Here is a Maaco paint job. it held up for about 8 years but rust started showing thrugh at that 8 year mark. i made a point to tell them that i wanted their best work and better quality paint and told them to take their time, it came out really good, and i was verry happy considering i only paid 2,100. They used sherwin williams single stage paint.
i was considering taking it to a body guy and having him to all the prep and repair so i know it was done right...but should i purchase premo paint/clr and give it to them to use? or will they dog me...keep my paint and spray it with poo? i mean like many ppl said it all depends on which one you take it but ill have to talk to everyone whos gonna be involved and make sure i help them out withh a little extra $
i doubt they would keep your paint. that would mean that they expect someone to come in wanting the exact same color you want, now.... they may keep your clear, but i wouldn't think they would. If your looking for a decent paint job that cost around 2,000 then take it to your local maaco shop and tell them to use a base coat/ clear coat with a medium grade paint and high grade clear. i bet you'll be happy, but keep in mind you should expect to do a repaint in 5-10 years.
I have used earl scheib which is similar to maaco for one of my cars and I have used body shops in the past. The earl scheib job was actually better quality than the body shop. None of my cars were show cars (or were meant to be), so the idea of dropping thousands of $$$$ on a paint job seemed stupid to me. So long as it looks good for 4-5 years and then having to have it resprayed, seems like the better bet. You can try on several different looks if you want as well.
They did the green station wagon below. I had the car sand blasted and the body needed minimum body work. They sprayed it three time to get it right and cost me about $1000 for the blasting and $1000 for the paint and bodywork. So I'm into it for $2K. That was in 2006 and it has held up well. You can search for the details here on V8Buick. MAACO is a franchise so each shop is different. Search for one you like by looking at the work and if they do many old cars. - Bill
I have had good luck with Maaco. Something to think about, their painters shoot way more cars than the average body shop. Bob H.
I used MAACO, and I'm absolutely happy with it. I spent $8,000 and that included sheet metal work as well. The main thing about this particular shop was that I was treat like I was their one and only customer. All my questions were answered, and they let me take all the pics I wanted during the process. I have some pics on my Car Domain page. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3050478
Took my pickup to one in redford Mi. A girl called me back and said that they would have to charge me extra because I had red stuff all over it. I had to explain to her that it was called primer. They painted it and I could take the paint off with my fingernail. The owner told me that that was normal. He said you can do that to a brand new car. I made them repaint it. Had a friend of mine take his car to them after he did a complete resto and he spent another grand redoing their work. I warned him. Terry
OK V-8 Buick People: After 30 years in the car business I have seen quite a bit. I think the bottom line is that production enamel shops are at the bottom of the food chain. The difference is usually the owner. If an owner takes pride in things, generally the jobs will come out looking very nice. Sometimes an owner owns several franchises and only cares about the money. That could be a disaster area. Another thing to consider is that the quality of body shop workers has gone straight down hill in the last several years. Good body people are working for either high quality insurance type shops that are under tremendous pressure to do oem work or custom shops that cater to the very particular customer. Pay a guy $30. per hour plus a benefit package and , yes the quality of worker will probably be much higher. A mud slinger working for half that with no or few benefits will not fare as well. I responded to a Macco add advertising a cheep price. That price was to paint the car. Sanding and masking were extra. Pastel colors looked good if the body is straight. Metallics were horrible. Here's an example of something I saw. Customer brings in a 67 ElCamino. It's in the body shop getting sanded for paint. The paint looked like a tree trunk after it had been cut down. I could see every layer. The owner told me what he was charging the customer. He could have had the car media blasted for half what it cost him to strip it, charged the customer the same price, got MUCH better results and not killed his crew because that kind of job is oppressive. If he knew what he was doing the job would have come out 10X better and he would have made a profit. So that's what someone's up against when they go to most production enamel shops. Now, there are owners who have much higher standards (like not painting over dents and scratches) and you will usually pay more. If a customer does their homework they will get the most bang for their buck. Mitch
