Is Maaco really that bad?

[drddan]

I actually plan on repainting my festy one day in the nearish future...... flat powder blue with white wheels white hood and while spoiler.

:tard:

Joking! That actually sounds like a cool paint scheme

[tulsacarman]

If you have the "place" to paint it, why not buy an hvlp set up and do it yourself and save yourself some money and learn something? I'm just saying that 90% of a good paint job is the prep work and you said you were going to do that yourself anyways. I bet there are a ton of DIY vids on youtube to help you. If you don't have a garage, you could make a temp garage with 2x3s and plastic sheets. At one end build an opening for a box fan, blowing out, and at the other end, an opening for a furnace filter. Cheap dust free paint booth.

I agree, but I'd add that the fan should be explosion proof if possible. You'll be sucking all that overspray through that fan and all it takes is one spark and you'll get a sweet "flame" job.

I'll admit that you don't hear of paint booths blowing up very often but it's the same thing as the "lit cigarette at the fuel pump" thing. They outlaw that behavior for a reason. I worked with a guy that had no faith in the idea that a lit cigarette could cause an explosion in a body shop so he dropped his cigarette in a can of paint thinner. It didn't blow up but I knew that if he kept up this kind of behavior he'd eventually end up with no body hair.

[tulsacarman]

I can tell you that when I spray a complete car that the materials alone are going to run me, at the very least, close to $300.00. I don't use cheap crap though and the job shows it. Some colors are waaaaay more expensive. The cost is determined by the material that it takes to actually make the color. White is low end because there are no wild tints needed to make it. A solid red is more expensive but a pearl red is much more expensive. I painted a pearl red F150 fender the other day and the color alone was $112.00 for one pint of paint. That, after reducing, gives you one quart to spray. A complete paint job, even on a car as small as a Festiva will take much more that a pint of paint. Blues and greens are high too and some are transparent and require more coats to cover and hide.

You have to figure in the cost of doing the job right. You have to spray a sealer coat first which has a hardener added, then at least 2 coats of color with reducer (sometimes more) and then 2 full coats of clearcoat (with hardener). You also have to consider the flex additive added to the clear on rubber parts, plastics primers for material adhesion on bare plastics and rubber, tack rags, tape, masking paper, wax and grease remover for the prep work and other miscellaneous things.

Of course you can spray it with a less expensive single-stage system which requires no clearcoat but that will not last nearly as long as a good clearcoat job.

The thing to consider is this, whether you want a nice job and plan to keep it or just a "get you by" paint job, you'll get what you pay for. My Aerostar that I sprayed custom in 1998 still looks as nice and wet as the day I sprayed it.

[JPT]

^ Good point on the paint. The place I mentioned earlier sprays only a limited choice of colors for $300. If you want more than one color, or something fancy like candy apple, it will run you more than the $300.

BTW, That Aerostar is cool!

[tulsacarman]

Thanks JPT.

I wouldn't want to even begin to try to figure out what I have in that paint job. It's all paint except for the "collection Detection Unit" on the rt side. It's painted 3-stage white pearl, deep blue pearl, deep red pearl, orange and yellow. I know that materials have pretty much doubled since then.

I drove it up your way about 9 years ago for a big Hot Wheels convention in Hartford, Conn, then down to the coast of N.C. and back to Tulsa again. I made another trip to Family in N.C. later and lots of shorter trips. I've put about 30,000 miles on that paint job and it's holding up awesome. Even the front is not chipped up badly and I'm a tail-gater.

You're right about your your options at MAACO. Just a handful of color choices, that's one way they keep their cost down.

[CharlieZ]

I can tell you that when I spray a complete car that the materials alone are going to run me, at the very least, close to $300.00.

Having never painted a car before, I got a whole lot of help from the guys at the automotive paint store. I knew beforehand materials weren't going to be cheap. My car is semi-flat Marine Corps Green. It took many sample attempts to get close to flat. The guys at the shop said it was more technique than chemistry. Well, IMHO, DuPont's formula for the amount of "flattener" was way off. Tell me why I can buy a can of Krylon cammo paint and it's flat no matter how bad I lay it on??

My lack of experience with painting and 'lusterless' finishes was a wa$teful learning curve. The paint was going on too much scrap metal so I settled for as near flat as possible. Before the fog was laid down I know I had well over $250 in paint, activator, other chemistry, cups, tack rags, and abrasive sheets. I didn't want to collect more expensive tools for a once in a life-time paint job so stupidly, I went for a cheap $14.95 Harbor Fright HLVP.

The paint container came loose just as I started doing the roof. Yep, had to start over after letting the Centurion paint cure out a few days. Sanding and more sanding. Redone it to a "looks pretty good while driving by" paint job but I wouldn't do it again. When someone has the equipment, facility, and skill, pay them accordingly. If there's ever another time, I will.

