Macco cost?

[R1ckM]

Dude none of those things will be any sort of quality for those prices. And not to be a huge asshole, but a metallic single stage is going to look like shit.

Yesss...and I'm sure it will look fabulous if this is your first time painting a car.

You both make 100% great points on someone trying to shoot for their 1st time. Practice on some old parts or something, well prolly not for everyone.

Don't hate on single stage though, I think it should turn out ok. I will test the paint before spraying to check what it looks like. I will use base and clear instead if it looks "that" bad but a fresh layer of paints going to look much better than faded and peeled paint imo. Unless you just do a terrible job prepping...

*edit*
You are right about the single stage metallics. I guess I will be doing base/clear instead.
Just saying its cheaper than 2-5k from some shop, its doable and cost efficient for your hands on people who aren't looking for a show car finish.

[ddavidv]

Go buy a paint gun for $50, DA for $30, $140 worth single stage paint (roughly 80 oz's) and find a buddy with an air compressor. Paint whole car for under $300.
Thats what I am doing to my new cirrus e30. Will make a thread in a couple weeks when I finish.

Yesss...and I'm sure it will look fabulous if this is your first time painting a car.

I've painted cars. I work with body shops every single day. I've discussed painting my race car with Maaco. Couple of points:

1) You can't get a car painted anywhere cheaper than Maaco. Well, at least that will resemble any kind of decent, factory paint job. Maaco has Wal-Mart level buying power, and they get paint cheaper than most local distributors can buy it. An OEM style base/clear paint job usually runs around $1200. Anything less than that, and you're not getting a 2 stage, factory style finish.

2) For any other body shop to do a full respray will usually run around $3000.

3) Maaco is a franchise, so quality can vary.

4) The more trim you remove from the car before you send it, the better it will be. Maaco painters can lay on paint, but the prep guys that tape them off are usually mouth-breathers who don't give a shit.

5) Unless you are paying extra, all they are doing is painting the car. Don't bitch about it being wavy, or having door dings etc if you haven't paid them to take out every single ripple in your 25 year old BMW.

Quality costs money. Does it make sense to put a $3500 paint job on a car that's worth $4000 when you're done? Probably not. Be sensible.

[Vivek]

Go buy a paint gun for $50, DA for $30, $140 worth single stage paint (roughly 80 oz's) and find a buddy with an air compressor. Paint whole car for under $300.
Thats what I am doing to my new cirrus e30. Will make a thread in a couple weeks when I finish.

Dude none of those things will be any sort of quality for those prices. And not to be a huge asshole, but a metallic single stage is going to look like shit.

[R1ckM]

Go buy a paint gun for $50, DA for $30, $140 worth single stage paint (roughly 80 oz's) and find a buddy with an air compressor. Paint whole car for under $300.
Thats what I am doing to my new cirrus e30. Will make a thread in a couple weeks when I finish.

[AwakenNoMore]

Before I purchased my e30 it had at some point bee poorly re-sprayed laguna by a Macco. First time it rained that winter the clear coat came of like snake skin. It was poop.

[Mjrodriguez300]

About 7 years ago I had the roof of my s13 240sx painted black (white car). when I got the car back the drips and overspray were so extreme I through a shit show and a manager there couldn't have agreed more (apologized and had me leave the car to fix the issues). So I get the car back (second time) and the overspray was less but drips were gone. About 5 miles down the road I go to open my sunroof....and it wont open...I pull over and yes they painted and cleared completely over my sunroof. I was so pissed off I refused to have them touch the car again and took it as a loss and vowed to never get a maaco paintjob again although some of the paintjobs you guys have posted do look pretty good. Guess I was one of the unlucky ones.

[oliver.r]

a lot of bad info going on in here

[Cabriolet]

I gutted my car then had it media blasted. had Macco paint it. few minor issues but then again i paid almost 1/2 of what i would have paid at a high end shop.
car looks good and after it was color sanded by them it is really good looking at 6in away.

at this pic the car had never been washed or waxed since painting 1.5 years before. after wash it looks better.
YL7A2043 by Eric Berger, on Flickr

see my sig for more pics

[kamotors]

what was in the prep?

Well, Valance was brand new, fenders were new, front bumper was new. I sanded off the peeling paint, removed door trim, bumperstrips, grills lights, etc fixed minor dents, paid them to remove the rest of the dents and respray,
only place it chipped was under the windshield where I failed to removed the windshield cowl vents, that chipped like the first month but for last 6 years it has maintained the same finish with no other issues. If I would of removed teh windhsield cowl vents I feel it would not of chipped at all, it was due to them having to tape that off giving it an edge. I more than happy with how it came out.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

i looked into getting a macco paint job, i was quoted 1000 for a respray, i was advised to go to a privately owned macco apparently the quality is better than corporate operated maccos. if you talk to the employee who is going to be painting your car and let him know if it comes out nice their will be a good tip involved upon completion. i personally drove around from shop to shop and worked out a better deal than macco i ended up spending 2k for my paint job n my touring an it came out twice as good as a macco job. thats my advice just dont cheap out just make sure it gets done right the first time

I thought they were all corporate? It makes sense that the private shops would do a better job cause they actually have something ridin on the quality of the work. The macco here does always have a Lamborghini in the parking lot so maybe they do some okay work here.

[arams325]

i looked into getting a macco paint job, i was quoted 1000 for a respray, i was advised to go to a privately owned macco apparently the quality is better than corporate operated maccos. if you talk to the employee who is going to be painting your car and let him know if it comes out nice their will be a good tip involved upon completion. i personally drove around from shop to shop and worked out a better deal than macco i ended up spending 2k for my paint job n my touring an it came out twice as good as a macco job. thats my advice just dont cheap out just make sure it gets done right the first time

[Thizzelle]

prep your self and drop off at maaco, my car was painted in 2008. You can get it done for under $800 very easily

Still looks fine to me.

what was in the prep?

[OneCleanE30]

prep your self and drop off at maaco, my car was painted in 2008. You can get it done for under $800 very easily

Still looks fine to me.

Your car is beautiful, if you got it done by macco then I will get mine done there. The car I'm hopefully getting is inspired by your E30.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

This is a local maaco job, done a few years ago, looks good.

Like everyone said, Do you prep, have them spray then find someone to buff it.

thats the only thing id have macco do is shoot it with the paint all the wet sanding and prepping id do my self inculding the masking.

[YosemiteSam]

One thing to consider is that not all Maaco's are the same. There's one here in Sunnyvale that does great work. One of the guys there is even on R3v. Although this is no $800 paint job, this is some of their work: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...=251334&page=7