here's a couple of shots of my 93 lx and my 92 ranger, both done at maaco. the mustang was $450 and the ranger was about $600. Both jobs turned out pretty good considering the money I was spending. Both got the presidential service, which is a single stage with integrated clear coat. As long as you aren't expecting a show quality paint job, it's worth it. I'm sure there will be alot of people to reply telling you to stay away from maaco, how crappy it will be, it won't hold up, etc. Screw em. After having both of these vehicles done, I wouldn't hesitate to take them another one. The truck looked just as good a year after the paint and it's been about six months on the mustang. Still looking good. Keep in mind that different shops will give different results. Make sure to take a look at some of the other cars they have rolled out, consider the amount of money you want to spend, and make your decision.

 

what exactly is maaco? I have never heard of them in Eureka, CA and I was just wondering where I would find one.

 

They are a nationwide chain of automotive paint shops.

 

Buddy of mine got his '91 Coupe painted at Maaco and I must admit, it was a decent job. No overspray and a nice even clearcoat. Ran him about $600 dollars. They have different levels of paint options and quality.

gtfanatic - Here is the link to their web site.
http://www.maaco.com/

 

http://photos.yahoo.com/eastbmx1

$200 el cheapo maaco
driveway first-timer prep.

looked good to me, but even better to the guy that gave me over $7k for it

 

For the money you cant beat what you get the only down fall is there prep work I would try to remove all window moldings, emblems, lights if you can cuz they will tape it off. I work in a body shop and im prolly gunna have them spray my beater car just cuz i cant do it myself cheap enough. My mustang on the other hand im doin myself but thats me

 

they def do a good job if you prep your self in my opinion

 

I know some body shops won't touch anything that has body work done by the owner, would maaco? I've got a few spots that need a little work would they freak if they saw a few spots of filler or do they just not care?

 

That mustang turned out nice

 

Prep work is the most important part of a paint job. The problem is at MAACO, you get minimal at best prep work. If you do the majority of the prep yourself, you can get a pretty good paint job. Just be sure to look at some cars that they have painted. There are good MAACO shops and bad MAACO shops.

 

Had a 90 LX done here in indy a few years back and I done all the prep work and primer and they shot it. just before you take your car and pay them check it over real good if it is not right have them make it right. they did do a pretty good job.

 

See the picture in my sig. It was one of the $550 or $600 jobs. I had pretty much everything off the car. Turned out pretty good. There are small flaws, but for the price it looks fine.

If it sticks to the car for awhile I'll be happy.

 

Don't mean to hijack, but how do you prep?

All I know is first you clean the outside with dishwashing liquid, then use an orbital air sander to sand away the old paint....and that's it.

Is there any more to it or is that the jist of it?

 

You also want to fill in any imperfections and remove any removable items/trim:

Headlights
Tailights
Cowl grill
Wipers
1/4 windows
Door sill molding on the bottom of the window
Door molding on body of car
Bottom windshield molding
5.0/Ford emblems

If it were me I would sand and scuff and get it nice and smooth.

 

The problem is at MAACO, you get minimal at best prep work.

You get what you pay for. That's the attitude that 99% of the people have when they walk into a Maaco and expect a 300dollar paint job to last forever and be perect.

This was a Maaco paint job. they did a solid week and a half of bodywork.
wasn't cheap, but it came out nice.

http://3.8mustang.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94427&d=1147558933

http://3.8mustang.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94435&d=1147558933

http://3.8mustang.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94429&d=1147558933

they sprayed under the hood (and underside of hood), multi-color door jams, and even strayed the inside of the bed.

If you pay 200dollars for a Maaco paint job then you'll get a 200 dollar Maaco paint job.. If you're willing to pay the money you can get a nice job.
Both before and after the paint I brought it to a few really high quality shops and they said that it was easily a 3000dollar paint job.. I didn't pay half that.

Matt

 

Nice truck! Yeah for the most part every Maaco job that I have seen has come out pretty damn nice...some even better than the 3-4k jobs that my friends paid.

I only saw one Maaco job go bad. It was my friend's Taurus that had NO prepwork. He got the $99 deal (was some big sale at the time) that did NOT include clearcoat. So he never waxed it, kept it outside, drove in the winter and 4 yrs later it started to look dull.

Aside from that, every other Maaco job was pretty damn good and held up through the yrs.

 

Don't mean to hijack, but how do you prep?

All I know is first you clean the outside with dishwashing liquid, then use an orbital air sander to sand away the old paint....and that's it.

Is there any more to it or is that the jist of it?
__________________

i was always was told not to use dishwashong soap because it leave a film is this wrong

 

Ive used dishwashing liquid before (to remove old wax, then clay bar, then polish and wax)

No streaks, the car looks brand new again when I do this process.

 

when u remove all the trim and stuff do you give it to them to paint?is that part of the deal what if u left the trim on the dont they remove it prior to paint?

 

I got a car done there and preped it all myself with my brother came out fairly good. I took the lights out all trim off had junk wheels on it just in case taped some stuff off myself and like i said, did all the prep work body wise. Those guys shoot so many cars there and can spray fairly well, they just don't put the effort into the body before due to the price you pay to go there.

 

This was my car the day I brought it home from Maaco. It still looks good 5 years later.

It still looks good 5 years later.

 

You also want to fill in any imperfections and remove any removable items/trim:

Headlights
Tailights
Cowl grill
Wipers
1/4 windows
Door sill molding on the bottom of the window
Door molding on body of car
Bottom windshield molding
5.0/Ford emblems

If it were me I would sand and scuff and get it nice and smooth.

What exactly do you mean by scuff?


And what do you mean by the 1/4 window? Is that for Foxes only or SN95 cars as well?

Lastly, once you remove everything, how do you get it to the paintshop? Tow it there or something? Surely you can't drive there without any headlights, taillgihts, etc?

Lastly, if I'm reading this right, you remove all the molding, bumpers, etc, from the body, and then use an orbitor to sand the paint down, and that's it? Seems easy enough.

And purplehazestang, did you just copy and paste what I wrote? LOL.

 

Well if you have straight factory dulled paint (not a lot of repaints) then you could just scuff it up a bit instead of sanding down to the metal. Basically sand it till it gets nice and smooth so that primer/paint can stick to it nicely.

Yes I was speaking of foxes when I mentioned 1/4 windows.

You could remove the headlights/tailights in the parking lot. Thats what I did. Should only take 30 min or so.

and yes an orbital will do just fine.

 

When I did mine I pulled everything possible and drove it there with just blinkers up front, tail lights, and mirrors. Pulled those off in the parking lot.

The quarter windows are the most time consuming things to pull, but it was an easy choice for me since I had 'new' ones to put on anyway.

 

Remember the name means nothing. It is the PAINTER that does the job. Go to the one that you are thinking of using and look at the lot at the finisned ones. Also we always give the masker $20 to make sure he takes his time. And as most have said. Take off everything you can. We do all the high end base clear jobs in house. But for a quick cheap job they can not be beat. Any cars bringing less than 5k got to them.