Painting car options...

[325 eta]

thats not for a 'decent' paint job. thats for a fucking concours quality jobs. you can get a good paint job for 1500-3000 if you shop around

painted my car for around 1000 its not perfect but for the best paint job i could have up 15k for it but im happy

[Digitalwave]

Ok, if you are going to get your paint done at Maaco, first, follow MattE30's advice. Just be prepared when your car doesn't come out the exactly color you wanted (they aren't going to color match cirrus blue paint for you). The best thing to do is to do all the prep work and masking yourself! If not be prepared to have paint on your moldings, wheel wells, exhaust, radiator/oil cooler, etc. etc. After you get it painted, TAKE GOOD CARE OF IT! These paint jobs are cheap and finicky and you are going to have to keep it in good shape/well prepared if you want it to last and/or look good.

[mgold]

Growing up, my neighbor had a 1976 Camaro. He spent an entire summer working all of the flaws out of the sheet metal (sanding, primer, body filler, etc). He stipped off all of the trim and masked the hell out of the car. He then had a buddy spray it with Imron (aircraft paint). Besides his personal labor prepping the car that summer and the cost of materials, the spray job cost him a couple of 6 packs of beer (after the painting was complete, of course). The result was absolutely spectacular. It was especially challenging because he changed the entire color of the car from a two tone gold/beige to a beautiful burgundy metallic (door jambs, enginebay- without removing the engine, etc).

[F|2eeSTy|e]

Growing up, my neighbor had a 1976 Camaro. He spent an entire summer working all of the flaws out of the sheet metal (sanding, primer, body filler, etc). He stipped off all of the trim and masked the hell out of the car. He then had a buddy spray it with Imron (aircraft paint). Besides his personal labor prepping the car that summer and the cost of materials, the spray job cost him a couple of 6 packs of beer (after the painting was complete, of course). The result was absolutely spectacular. It was especially challenging because he changed the entire color of the car from a two tone gold/beige to a beautiful burgundy metallic (door jambs, enginebay- without removing the engine, etc).

Yeah, but too bad we all don't have those friends, or connections. 8)

[schnitzer teil-jäger]

well here goes ... it is a 1-3k car.....you will never get what you put in it out. SO YOU ARE MAKING A TOY FOR YOURSELF.

with that in mind. for color change.
1. go buy a detail gun. they are about $20-25$ clean, prep and mask off the trunk engine compartment, door jambs, vent chambers and fan housing, etc. paint yourself.
2. Prep outside areas, strip all wax, fix all dents, run speaker wire under the windshield and back window seals. this will hold the rubber up and let the paint get underneath. tape all areas with blue or purple tape. (non marking long lasting) Remove the front grills. rear lenses and anything else you do not want painted. they will get overspray in the engine compartment because the pop the hood to get the edges, keep this in mind. At this point all they have to do is de-dust it and spray it.+-
3. buy the 4-600 dallor special when on sale for 2-400. they will give you the we can't guarantee dents since we didn't prep it. mark 2-3 spots for them to fix since it was in the package if you need it.
4. clean up the mess.

the high dallor jobs are in the labor to prep and clean. Macco doesn't prep or clean worth a damn. this is why thier paint will lift off in a car wash. they don't remove the wax well or scuff up the existing paint.
wes

[rscheiring]

First the advice: tell your local BMW dealer or better yet local auto paint supplier your predicament and see what they come up with. Maybe a local place will do a high quality job and be ok with you doing all the prep and give a good price. Maybe you can rent a spray booth?

Another idea - I know of a local retired fellow out here who is a BMW enthusiast and used to work at a paint shop. Through connections he gets access to a spray booth and does his own prep and painting. His jobs are nothing short of concours. I never thought to ask him how much he would charge to do it for me. Something like that is an idea.

Now for my sad, sad story:
I had a couple of bad patches on otherwise pretty good original paint. I thought maybe I could just fix the spots and blend, then clear coat the spot. I try to keep my costs down - not because i don't love the car, but you never know what's coming down the road and if I have to sell the car, I want to out of pocket as little as possible. BMW dealers don't carry spray touch ups, but recommended the local Sherwin Wiliams Automotive paint store (they only do car paint). They were very helpful and recommended I clear coat an entire panel even if just painting a smaller spot, as just doing a spot in clear coat will show and eventually start to separate from the rest. I bought a detail gun at Home Depot and borrowed a friend;s compressor. Note that Sherwin also sell small Preval units - essentially aerosol cartridges that fit on a glass jar that you fill with the paint of your choice (make sure they reduce it there). The Preval's are fine for small jobs - I painted my strut brace with it and it come out fine.

To make a long story short, the paint they supplied was a great match and worked well. However I blew the clear coat job. It ended up "orange peel" which is to say, a rough not smooth finish. After countless hours of wet sanding in progressive grades, the car clear coat looks acceptable, but not flawless. Its better than before, but I'll try out my advice at the beginning of this note next time (or maybe I could practice some more on your car.....)

[Chapel]

Re: Painting car options...

I
2. go to maaco and have them paint it all

If you want to just have a colour matched car and not a show car... maaco is fine.
Paint, no matter who puts it on, is better than rust... or a multi colour harlequin car :)

if you want a show car... don't consider Maaco.
Paint wont make my car any faster...
Hell, Im just gonna sand my own rust down and hit it with a spray can.

