Cost of getting exterior painted...

[Munner]

Hey guys,

I'm a new owner of a 1990 Festiva. I'm picking it up in a couple days once I get it certified and the ownership transferred over.

As it stands now the drivers side door is a different colour from the rest of the car. I've read a few topics on the forums so far on how to do paint the car yourself however it seems fairly time consuming! I also don't have a big garage which I can do the work in.

I was wondering if anyone has had their Festiva professionally painted. I'm not looking for anything fancy...just a solid colour on the whole car. Does anyone know how much (CAD $) this would cost??

Thanks in advance!

[batstiva]

Maaco quoted me a price of around 400 for color and clearcoat a couple of years ago. Don't know that I would take my car to them, but that's the only real price quote I've had. Hope this helps a little. :wink:

[mattswabb]

Check around the junkyards for a door that is the color you need. Might be cheaper in the long run. Maybe if you find a yard that has them pulled off and in inventory, you may be able to swap + some cash for the correct color.

[aithanmier]

eh macco isn't too bad, as long as you do the prep work. thats the problem with a macco job is that they don't do any prep to it so it looks like crap after 6 months. take the time to sand the car and fix surface irregularities and it should turn out fine

[Biff]

heres my under $200 cdn paint job, red being the most expensive colour, you might save a little with different colour? this was done outside in my back yard.

[25Horseplay]

I had my green 93 painted at maaco ($200 special). Looks good!

[Andrew]

eh macco isn't too bad, as long as you do the prep work. thats the problem with a macco job is that they don't do any prep to it so it looks like crap after 6 months. take the time to sand the car and fix surface irregularities and it should turn out fine

I'm interested in having my car repainted too. I'm much too lazy to sand it down to bare metal, but the car's red and I'd have a new, shinier coat of red painted over top of it. Would they screw that up too?

[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.