Honest Maaco Opinions

[h0lmes]

Well it looks like I won't be using Maaco

[Rigmaster]

Maaco varies a great deal from shop to shop.

When it comes to painting a car, for the most part, it's sort of "you get what you pay for".

Maaco is famous for their cheap paint jobs- but they're also famous for their "extras" which often border on bait and switch tactics (not just Maaco, but most cheap paint places).

Ask around for some recommendations, maybe find a painter who does work on the side. Don't go with the cheapest paint- but don't go with the most expensive either. If you know what you are doing, you can do some of the prep work yourself- but I wouldn't expect any of the cheap paint shops to do ANY prep work at all if you're just buying their $299 paint special.



Bret.

[Lance Racing]

The best way to get a good paintjob from Maaco is as follows:

- Prep the car yourself. Do all the sanding, leveling, etc yourself. They will basically spray the car without doing any prep at all, so do it yourself, and do it PROPERLY. A good paint job is 90% prep.

- Remove all of the trim yourself. Accept the fact that they will do a poor quality masking job, so remove all of the trim pieces, and mask it off yourself.

- Meet the guy who will actually spray your car. Be nice to him. Get his attention and tell him you'll pay him a li'l extra, give him a case of beer, whatever, if he'll take a little extra time on your car.

- Pray.

Maaco CAN do a good job. But it will be MUCH better if you take the time to prepare the car yourself, and if you can get the painter to make a little effort.

Otherwise, yes, you will have a paintjob that has a million runs in it, with tons of overspray, and plenty of peeling in a year's time. Good luck trying to sell it like that, down the road.

All good points. Ask if they have access to different types of paint. Can you supply the paint? Then you could bring in a good quality PPG paint. We've been taking in the PRO-3 race cars to Macco for paint jobs. We do ask for a good clearcoat which helps. We don't expect the paint to last forever on the race cars because they're just race cars and could easily be crashed and totalled at any race weekend. So we don't want a ton of money tied into a paint job.

You could take the same project to 3 different Maaco shops and get three different end results.

[Turf1600]

Roller job FTW

[LINUS]

Another thing since you're a PNW guy - Maaco Canada is a totally different ballgame.

I have a few friends who have stripped & prepped the car, bolted back in the lights to be legal for a drive, get into Canada @ the Maaco parking lot, strip out the legal stuff & do their own masking - one of the guys' Ford truck turned out excellent for a $350 paintjob.

The more you do, the more the painter has time to lay down quality work.

Make a Saturday morning appointment, get out of bed @ o'dark:30, drive up & do the work in their parking lot - drive home with a fresh paintjob.

[Jscotty]

I don't have the money for a top of the line paint job so it's either something cheap or just leaving it the way it is (which is horrible btw)

Earl Scheib FTW!

If you want it cheap and decent enough to get through a couple of years, this is the way to go. Maaco will give you the same crap but for much more money. Earl admits that his paint jobs are cheap and of moderate quality but it's also the best paint job that you are going to get ANYWHERE for under $300.

I am still in the prep phases for roller painting my car. I am just going to do one body panel a week. I don't care if it takes me 3 months to paint my car.

[benDASHDASH]

tom, your paint was looking amazing after your detail. just polish it again and keep it clean / waxed. unless of course you're itching to spend $2000 on something that doesnt matter.

[Teaguer]

Maaco is the McDonalds of automotive painters

Hahaha , you give Maaco too much credit . :D



Seriously though , most that take their cars to production shops like Maaco will skimp on everything and just opt for the cheapest route .
These are the horror stories you hear about .

Maaco can and does turn out quality work ...for a price .
Much more than their cheapies but way less than most reputable independants in their area .

With that being said I would still advise you to find a smaller independant shop in your area and go to them with a reasonable budget .
You should be able to get a top notch job for in the $1200-$1500 range .

[Car Addict]

I really wish you were not on the opposite side of the country when i got my car repainted with repairing a rear end collision, a new hood, and fixing front lip. it came to $2000 for everything. They did all the prep work and everything I was amazed there were only a few problems mainly with the bumpers but that is only because the mounts were less than perfect and in very very small areas the paint is a little thin. but ya if you are on this side of the country in the northeast and need a car resprayed and dont need absolute perfection from body work (mind you still very good but not perfect) give Hansen Autobody a call they are in Acton Mass.

