Well I went car shopping this weekend for a 96-98 civic hatchback and well, no matter how hard i search for one around $5500, the paint is ****. SO, if I do purchase one of these vehicles, im gonna need a paint job. Im looking for something that will last a loooong time, look really well, but still be affordable. I heard about MAACO and was wondering if they are any good. I'd like other reccomendations as well. Thanks.

 

i love it everyone that wants a paint job wants it to look great and last forever , yet wants to spend 200 bucks on it . man search for maaco paint jobs on here , they do ******* horrible work. they do little to no prep work , your car will come out dull , and your muffler and rims will have paint on them too . then a few months later it will flake off.

 

I recommend you just keep looking. I only payed 6k for my 97 hatch 3 years ago. You can find one for 4k or so if you're patient.

EDIT: And I agree with him honestly. If you want a nice job either be ready to prep the car yourself and mask it yourself then take it to MAACO or be prepared to dish out some money. I've painted and there is a LOT of prep work that goes into and that's why it's so expensive. A paint job is only as good as the prepwork as well.

 

Any other paintshops you guys can reccomend?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeffk182 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Any other paintshops you guys can reccomend?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Honestly this may seem like a gamble to you and it may be, but I'd recommend the local HSs autobody shop.

I painted cars when I was in HS through the autobody shop and we did a GOOD job. Everything was masked to perfection and the jobs looked GOOD when we were done with it. Good prep, good paint and we only charged the customers the cost of paint and supplies (between 200-300 dollars).

 

Well i just graduated HS and i would NEVER trust my school's autoshop..i'd rather have maaco paint it lol.

 

I just picked up an EG that the preious owner had Maaco'd. Car looks like ****. Clear is peeling everywhere. The jambs are just loaded with thick paint. There is evidence of paint on all of the window moldings. It's pretty obvious that the prep work was next to none. I'm going to be stripping it down and painting it myself here in a few weeks. Got access to a booth and everything. Just dreading sanding away the Maaco **** job.

 

Would it come out better if i prep'd the whole car by myself?

 

yes, search under Maaco

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeffk182 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Would it come out better if i prep'd the whole car by myself?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes it would (one of my friends took a car they he prepped and it came out pretty good), but they still use cheap *** paint so the durability won't be there.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeffk182 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well i just graduated HS and i would NEVER trust my school's autoshop..i'd rather have maaco paint it lol.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Go to a local tech college and talk with the instructors. They always need cars for the students to work on. Plus they'll do good work for a minimal price. It just won't be a "show" quality job, but much better than maaco.

 

the only times ive seen maaco paint jobs look good are when somebody does 100% of the prepwork and its ready for paint .

 

Ic..well, what would I need to do for ALL the prep work?

 

the prep work is all the hardest **** , sanding , filling , priming , all that **** .

the final look of the car depends on the prep

 

Do I need to sand the whole car to bare metal/plastic?

 

What grit sand paper do you use?

 

bump...id like to know as well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeffk182 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do I need to sand the whole car to bare metal/plastic?</TD></TR></TABLE>

No way, what we did in my auto body was that any piece of the car that didnt need body work (bondo or fixing or anything) we would just take some steel wool and rub the final coat down until the color looks faded. That was it and it was good to shoot. If its body work you need to do (like rust and such) you will need to grind down to the metal to fix it, then primer that.

Edit: also if you could afford it MOB does good work. http://mobworks.com/

 

since you are in socal... I would suggest MOB works... Check out the website http://mobworks.com/ Good ****... this is where i'm going!

 

There is a HUGE painting thread on here somewhere but I can't find it.

There is no way we can cover it all as well as that thread did.

 

mobwerks is way sick but i picked my 97 up for $4000 clean as ***** also my buddie details so i was able to make the car looklike abrand new paint job. just keep your eyes peeled for the cheep super clean hatch. It took me a month and a half to find mine and about $160 worth of autotraders and recyclers. I was luckey because it was'nt a salvage title (a good 70% of ek's in so cal are),watever you do dont buy a salvage car

 

I searched and couldn't find ****. Maybe you moderators should start turning good threads into stickies. I see a lot of good threads but later on I can't find them. Just an idea.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeffk182 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Any other paintshops you guys can reccomend?</TD></TR></TABLE>

MOBWORKS

http://www.mobworks.com

for all the dents

http://www.dentology.com

 

My friend's brother is looking to sell his EK Hatch for somewhere around between 3500 and 4000.

 

My maaco job turned out pretty good for 400$, all i did was some primering and sanding and body filler, a few runs that weren't too noticeable but you can't expect too good of a job for that much money.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SimpleGreenMachine &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My maaco job turned out pretty good for 400$, all i did was some primering and sanding and body filler, a few runs that weren't too noticeable but you can't expect too good of a job for that much money. </TD></TR></TABLE>

got any pics of the finished producT?