MAACO PAINT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Koop]

We have two Macco shops near me, one sucks, one is excellent (for the price). One has a talented spray man, one shop has a dumb ass. Go see what the finished product looks like on a few different days and then decide.

BUT

Make sure when you go look at cars that just came out of the booth that the weather was nice. Paint flows better on warm days. Don't have the car painted as soon as the snow goes wait for the weather to get nice.

Don't over think it, just go look. The paint will smooth out the longer it has to dry, so look at a car that just came out of the booth, go to lunch and then go look at the same car again. You'll know. I've gotten good paint jobs from One Day.

Good luck.

 

[BoeingMan]

I bet more cars come out looking like crap than winners after macco gets there cheap hands on them. hnoes

Something you may want to give a try is to go to local car shows and ask all the guys with paint jobs you are impressed with who painted their cars. Get the shops name as well as the painters name and ask who was the main person who did the body work. This ought to get you going in the right direction.

....But what ever you do: Just say NO to maaco!

Good luck and hope you make the right decision. Your vette is counting on you man.



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[xrcrx]

Can't say I disagree more. My car was in the Corvette and Chevy Expo here. Took home a first place trophy. The Maaco that painted my car has a portfolio of their top work. A few months before, a bike they did won at the Lonestar Rally in Galveston. A few hundred bikes were there also. Just goes to show-it's NOT the name on the shop, it's the people and the work they do. Some suck, some don't. Maaco's bread and butter as I said, and as was pointed out by the shops owner-cheapo no clearcoat work. That doesn't keep 'em from doing other jobs when they can. I almost refused to even check 'em out, but I'm glad I did and I don't regret it.

 

[vett boy]

You are absolutely correct Xrcrx.I've seen winners come out of certain Macco shops .It's all about the people.

 

[oceangal]

I think if you go in with the attitude that you will get 3 years out of it you hopefully won't be disappointed. It is scary handing your car over to anyone to work on.

I have yet to meet a trades person who said to me, I am not a very good (FILL IN THE BLANK) but I will see what I can do.

Two years ago my Neon was hit by someone. I brought it to the "best" bodyshop in town to be fixed. I think it cost the insurance company over 2k. Well 2 years later the whole front bumper is peeling. They didn't even put primer on it. I am none to happy.

So like the others have said, its the individual shop and the paint tech.

Good Luck!

 

[johnny80]

The color I chose was the original color, Black. As far as the warranty, it is valid for the lifetime of the paint. They will fix any hiccups that occur as long as I own the car. So far, its been a great budget paint job for me. I must say I was lucky with this franchise. I saw several classic cars, (70's muscle ) in the lot being prepped and saw some finished results. The manager took me on a tour of the shop before I committed. I was impressed with what I saw. But some of the other owners are right, you have to make sure you go with a reputable franchise.

 

[BoeingMan]

As I alluded to before, there may be a few maaco shops sparingly scattered throughout the country able to do top quality work, (xcrx and his beutifull vette apparantly found one), but if it were one of my prized vehicle , I wouldn't even consider them.

Maaco has a bad reputation for a reason. Also the maaco shops, as a majority group, aren't the only ones that do lousy work. Beware there are lots of lousy shops out there.

However, if you do decide on a maaco, ask the owner/manager for 3 referances of customers who have had there cars painted there. Do actullay call these customers and politley ask them if you could see their cars to evaluate the shops work. If you are satisfied then I say OK to have that particular maaco do the work, Again but only if the specific guy who did the work for your references does the work on yours. The above goes for any shop you decide on.

Again, basically, see a guy with a paint job you like and have the exact same guy do your car...and remeber that as a general rule you get what you pay for.

 

[BoeingMan]

Just to add to my post above. I did have a car painted by them. It came out looking worse than it did going in . I am not exagirating. I had them repaint it. It still was a bad paint job. I had them do it again and it came out fair. The paint did not last long and I vowed never to take a car there again. Well, I was low on bucks (back when I was a starving student) and needed to have just the hood painted on another vehicle. Same story paint sucked, had them do it over and came out only slightly better.

By the way two different maaco shops.

So don't do do it man. I am sure if you querry enough people they will have similar stories to tell. Oh,, you'l probably have a few tell you their's was a great paint job ect, but theirs is probably the exception and not the rule.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Again, hope you make the right decision.

More info to add to the above:

The first lousy paint job I had done by maaco was painted back in 1988/9. It was a two stage clear coated paint job. I paid 2200$ for the work wich included minor body work (only body work that had to be repaired was door dings, the rest of the car was straight).

I did not buy or negotiate for a cheapo paint job as others referance as to the reason folks might get a bad paint job from them. Also note that my car was clear coated and still didn't last long.

OH, and also, the car the I am talking about was a two tone turbo charged pontiac sunbird. Below the body side molding was medium gloss, medium gray and above the side molding was a dark blue. I had them remove the side molding (come to think of it I had them remove all the moldings and trim) before they painted and had them only paint the top blue portion of the car. I had them buff and polish the bottom half since it still looked new and had no dings.


Paying 2200$ back in the late 80's for what I had done should have gotten me a very, very nice paint job. They did a lousy job. I still feel that as a majoirty, maaco sucks.