I admire those who have the patience to paint their cars with a roller too. BTW, I did the painting outdoors on a very calm day. No booth, no fan, no EPA.

[Aspire]

I ROLL ON Rustoleum-ed to my 91 Camry & my coworkers were shocked as to how good it turned out. I got the "recipe" from the link below:

http://www.rickwrench.com/index79master.htm?http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html

I'm now going to do it my Aspire. I got the a gallon of VW Jazz Blue mixed from Ace hardware for $38; it's their equivalent of Rustoleum/Tremclad, but you can get it mixed into any color that you want. This is way more paint than I'll need, but at least I'll have touch up paint for the next 1,058 years.

[lanemeyer14]

I got the a gallon of VW Jazz Blue mixed from Ace hardware for $38; it's their equivalent of Rustoleum/Tremclad, but you can get it mixed into any color that you want.

Wish I had known that when I did the roll on job on my car! I would have had a color mixed instead!

[Aspire]

Wish I had known that when I did the roll on job on my car! I would have had a color mixed instead!

I didn't know about Ace doing custom coloring until after I did my Camry. Let me tell you, RUSTOLEUM GLOSS WHITE IS BLINDING when the sun hits it:glasses7:!!!

Whenever I washed the car, the car was so freakin' BRIGHT WHITE that you could not look directly at it! You couldn't eve tell the car was dented!!!...and it had some big dents in it! I had to drive it down a few dirt roads to take some of the glare off!

Anyway, I was originally going to get some Kawasaki Green mixed up, but I picked Jazz Blue because then I don't have to worry about messing with the door jambs, under the hood & such (the car is factory blue).

I'll post pics when I'm done. I just have to pull all of the factory "stickerage" off of the side panels.

[Aspire]

The guys at the shop said it was more technique than chemistry. Well, IMHO, DuPont's formula for the amount of "flattener" was way off.
My lack of experience with painting and 'lusterless' finishes was a wa$teful learning curve. The paint was going on too much scrap metal so I settled for as near flat as possible.

You should've went to some of the Jeep & 4x4 forums.

A lot of the guys that tried flat camo paints wasted a lot of time & money too, but for different reasons. It's what steered me away from doing olive drab green. But if you read up, they kind of recommend the real deal; which is expensive & toxic...and doesn't usually come clean.

[CharlieZ]

You should've went to some of the Jeep & 4x4 forums.

A lot of the guys that tried flat camo paints wasted a lot of time & money too, but for different reasons. It's what steered me away from doing olive drab green. But if you read up, they kind of recommend the real deal; which is expensive & toxic...and doesn't usually come clean.

Yeah. Didn't think of that. I did try some mil vehicle restore sites tho. Also forgot that there is a military vehicle museum just 30 miles north of me. Live and learn and still die dumb, eh.

[CharlieZ]

Hot Rod Magazine March 2011 issue has excellent article on car painting. Plenty of pictures on how the pros do it.

[Aspire]

Hot Rod Magazine March 2011 issue has excellent article on car painting. Plenty of pictures on how the pros do it.

They also did a falcon with roll on paint:

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/body/hrdp_0707_1962_ford_falcon_budget_paint_job/index.html

I think this is the article you were talking about:

http://www.hotrod.com/projectbuild/hrdp_1103_how_to_flat_paint_a_project_car/index.html

[rmp2711]

just came back from Maaco and got an estimate. (500.00) he said that includes their Prep plus service (199.95) which he explained as sanding all scratches and a primer like coat. Then the paint job which is 2 coats of paint, and a 3rd coat with the clear coat added.(249.95) I'm getting it painted the same color (Silver Met.) I could get a full clear coat instead of it being combined with the 3rd coat of paint for 200.00 more. I was told by some freinds that getting the full clear coat it will last longer and look better than getting the clear coat mixed in with the 3rd coat of paint. No body work needed since my car has no major rust or cancer. I do have a small dent in each door from closing the doors with my foot and or butt, but i think I can pop them out with a toilet plunger or remove the inner door panels and push them back out with my hand. I'm going to use some bumper black on the bumpers and going to paint my side mirrors black myself.(Don't know what kind of paint to use on them yet.) I don't want to paint the bumpers or mirrors the same as the car.

Would like to get some opinions from everyone. Should I get the full clear coat for 200.00 more or go with tthe 500.00 paint job. The 500.00 is in my price range, but I do have time to save for the 200.00 full clear coat since I not going to get it painted till the 2nd week of May.I just wondering if its worth spending the extra for the full clear coat, if there's going to be a big difference appearence wise.


Would like to get your thoughts and opinions on this. Sorry for the long post.

[milehighbear]

I stopped at Maaco wed and showed the guy my car, no back, no roof, and they wanted 500.00 to paint mine. I think I'll look into doing it myself.