View Poll Results: have maaco paint your car?
yes
22
17.46%
no
104
82.54%
Voters: 126. You may not vote on this poll
would you ever go to maaco?
well back in 96 i had my 86 olds cutlass supreme repainted there for $1000.00 and i did no prep work. from what i can remember only things i had problem with was spots they didn't prep/sand correct as weeks later the rust came up under the paint. they got some over spray on my exhaust tips. but they sanded the three spots back down and repainted it and i don't remember having over spray on anything else. i had the car for bout two years after that and paint looked great. sold it to some kid after i bought my z28 and he smashed the whole quater panel in and trashed one of the rims and had a donut on 
Teching In
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 17
Likes: 0
not a chance in the world i would ever reccomend maaco to anyone unless they absolutely only wanted to spend 200 dollars on a paint job, my average paint job is 3k with bodywork, and my materials take up about 800 dollars of that. maaco can get away with such cheap paint jobs because the paint they use is made by some guy in his backyard shed in alabama somewhere, none of there material is worth a damn, they prep the car for 5 minutes with a red scotch brite and leave sand scratches everywhere and they dont take anything off the car to spray it. if your wanting to sell your car quick and it looks like crap, take it to maaco. if your keeping it and dont want the paint to fall off in 3 months, take it to a real shop.
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I worked with a guy that quit his computer job to open a Maaco. I did some computer work there for him.
Would I trust him? Heck yes. He could do a great job, I'm sure. But the majority of his customers are after the quick-n-cheap paint jobs. Shoot the work truck, dirt and all kind of paint job. Could he do good work? Yes, but you have to pay for it.
His biggest problem (I haven't talked to him in 5+ years, so it's been a while) was holding on to good body men and painters. They'd get some experience with him and then move on to a higher paying job at a salary he couldn't match. Not a whole lot of margin in a scuff and spray, and a good bodyman or painter can make some decent money just up the road at a 'higher level' collision shop.
That said, would I trust him to paint the roof of my car? Yes, I would have. But I know he's a car guy, and was concerned about his work. Just talk to them, make sure you prep it right, and you should be fine.
$175 is pretty cheap though. To give you an indication, I spent well over $100 on just materials to paint my hood. High build primer, epoxy primer, basecoat, clearcoat, wax cleaner / degreaser, sandpaper, and a lot of disposables.
Would I trust him? Heck yes. He could do a great job, I'm sure. But the majority of his customers are after the quick-n-cheap paint jobs. Shoot the work truck, dirt and all kind of paint job. Could he do good work? Yes, but you have to pay for it.
His biggest problem (I haven't talked to him in 5+ years, so it's been a while) was holding on to good body men and painters. They'd get some experience with him and then move on to a higher paying job at a salary he couldn't match. Not a whole lot of margin in a scuff and spray, and a good bodyman or painter can make some decent money just up the road at a 'higher level' collision shop.
That said, would I trust him to paint the roof of my car? Yes, I would have. But I know he's a car guy, and was concerned about his work. Just talk to them, make sure you prep it right, and you should be fine.
$175 is pretty cheap though. To give you an indication, I spent well over $100 on just materials to paint my hood. High build primer, epoxy primer, basecoat, clearcoat, wax cleaner / degreaser, sandpaper, and a lot of disposables.
i got my car back and my roof looks amazing!! they even offered to polish it if i want in a few weeks for free.. so im glad i didnt listen to the 37 ppl who said no to maaco
I had MAACO paint a car a LONG time ago (I think it was the mid 80's) and it came out pretty good. I was warned by everyone that it would come out crappy, but I did all the body work, sanding and removed as much trim as I could. I also stayed with the stock color, with no fancy stuff like metallic paint.
On the other hand, my car was there the same time as another car owned by an older couple that wanted to change the color of their Caddy and it came out f-d up.
On the other hand, my car was there the same time as another car owned by an older couple that wanted to change the color of their Caddy and it came out f-d up.
Well first off it all depends on the people working there. My dad worked at a Maaco for a couple months and he is an AWESOME painter. The thing is, its all in the prep. You can lay down the slickest no buff paintjob in the world but if the 17 year old clueless preppers making $8 an hour did a **** job sanding and degreasing it all your paint will bubble and rust and look like **** 6 months from now.
Its true they don't remove the trim or all that but if you're just wanting a bumper painted and you take it off yourself and bring it there I think it would be fine and cost effective to do. I had an LX 5.0 Mustang full repaint single stage from green to white incl wheels there when he worked there. It ended up costing like $600 and since it was white it looked good enough. It put alot more than that of value worth into it. Hell what do you expect for $600?? You're not going to win some big car shows but your buddies and passerby's will all think it looks good, ya know.
Plus we sold the car on eBay a couple weeks after and it all worked out for the best int he end. I give Maaco a B-.
Its true they don't remove the trim or all that but if you're just wanting a bumper painted and you take it off yourself and bring it there I think it would be fine and cost effective to do. I had an LX 5.0 Mustang full repaint single stage from green to white incl wheels there when he worked there. It ended up costing like $600 and since it was white it looked good enough. It put alot more than that of value worth into it. Hell what do you expect for $600?? You're not going to win some big car shows but your buddies and passerby's will all think it looks good, ya know.
Plus we sold the car on eBay a couple weeks after and it all worked out for the best int he end. I give Maaco a B-.
Also, I would NOT get a black or dark blue or any color that shows waves and imperfections painted there. But I did hang around there sometimes and see some good white, red, and basically any non-metallic colored paint jobs come out looking mighty fine.
Teching In
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 27
Likes: 0
Had my BLACK 89 TA painted there a few years back. CAr came out great. One tiny area of orange peel on the pass side sail panel. Other then that it was fine. Car was lookin good till i sold it and the new owner smashed it up, or so im told.
Its not really fair to judge one against another, since they are all independently owned/operated. A local body shop near me, that does all kinds of high end cars uses macco to do there small ****. They wouldnt be able to keep up without them.
Do what I did if anyone is debating a particular shop. Go there one day unexpected and look around at the finished work. See how it looks, and what the quality is like. If you like it go inside and set up your appointment!
Joe
Its not really fair to judge one against another, since they are all independently owned/operated. A local body shop near me, that does all kinds of high end cars uses macco to do there small ****. They wouldnt be able to keep up without them.
Do what I did if anyone is debating a particular shop. Go there one day unexpected and look around at the finished work. See how it looks, and what the quality is like. If you like it go inside and set up your appointment!
Joe
the paint will turn out as good as the body work-- didnt know how to put it if you did a shitty prep/sand wet said bondo ect the paint wouuld end up looking crappy
that being said i think i would go to maco after making sure all the body work was done top notch lol
my girlfriends bumper got scuffed and the paint webbed on a 05 envoy and the place we went to charged 850 lol cash from the other people that backed in to it lol
that being said i think i would go to maco after making sure all the body work was done top notch lol
my girlfriends bumper got scuffed and the paint webbed on a 05 envoy and the place we went to charged 850 lol cash from the other people that backed in to it lol
i would! they have different levels of painting...cheap to expensive...if you get sheapest and expect it to look good...omg come on people...half the time when you see bad work from them its because it was a cheap job...they arent going to spend hours upon hours prepping and spraying a car for only 500 dollars..Time is money and they calculate that in the prices...i think they have a good thing. Someone where that you can get a paint job without getting ripped off because of labor...do the labor first and then take it there...
On The Tree
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 151
Likes: 0
when i had my old 97 v6 camaro, the front bumper had soo many chips and scratches so i had them repaint it for $250 i had already sanded it and prepped it. 2 months later it looked the same as it did, its liek they didnt even use any clear coat