fresh paint

[Guest]

Hey people what's up? I know a few of you have asked this question before, but I'll ask it once more. Do any of you know a good place to get my 1989 Festiva L painted? If so, about how much does a good paint job cost?Thanks

[mattswabb]

It all depends what you want. A maaco job is a few hundred dollars and you can go all the way and get a pro job for thousands of dollars. I've seen some good and some bad maaco jobs, also seen a few bad pro jobs that the owner paid alot for. It depends on how much work you do yourself. Also if your changing colors and need to paint the jambs and engine compartment.

I did all my work on my car. I have $600+ in material, around 30 hours sanding, many hours disassembling, prepping, cleaning, assembly, etc. If you pay someone to do all the work it can get very expensive fast. It pays to learn to do at least some of the work yourself.

Check out my write up on how to paint, this will give you an idea of what it takes. http://www.fordfestiva.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=299

matt

[Guest]

Thanks man I just was under the impression that Maaco sucked so I was looking for a few alternatives. I think I'll try to paint it myself. How did you keep your paint from running? I had a buddy that owned his own body shop and he was real good at what he does. I was going to go to him because he wouldn't have charged me very much to use his shop and his paint booth and stuff if I did all the work plus I would have had a pro around for help. The crappy thing is that he just moved to Ohio so now I'm on my own :?

[mattswabb]

Look at the home page http://www.fordfestiva.com/ July festiva of the month. Brian's car is a maaco job and it came out real nice, I've seen it in person and it looks better in person than the pics.

As far as no runs, it's all in the material and the paint gun. I had no runs using a Sata HVLP gun that I borrowed. I also did my paint in my garage, no booth. I just cleaned everything very well before painting.

matt

[studdyhalllooser]

low budget just dont give a damn (me) alternative.....10 cans black spray paint and some sand paper-les than 15 bucks

[earlboy]

WOW. that paint job is great, never would of known it was a Maaco.

[Biff]

her's the job I did in the backyard outside , under $200 cdn

[festivagt]

....

Maaco paintjobs are ok if you are not keeping the car or are just looking for a quick fix. The reason you don't go to them is because the quality of thier paint is garbage. They use a psuedo single stage paint with integrated clearcoat. Basically a really cheap type of enamel. All of your good paintjobs are done in two stage or more (basecoat/clearcoat). You will pay more for the quality paint by itself versus having Maaco spray your car. The end result looks immeasurably better. A few things to note if you do get your car sprayed by them.
If you plan on repainting your car, the paint they use will most likely react with any sort of paint put over it. You will have to either seal it out(so the paint your going to put on the car can't touch the old stuff) or strip the car. Either way it gets expensive.
If you get the car painted by them, make sure you pay the extra money to have your car taped up, sanded and have the dents fixed. Might make the job go from $200 - $400 but it'll be worth it.