[bimmerlover]

The estimate for a really good paint job on my 318 was 1800$. I didn't have that kinda cash, so I went with maaco. We did all the prep work ourselves and really it came out surprisingly good. They messed up the hood so we took that off and brought it back to them.. but they did fix it at no cost so I was okay with that. The paint is definitely not show room quality, but it's good enough for me. I think when it's time to paint my 323i, I'll do something a little better for it though ;-)

I should mention that the reason I had to have my 318 painted was because of a lot of rust.. so knowing that the body of the car doesn't have a real long life helped me decide to go with maaco.

[bwanac]

Ok. Forgot to respond to all of the helpful hints.

First rscheiring if you know anything more about this local bmw guy can you fill me in. That would be real good!

Chapel, since you vouch for Maaco when this kind of topic comes up, and since you are semi-local do you know anything about the "best" maaco in the area?

This is my plan.

Prep the car myself. Fix any dents or dings. Talk to some guys about what to do and how best to do it. Obviusoly spend a good deal of time on this part.

Possibly, if Maaco allows buy some high quality red paint that matches my car.

Search for best local maaco. Clean and good products. Intelligent staff.

Give car to maaco. Pray, pray, pray.

Take care of the paint like a mofo!

[Super Eta]

I have orange peel on just the front fenders (weird huh) and some dents on the rear and have really bad dents on the rear fenders but anyway.

I am first going to take out every dent myself that i can do then im going to go up to a local Auto Body school that teaches high school kids that are intrested in doing body work and ask them if they can knock out the rest of the dents and possibly repaint the car for a good price and i have been a student in the program myself so i know the teacher and the quality and time they put into fixing a car.

If not that i will goto macco aswell and have them fix the flaws.

I already know that not every single ding and dent will be gone but aslong as it is good enough to make the car look striaght again i will be satisfied.

The trunklid is trashed but i was able to get a another trunk lid with the stock spoiler on it so i will be mounting that onto my car and i didnt near pay anything for it so that saves me a bit of cash.


Goodluck

[ColdAccord]

i can't believe you're taking a bmw to maaco. if they do a shitty job, why go there, even if you do prep it yourself? the honda guys don't even do that. go onto honda-tech. even those civics, that blue book for less than our cars, get real paint jobs, and drop a decent $1500 and up.

why not just get the $1500 together. and, try and get someone local to do it on the side=.

[JRowe]

OK everyone, I worked at a Maaco for a year while I was in college, and I can tell you exactly what you will get. Amost all of their paint jobs are what you call a "scuff and shoot." They lightly sand the existing paint to get the new paint to adhere to it. Then they mask it, shoot it, and bake it. They always bake them to dry the paint because they are a volume business. the faster the paint dries, the more cars they can get through the shop. So, what separates a good paint job from a maaco job? Attention to detail and quality of paint.

Most maaco shops are not as clean as other shops which means more potential for dust in the paint. The high volume approach does not allow them to keep their spray booth as clean. The paint they use is less expensive. It will not last as long as a good paint or look as good. The paint will be color matched. All shops, even maaco do this. Additionally, little to no work is done after the paint work. The car is lightly buffed and sent on its way. No wet sanding-nothing. The bottom line is- due to the lack of attention to detail, the potential exists for a horrible paint job. On the other hand, you might get lucky and have decent (not good) results.

My recommendation is to find a good quality shop that is willing to work with do it your selfers. Do all the bodywork and prep work yourself. Bring it to them to shoot it with a good quality paint. The cost will probably be less than $1000 and you will have a good paint job that will last. A word of caution, a paint job can only be as good as the prep work. So, take your time and do it right.

[M42Technik]

For those on the west coast, specifically So Cal, another option is to take your car down to El Salvador, and get it painted there.

I know you're thinking "why?", but since El Salvador is a third world country, everything there is a lot cheaper than it would be (car-wise at least) here. My friend in college moved up here from El Salvador and was shocked to see how much certain things were (exhausts, brakes, paint, reupholstering), and his friend owns a Jetta MKIII that recently went under the paintgun.

It cost him $1000 for a metallic, color matched paint job from the dealership he bought the car from. The only problem that might occur is the drive there is horrid, and the language barrier is a negative if you don't know Spanish. I was planning to go there myself, but living in MD, that would be a 3,500 mile trip, and a 3,500 mile trip back.

So that's another option. And I was very reluctant to see the job that they do, but then he showed me a website where people get their paintjobs done, and it was a very professional business. Also, he said to reupholster an entire interior in any color leather, would be $400 tops. Professional wheel refinishing? $100 (with paint matched centers) for all the wheels (and the spare as well).

So again, its super cheap but you get the high quality work from a third world's shitty economy. Learn some spanish, and if you're near the border, think about it.

[Super Eta]

hmmm not a bad idea.

[darien28]

I didn't like any of the maccos and earl scheibs in my area, so I'll prolly goto 1-day paint&body... they're a little bit more, but use DuPont paint which is pretty decent stuff compared to the unknown crap macco uses.

I am looking at about <800 for a top of th eline paint job since I don't need my hood or front fenders painted... the only thing I'm worried about is the color matching since my fenders were painted with unknown after an accident by a body shop that normally charges 2400-3k for the entire car. I'm guessing that it's pretty good paint, but not sure if 1dpb can match the EXACT same color... cuz it would look shitty if it wasn't matched.

I'm poor too, and I love my CirrusBlau Metallic color... don't see many of this color around. I'm prolly going to do some prep work myself though. but removing trim is a PIA... since it got sorta fuked up when I was doing the shadowline... >.> maybe I'll just get new trim put on when I repaint? iono... it's gonna be a while b4 I can repaint though.