DIY Wrap vs MACCO paint?

[kchase731]

Hi guys.

I have a pretty clean 89 325i w/ 130k on it. I had two small rust spots which I've repaired and a few pretty sizable dents which I pulled and filled. I have a ton of door dings that need to be filled also. Becuase of the serious dents, on on the quarter, one on the trunk, and one in the hood I "basically" need to paint/wrap the whole car. It's really unfortunate because for its age the paint is really quite good, and I really like the color, Cirrusblau.

So my question is. i plan to fill and smooth all the door dings anyway but would you do a DIY wrap or MACCO paint?

My car is above nice. But it's certainly not a show at or something so a high end paint job really isn't an option. I enjoy driving the car, I hate the door dings and dents so I'm looking for a reasonable option to get the car cleaned up and looking much nicer.

[redsubdivisions]

I would do a paintjob over a wrap. I personally think wraps are ugly and are for VW's and the hipsters who drive them. I'm considering a paintjob unless I come across a nice shell for cheap.

[Cephas]

Paint it IMO. I'd stay away from wraps.

In before the wrap guys be like:

yo, due dat rap do e. Gona make ur paintz look gewd k. doo it rite adn rap loks doooopppee


Edit: Thinking more about this, I'd skip both for now and just save the money for decent paint. If nrubentein is correct and wraps aren't cheap then why waste the money? I've also see cheap paint jobs that are awful. So again, why waste the money? Just save up for a semi-decent paint job and call it a day.

[nrubenstein]

So, i've actually seen some pretty decent wraps. The problem with wrapping is that it's not inexpensive, and it lacks durability. You really have to have the car garaged if you want durability out of it.

The advantage of wrapping is that if and when you decide to do a better paint job, you won't have to deal with Maaco's paint.

Net-net, i'd probably be inclined to do the wrap over a random Maaco. It's eminently reversible, whereas a bad paintjob is much less so. Now, if there is a place that you trust to do decent work for cheap, that's a whole different discussion.

[kchase731]

DIY Wrap vs MACCO paint?

1. I have the money for a decent paint job.

2. The car is not a daily driver and has a garage spot.

To me this is a value question. I could do a killer paint job on this but I'd never get anywhere close to my money out of the car if I ever want to sell it. I think all in all I can only really put $1500 max in the aesthetics and reasonably expect to not be pouring more money into the car than I'd ever get back. Which leaves me two real options. DIY wrap or MACCO paint and either way I'll do all the prep.

To me I can't really spend $3k on a car that is only really worth $6k.

I also quite enjoy working on the car, which is the whole reason I have it. Long term I may engine swap, or turbo as time permits. But for now I like driving it, and just want it to look nicer.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nrubenstein]

1. I have the money for a decent paint job.

2. The car is not a daily driver and has a garage spot.

To me this is a value question. I could do a killer paint job on this but I'd never get anywhere close to my money out of the car if I ever want to sell it. I think all in all I can only really put $1500 max in the aesthetics and reasonably expect to not be pouring more money into the car than I'd ever get back. Which leaves me two real options. DIY wrap or MACCO paint and either way I'll do all the prep.

To me I can't really spend $3k on a car that is only really worth $6k.

I also quite enjoy working on the car, which is the whole reason I have it. Long term I may engine swap, or turbo as time permits. But for now I like driving it, and just want it to look nicer.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you prep well and can find a good Maaco, you can get a solid paint job out of them.

[kchase731]

DIY Wrap vs MACCO paint?

If you prep well and can find a good Maaco, you can get a solid paint job out of them.

This is why I posted the topic. There are countless forum posts in other forum that cover how to get a good paint job from MACCO. Obviously this takes some prep work and research, both of which I'm fine with.

I guess here is the real question.

Is a good wrap > a decent paint job?

I'm fairly confident I'll be able to do a "good wrap" not "great wrap" and I'm equally confident a well prepped car with a researched MACCO will result in a "decent paint job" not a good-great paint job and the cost of the two options is about the same. Both options also seem to fit in my value for money requirement also.

[Red_liner740]

Once the wrap faze passes, then what?

If you want a decent result thats also not gonna destroy the paint underneath you have to spend $$ on good, quality vinyl. A quality wrap is gonna be 1500, but deep down you'll know that its unfinished paint underneath...

I'd invest the time and energy its gonna take to the do wrap yourself into prepping the car for paint, and pay a bit extra for higher quality paint instead of the cheaper MAACO stuff.

[Bearmw]

On my first E30 I did all the prep body work in my driveway and removed all trim and glass. I then had the car towed to Maaco and got a $1000 single stage paint job and towed it back home for reassembly. The car was repainted the original cirrusblau and came out very nice, especially after buffing it out.

[gart]

If you are doing all the prep work yourself there is no reason you shouldn't be able to go to a reputable body shop and get a decent price on a overall. I would guess somewhere in the $1500-2000 range. Figure around $48/hr and 20-25 hrs paint time without door jams and all that. Plus materials which is usually 24/labor hour.

[Cakey]

Paint. Id value a decent paint job over a great wrap any day. Its more permanent and durable then a wrap. Dont like the flat wraps and the other funky stuff that screams wrap.

A wrap last around 5 years with good care. Resell value in 2/3 year is going to be slim to none atleast for me knowing the best i can hope for is 2 more year then another $1000+ solution.

Id go with a wrap if i had good oem paint.

[kchase731]

My oem paint is really "very good" I have two issues really. I have a pretty nasty "dent" in the driver quarter that needs to be pulled, which would need to be blended back in (or covered with a wrap). And my hood looks like it was hit with a hammer several times. It's not terrible but it's dimpled in like a dozen places. The pointless dent guy said he couldn't help. So my option is either find a replacement cirrusblau hood that has original paint, replace the hood and paint it or fill sand and wrap. The paint and car really would likely look Amazon with a wet sand and buff but it has a few issues that I think I could cheaply cover with a wrap and wait a few years to readdress and paint it completely


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cakey]

Might look into paint matching/blending the fender and hood. That itself has its own pros and cons but worth looking into.

[AudioNToxication]

You cant wrap a car with shitty paint, it wont really work out well.
That said I had a race car painted at Maaco and it actually turned out much better than expected. however, i did do a bunch of the prep work.

[plain325]

I went with wrapping if for a few reasons, I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on paint for a car that spends most of its miles going to and from and on the track, I wanted to try a different color. I replaced a bunch of damaged body panels, so I needed to do something to get the car one color.
I also didn't want a crap layer of paint to deal with if I ever wanted to get a good paint job. I went with a gloss white, I am pretty happy with the the way it turned out. It had a learning curve . Sorry about the size of the pic



I am not sure why this would be considered a trend or faze, you don't have to use a neon green matte wrap.