What's the deal with maaco? Why are they so cheap? I couldn't take my car there because I've heard too many bad things but I was wondering if you could pay more and get a better job done? Just curious!

 

They use the cheapest paint/primer/clear. They dont do the correct prep work. They tape the car off, then lighty scrub the paint so the new paint has something to stick to. They dont take all the old paint off, then primer, paint, clear, sand and buff. I would not let maaco paint a set of frcs.

 

I was curious because 250 or 7,000 I was like how the hell? Why would anyone let them do that?

 

that pretty much hits the nail on the head. when you get your car back, there is sure to be overspary in dozens of spots, because as said, they tape everything off instead of R+I parts. they will not buff it, and a year down the road the paint will look like absolute crap (even worse than it does when you first get it back)

 

STAY AWAY FROM MAACO!

With that said, let me explain.
1) they are so cheap because they use the cheapest paints/ labor / techniques on your car. They will shortcut it every way they can.

I had my 94 Trans Am painted at a Maaco, because I knew the manager there, and in the end it took 3 months, four paintjobs, and a ton of unneccesary bs to get it done, btw stillis horrible paint

They oversprayed on everything, didn't even prep some pieces(paint peeled off after just two days!) and flat out lied about when it would be done.

2)No, you cant really just pay more for a better job. I paid for the Super Duper Extreme job or whatever the hell and that got me a clearcoat pretty much. You'll get all of the same problems mentioned above.

Thw worst part of it to me at least was when I pointed out these things to theme expecting them to fix them with no problem, they became confrontational and said things like " Hey its not custom paint" "This is Maaco" and, my favorite "its production quality, not custom paint"

After my experience, I absolutely HATE Maaco. I doubt yours will be much better.

Anyways, thats my experience with Maaco's best paint job with someone I thought was a friend of mine in charge of it.

Maaco is Actually, they're

But hey, maybe they'll paint yours up real nice! (unlikely)

 

Let's get this straight, I wouldn't let them near my car I was just asking!

 

This one guy I hated asked me where he should take his car for bodywork. I told him Maaco.

 

Dont do it Chris. I can spray paint it with cans from Wal-mart better then what they can do.

 

Maaco did my friends GTA. He painted it black and it came out mint. It's been holding up fine for 2 years now outside in all of the elements.

 

i had an old old car painted there and it was crap. after a year or so the paint chipped and you could see the old color under it. if you are painting a pos car that you just want to look 1/2 way decent for a lil while then it would be a place to take the pos. i think thats the purpose of maaco anyways

 

time is money
macco doesnt do alot of prep work, allowing for lower amount of time
= shitty painy job that will flake-crack-peel- and its covered with orange peel and dirt...

if you want a good paint job, you have to learn to do it yourself and be devoted, or pay a professional with experience...

 

I agree, Maaco sucks. I had a paint job done many moons ago at a place like that (Earl Scieb) on an older car. The first paint job sucked ***. They did it again for free, but I did some of the prep work myself. When I brought my car back, I asked the painter what kind of beer he liked. I ask him nicely to do a good job with my car and I brought him a case of beer when I came back to pick it up. It actually turned out decent, but I had to do the work and take a risk.

For my experience, I would NEVER go back to a place like that....the mess they make isn't worth it.