[ddavidv]

I discussed painting my race car with Maaco, and since I'm 'inside' the industry I got a little more honest information than some of you guys may have.
Maaco's lowest price paint jobs are garbage, with garbage paint.
The $500 or so paint job (before extras, natch) is actually DuPont or PPG paint (I forget which). Because Maaco is such a huge chain, they actually pay less for the paint than the local wholesalers do. So it isn't the paint quality that is the issue once you get to this level. I have seen jobs they've done, and all they do is paint the car most of the time. If you don't pay for bodywork, they paint right over every door ding and stone chip on the car. I've also seen jobs where the paint was applied very thin. If you only spend 1/4 the cost of a normal respray, then that's the quality you should expect.

It looks like we're painting our race cars with boat paint and rollers, if you can believe it. Days worth of reading here:

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3493382&an=0&page=0#Post3493382

[LINUS]

Hahaha , you give Maaco too much credit . :D



Seriously though , most that take their cars to production shops like Maaco will skimp on everything and just opt for the cheapest route .
These are the horror stories you hear about .

Maaco can and does turn out quality work ...for a price .
Much more than their cheapies but way less than most reputable independants in their area .

With that being said I would still advise you to find a smaller independant shop in your area and go to them with a reasonable budget .
You should be able to get a top notch job for in the $1200-$1500 range .

Are you the guy that runs a paint shop (Maaco possibly) - or do I have you confused with another member?


Also, do any of you "insiders" have anything that backs up what I'm saying about Maaco Canada? Is it just a fluke that there's a good one, or are all Canadian ones that good?

[Desaevious]

I picked up a bronzit hood from a local guy and I had to sand out and feather out the rust spots. I refinished it myself and made sure it was in top notch condition. I took it down to my local Maaco and they did a great job with it.

As it was said, if you do the prep yourself, it'll come out great. I was just lucky to have an honest owner at my Maaco.

[Jparkr]

tom, your paint was looking amazing after your detail. just polish it again and keep it clean / waxed. unless of course you're itching to spend $2000 on something that doesnt matter.

haha tom learn to clean your wheels. thats almost as good as repainting your car cause itwill draw your attention elsewhere

[Fanzotti]

I think the best way to get a good paint job cheaply is:

Prep car yourself. If you don't know how to cross hatch sand you should learn. I wrote about it in paint ad body post's. That will save you from getting flat spots.

Then I would find a painter. Buy good quality paint either from him or before you get to him. What you're looking for is a bodyshop that has a booth and they're cool spraying your car for around $200 plus the cost of the paint if you don't buy it before hand. Add in $250-$350 for paint, probably about one hundred + less if you don't need a clearcoat(single stage). I've heard that alot of BMW colors don't need a clearcoat, I used one on my black car and I'm glad I did.

The first place I found was willing to spray it for 250 plus about 212 in paint.

Paint prices fluctuate.

The place I actually had my car sprayed at was a chopper shop buddy I met at work. His kid sprayed My car, I gave him and his buddy 300 for being cool dudes. he went to the paint store and got me good shit, not the best but the most bang for the buck. About three hundred for the paint with a real good quality clearcoat.

My car looks great for about $600 in actual paintwork. The bodywork I did cost me more money.

This paint job will last a long time and look killer.

I've seen Maaco jobs that peel soon after do to shitty prep.

[chuckybob]

my buddy got his e30 fully painted for 800 i think. it looks good too.

if you mean mine, then yeah, they did a good job on it, except the front skirt, which they forgot to paint >:( i got it done at the one in tacoma near bellarmine. after all the crap ive heard from people on here about maaco, i was expecting the absolute worst, but it turned out well and hasnt peeled or gotten worse in the year and a half its been outside the garage like people say it will. it might not last 10 years, but with the money you save, you can afford to get it repainted more often. just stay away from the bottom tier paint jobs that are like $100. go the urethane one or the one under that and its fine.