also looks cold when you took that picture.

 

[/QUOTE]
Damn bro they painted your windows too! Curse that overspray. J/K

 

not a honda but...

so far it has held up for 2 years he did all the prepwork himself and the paint is nice and glossy

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NitrousDreamz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

does it look ok? its a pic of your carbon fiber hood . lets look down the sides and across the roof .. lets see a pic of the paintjob and not the hood. im not sayin its not a good paint job but lets atleast see it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Unfortunately, I sold to car to a buddy of mine (dflipmode on H-T) and can no longer take pics for the car since he moved away. I can tell you however, it did a pretty decent job considering I paid so little money for it. But from experience, I would strongly suggest that you do the prep work (atleast sand the car down yourself) and have 'em paint another layer of clear coat (so they dont' use some cheap paint and mix paint w/ clear coat). It will last you quite some time.

Jeff-

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LudeEFv2.0 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea, maco sucks big time!!!! they just tape off all the weather stripping and tail lights ext. you will end up with a painted radiator and overspray on everything. I say no.</TD></TR></TABLE>


yeah i bought my rex and someone did that to the car and it made it more work for me to make the car right and spray the car with house of kolor kandy

don't do it man save that paint for a escort

 

I think this topic generalizes too much. Maaco is a large chain. There isn't just one so when you ask "Is Maaco any good" I don't think you can get an answer. I think you need to ask if a particular Maaco is good or not.

My parents were in volved in an acident and had all the body wrok done to their car at a body shop. They left everything out-of-the-box primered, but had all the frame and body damaged repaired. They took the car to Earl Sheib and came out with a really decent paint job. All that could have been asked for is a color sand to get all the orange peel out, but for $300 nobody is going to do that. 4 days of work and out popped a decent car that wasn't even close to an eyesore.

Earlier this year my dad picked up a '54 Citoen to play around with. It's by no means a show car so it wasn't going to get a $5000 show car paint job. This car is about the same size as a Civic hatchback so it's not a BIG job to deal with. The body was straight and had a good coat of primer on it. My dad tried his luck again with the SAME Earl Sheib. This is a good 5 years after the first car had been done there - the Earl Sheib is now under new management and has new employees. My dad left it in there hands for 4 weeks and told them not to rush it. 4 weeks later my dad comes back from an out of town trip and Earl Sheib haden't even started the job! So... he gives them another chance and about 6 days to get it done. They fail miserably and only have 1/2 the job done only to say they didn't have the paint the said they had in stock. 4 days later it's rushed out of there. It looks like ***. I could have done a better paint job with shoe polish.


I think it comes down to WHO is working on your car and not so much WHERE you take it. I had my car done at a place recommened to me by a guy at my work. I cost me $1,200 and it exceded my expectations 300%. My dad's second Earl Sheib experience cost him $1,500 and he now has to complain, bitch, and moan until they correct the massive crap paint job the did.

 

It all depends in the prep work and the shop