maaco for respray?

[el_gringo]

alright guys, my 318is needs a respray. my front end was poorly resprayed and its peeling, bubbling, and its chipped from my 'speeding' and ever so cautious dump trucks ahead of me. with my previous e30 which had fucked up paint that needed to be sprayed, they said they can do any color but a candy color, for their basic paint jobs.

QUESTION: would you use their 900$ paint job as a respray? i want the clearcoat for protection and the shine.

On top of that, im going to be completely painting a smoothed out valance, IS lip, shaved antenna, key holes, and anything else i cant think of off the top of my head.

one shop quoted me 3500 for labor alone. another shop wont paint a factory color (i dunno why, but he refuses to buy OEM color AND/O spray it), and i dont want to hack this in the garage with a spray gun.

what would you do? if your IN or NEAR DFW and know of a shop who can do it with a great outcome and have it back drivable within a few days (i plan to do this around the week of or before Christmas during leave between boot camp and training), let me know!

[DSP74]

I've heard many times that if the body work is done ahead of time, and things removed, you can get a nice re-spray from them.......The key is in the prep work

[el_gringo]

so have i. i dont think they would pay alot of attention to it. i will prob have it in pieces if they will do it that way so everything gets done, correctly.

i just dont wana waste money. and i dont want to bring my car thats chipped, scratched and peeling to FL for a few weeks of training... especially if ill be near water and i thought salty air helps speed up rusting

[Aptyp]

Since I have some experince with resto, this is what your options are:

1. If you remove all the trim and fun stuff and respraying factory color, go to a quality shop, They will do the prep work, sanding and all the fun stuff and it will cost you $1500 at most.
2. If you want Maaco to do everything, you'll have to remember that their pricing includes only 4-hours of body work. If you ever tried to do anything with the paint or filling, you'd know that it would take about 10-20 hours to go through the entire car and every surface. So doing Maaco with quality urethane after market paint will cost just as much as a quality shop.
3. Do all the prep work yourself, remove the trim and glass, and you can get your car back in quality shape from Maaco for about $500. I recommend this if you know what you're doing. And you'll be spending a week doing this, because nothing is perfect when it's your baby, you'll be taking it to the damn bare metal to satisfy your perfection urges.

In any of this cases, you wouldn't want to take the car anywhere close to the ocean for the first month after painting. Let the paint sit for a while and harden properly before taking it on a long trip too, bugs and bird crap do horrible things to fresh paint.

[kamotors]

i went for a 500 dollar paint job, and its a good job the car looks great, but since no moldings were removed about 2 yrs later it started peeling and theres lots of over spray, im getting the car painted again after im done rebuilding it, and ill remove all things that dont need paint before going there. if you want along lasting paint job make sure to remove what you dont want painted.

[ddavidv]

Maaco can do nice work. Meaning, they can apply paint. The prep of the body prior to that is mostly on you. Most of the flaws you will see in a Maaco job are what lies beneath that they had nothing to do with.
Maaco uses (I believe) PPG paint on everything other than their super el-cheapo paint jobs. They buy in such mass quantity from the manufacturer they pay less than most paint wharehouses buy it for. So the quality of materials is not an issue. I would agree that the 2 stage paint is better, but there is a thickness requirement for clear I would emphasize you want so that it has some durability. Most clearcoat fails because it is put on too thin.
$1500 is pretty much a standard price for your 'normal' body shop to respray a car. Again, that does not include body repairs. That's to paint over your door dings and stone chips.
The guy who doesn't use factory colors is an assclown. That makes absolutely no sense. I would not use him.
Unless you've done body work in the past, I do not recommend you attempt to do any yourself unless the outcome doesn't worry you. It is an acquired skill and takes time to master. Some of the work on my car came out great. Some of it sucks ass because I got tired of screwing with it after a week. These cars aren't worth much though, so it makes no sense spending $3000 on a $3500 car because I guarantee you some uninsured, drunk, illegal immigrant will total it for you a month after you get it back and you can kiss your investment goodbye.
For these cars, yes, a detrimmed shell sent to Maaco is a good choice. Taking the trim off isn't hard. Shaving antennas and locks? Have fun with that.

[DSP74]

Cars can be insured for a set value....Similar to an appraised value policy. At least here in MI.............something I would recommend for alot of guys here, as without it, you'll be getting boned big time.

[scabzzzz]

I know that even with the really expensive guys, if you go to them and be nice and tell them what you want to do, you can do all the prep work yourself and get it ready for a really nice respray for dirt cheap. Body shops charge for the prep for hte most part. It doesnt take long to apply the paint, but sanding out imperfections and polishing is.

[StereoInstaller1]

So, hey there, El Gringo....want some advice on how to get a top-notch job on the cheap?


Go to your local "body shop supply" store...this is where the pros buy their stuff. They will know the names and addresses and reputations of several local guys who do good shit, cheap. The guys who sell the materials know how to talk to, know who is reliable, and who is cheapest.

Good luck!
Luke

[ddavidv]

So does an insurance adjuster. They are just a little harder to find. :nice:
Guess what I do for a living.

[Danny]

Yes.

Prep it yourself.

[VacMan]

Talk to Danny, he works at Maaco.

[BrewCity11]

Kishg had a great job done on his bronzit track car. He removed all the trim, lights, etc, and had them do bodywork and paint for less than 1k. Looked real good.

**not sure why i replied to a month old thread. oh well**

[Teaguer]

Dude WTF ? You seriously don't want to take it to any Maaco .
You know I run a bodyshop , I'll be able to work within your budget if thats what you're worried about .

Do yourself a favor and give me a call when it gets to be about that time .

[Garageaholic]

I used maaco ( no CC) and it lasted 12 months before the paint became pitted