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[oceangal]

Maybe check out some local car shows and find out where folks got their cars painted. usually up here we have the Super Chevy show - which sadly is a no go this year.
But we have other car events that aren't formal, Wednesday nights behind a mall and alternating Saturdays at a burger joint.

 

[Achilles]

I've seen some pretty nice work come out of my local Maaco shop. A friend of mine had a black 1980 vette painted there and it was beautiful. I couldn't believe it. But I agree that each shop is different and you should do your homework with any shop you choose to do business with.

Boeingman, I respect your opinion that you had a bad experience with Maaco. But that was almost 20 years ago with one particular shop. I had a bad experience with Big-O tires over 20 years ago, and still to this day I will not buy a Big-O brand tire. Does that mean they are a bad outfit? Maybe not. Some people love their tires. I respect that, just as I respect your opinion. A bad experience with any company can ruin it for anybody. But we also don't live in a perfect world.

Cheers!

 

[BoeingMan]

I've seen some pretty nice work come out of my local Maaco shop. A friend of mine had a black 1980 vette painted there and it was beautiful. I couldn't believe it. But I agree that each shop is different and you should do your homework with any shop you choose to do business with.

Boeingman, I respect your opinion that you had a bad experience with Maaco. But that was almost 20 years ago with one particular shop. I had a bad experience with Big-O tires over 20 years ago, and still to this day I will not buy a Big-O brand tire. Does that mean they are a bad outfit? Maybe not. Some people love their tires. I respect that, just as I respect your opinion. A bad experience with any company can ruin it for anybody. But we also don't live in a perfect world.

Cheers!

I did not have one bad experience but two bad experiences with maaco, and, it was with two different shops. In one of the posts above I explained about the second bad experience. Furthermore, I continue to see junk come out of maaco 'till this very day.

I wouldn't let maaco touch my stuff even if they offered it for free.

cheers achilles


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[catbert]

Depends on the shop, and if they are in the quicky paint business or are an all-around body (cosmolition specialists) shop. The closest shop to me does as good with body work and paint as any shop around. Other shops......not so good.

 

[xrcrx]

That simply means that the Maaco shops you dealt with were bad, not that they all are. They are independantly owned. The one I used did a great job. If I'd used one on the other side of Houston, maybe not so well. As I said, don't worry about the name on the sign, check out the shop and the work they turn out. Before they painted my car I had a complete tour of the shop and a in depth explanation of prep, paint, and finish work along with seeing cars in their various stages. It was the only shop to make that effort.

 

[vett boy]

I did not have one bad experience but two bad experiences with maaco, and, it was with two different shops. In one of the posts above I explained about the second bad experience. Furthermore, I continue to see junk come out of maaco 'till this very day.




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Ah,a man who didn't take his own advice .

 

[BoeingMan]

Ah,a man who didn't take his own advice .

Vetteboy, reread my previous posts...it explains it.

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[BoeingMan]

T.....That simply means that the Maaco shops you dealt with were bad, not that they all are.....

Technically you are correct. One can even argue that even if the shops that I dealt with are still there, The guys doing the painting and body work may not be. These two shops could very well be putting out great stuff. Maybe, Maybe not.

However, an important point is, are you willing to take the chance.

I already stated that if the original poster does decide on maaco what he should do to maximize his chances.

I am happy you personnaly got great results, every vette deserves a great finish. However for me, I stand by my previous posts. I am not giving maaco anymore of my money for the reasons I already posted. I am sure they're not going out of buisness any time soon becuase of little 'ol me though.

Again to nelson 84 the best of luck and hope you make the right decision.


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[nelson84]

I just don't want to spend more money on paint than what the car is worth. What does an 84 go for these days 4500. Why would I spend 6000 to 12000 on paint?

If it gets scratched who cares, but a 12000 paint job, forget it.

I just hope it looks good and doesn't make me

 

[vett boy]

I just don't want to spend more money on paint than what the car is worth. What does an 84 go for these days 4500. Why would I spend 6000 to 12000 on paint?

If it gets scratched who cares, but a 12000 paint job, forget it.

I just hope it looks good and doesn't make me

I understand exactly what your doing and why.I think your doing the right thing for the right reason.I wish you luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

[xrcrx]

I talked to the guy who owns the Maaco that painted my car today. He explained a bit more about the prep and difficulties of painting a vette and what that can mean for the final paint job especially down the road. He said , as did Boeing man I believe that it's doubly true with vettes that it's all in doing a proper prep first. Made very sure whoever does the car knows vettes.

 

[Koop]

I just don't want to spend more money on paint than what the car is worth. What does an 84 go for these days 4500. Why would I spend 6000 to 12000 on paint?

If it gets scratched who cares, but a 12000 paint job, forget it.

I just hope it looks good and doesn't make me

So long as you did your homework on the place and the cars that particular shop puts out look decent. The prep work is so important on a Vette, but the prep is no better than the Gel Coat under all the prep. If the Gel Coat starts to break down a few years (or weeks) after you have the car painted it's going to make your finish appear somewhat dull, end of story. So what if it does? It's a Vette and that's how it is, drive the wheels off it.

HAVE THEM SPRAY IT ON A WARM DAY! You will be much happier with the results.

You should do just fine, I wouldn't put a high Dollar paint job on that car either. Hell, you could land a flawless low mile '84 for the less than the cost of a high Dollar paint job.

Smart choice.