anyone here have pics of their maaco paint jobs? i wanna see what kind of work they do. did u hav to prepare the car before u bought it to them? how much did they charge and were u happy with the work?

romeo

and keep in mind that this was the SECOND time they painted the car because the first time there were too many mistakes that i wouldn't accept it. i would NEVER go back with my car, i MIGHT go just with the panels to have them painted, cause then you wouldn't worry about overspray, but don't expect it to last more than a year before it chips off

What with all the machines (lath, welders, presses, etc, etc) we now have in my garuge we have no room to paint cars anymore and thus we had them do couple of cars for us with acceptable results for the price. Thing is though, you have to prep it if you want it to come out good and check it over real good for runs etc, before you take it away. The Macco we used fixed the few runs we found without any hassel.

Just imagine that they paint your car with Testors enamel model paint with a brush...
I have never known Maaco to do a factory-like finish.
Twice I have made the mistake to go to a Maaco.
When I was young I had a camaro painted and about 5 yrs ago had a fiero hood painted.
Both times were dissapointing to say the least.

If you want a factory like result go to a REAL Collision and Paint Center/ Body shop.

OUT>

Maaco is where the fly by night car dealers go to to get a quick splash job to make the car look good just long enough to sell it. Their paint guarantees amount to 30 seconds or 30 feet....whichever comes first, unless you're willing to have a battle with them. Let's face it.......You get what you pay for, and Maaco is not exactly known for kissing you before they screw you.

What is under the paint is often the determining factor between a good and bad paint job. Give Maaco a perfect surface and you will get a good job. Bring them a poorly prepped surface and you will get back something that looks like junk.

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87GT 3.4 Turbo- 0-60 5.2 seconds -Best
Engine Controls, ECM goodies, Chip
re-programming & odd electronics stuff

Bastirds!

Thats got to be one of the WORST tape-jobs I have ever seen !

Overspray?, Hell looks like they did it purposely on some spots..

Did they even cover the rims??

Whats that in the trunk? It looks like they stored the spray gun in there??

Holy CRAP, Did they even SAND the car??

Whats the status on payment?, I wouldnt give them a freaking DIME for that one..

I like the idea of taking ALL the panels OFF then painting then and re-installing..

I say you call the corporate office or at least email them some pictures..

I will NEVER go to that place after seeing this mess.. damn!!!!!!!

Regards
Rob

[This message has been edited by BERKELUSA (edited 07-29-2005).]

I have a Maaco job just about as bad as fierce_gt,overspray and runs everywhere,don't care how much prep work you do yourself it won't save you from the runs and overspary done with the cheapest paint they can buy,it will now cost an extra 300.00-400.00 to clean up the garbage on the car to get a real paint job.Save your money in the long run and pay the extra now to get a good paint job.Maaco went out of business in my town.

[This message has been edited by samt (edited 07-29-2005).]

If you're just trying to make it look good long enough to sell it then you might be happy with a Maaco job. Don't do it to a car you intend to keep, though - not only will you need to repaint it after a short while, but it'll cost you a lot more to get the crappy paint off the car so that good paint will stick.

Check the prices on paint; there's plenty of on-line auto supply stores. Price out a quart of color and a couple of quarts of clear, the hardeners and reducers. Now look at the price on that Maaco job and you'll quickly see that they're not using quality paints. They cut corners on the labor, too.

"Leave the windows down and we'll do the interior for free"

I thank God for people like Fierce GT, thanks for showing us all that.

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after what i went through with maaco i'd seriously consider painting the car myself. i mean if i'd do it i'd get mad orange peel and dust, and when maaco did, well i got mad orange peel, dust, and overspray. i figure i'd rather spray it myself and then spend the time wet sanding/buffing/polishing to get a nice finish then go back to maaco and have nothing even worth waxing.

i think the only reason they stay in business is shoddy dealerships using them to paint cars to sell.

in all honesty though, it's what you have a year or two from the paint job that really shows the difference. it just doesn't last. my brother had his car painted on that 99bux plus an insurance claim deal, and it looked AMAZING, until after the first winter and there was rust coming through everywhere.

i guess i can elaborate and tell the whole story, well i'll still try to keep it short.
bought car from ontario, recently had a maaco paint job. few spots were pealing etc, maaco warrenty only good if i go back to the place that painted it. not worth the trip. eventually buy spoiler, want it mounting and painted, look into painting whole car. bout 400 bux for complete respray, not bad. so i go for it. takes a week longer than they said it would, get it back and notice a couple runs on the ground fx, and on the front passenger corner looks like somebody brushed up against it while it was still wet. not acceptable, they say they will buff it out no problem, bring it back at convience. car then gets hit while at work, and i have a 227 dollar claim that is hardly worth my 200 deductible. part that was broken was the piece of the ground fx on the driver side rear 1/4 panel. turns out to be tough to get, go through autopac figure they can handle it. they can't, they say no piece is avail, maaco says piece is irrepairable. i go on a hunt, find the piece about a month later for 40 bux(little pricey, but autopac will cover it right?). take it to maaco, they say no good, mounting piece is broken off, same reason i could use old one. getting mad, wasted 40 bux and still don't have what i need. 20th anniversary fiero show coming up, i want car to look good, been about 9 months since first painted now, and chips EVERYWHERE. go back in to see if they can at least buff out the runs and fix the crappy paint job. double check on the status of the missing piece, they say we'll just plastic weld it, no problem(what the hell, last year it was not possible?). they take a look at the car and see all the nastiness and all the work that will be needed and say we'll respray it for 150 bux. kinda thinking to myself that's bullshit you should do it for free i already paid, but it was almost a year later, and the stone chips technically wouldn't be covered. say ok, go for it. again pick up car a week late, and whats this, not only do i have runs in the exact same locations as before, but i also have a crack in the same place on the ground fx as i was getting fixed. oops they say, must have broken when they installed it and didn't notice. bullshit, getting annoyed, i NEED the car, so they take off the ground fx and repair it again. come back a week later and have it reinstalled. all is well sorta. by this time i have realized my mistake and just want to cut my loses and never let them touch my car again.
and the update, well that crack is back on the piece, the "repair" lasted until my return from pontiac michigan, so like 10 days, and it took me 3hrs with a rag, razorblade and acetone to remove all the overspray. the wheels were actually my "spare" set cause i knew from the first spraying i got a bit on the tires, but that was terrible.

anyway, that's my short version of my horror story. at the time i didn't realize they used cheaper paints too, i thought they just did shoddy work. now knowing that the paint they use is of poor quality, i wouldn't even think of going back, even if you get a perfect job, it won't last because of the paint. so even going in and talking to the guys and saying things like if this is done well there's a 100 dollar tip in it for you(heard ppl do that and get good jobs)

[This message has been edited by fierce_gt (edited 07-29-2005).]

quote Originally posted by AaronZ34:I thank God for people like Fierce GT, thanks for showing us all that.

I second that, and I hope you're not going to settle for that job. The over-spray is hideous and now that our cars are reaching collector status maybe you should send the pics to your lawyer or BBB and seek damages and a refund. Is there a chemical you can use to remove the over-spray without damaging the body?

I have to say, the job I had done by Maaco on my Model A was fabulous. BUT I brought everything in separately, the hood, fenders and cowl. I had black fenders and the rest red. They primed over all my work with a two part primer. Then they sprayed the parts with polyurethane. The cost of the job was more than I was expecting, 1100.00 but it was an excellent job. I don't have one complaint.

If you do the prep work yourself you can get a good paint job from a reputable body shop for the cost of paint and labor, just prep it according to their specifications. The fiero is one of the best vehicles to get a great job on because if you really want it to look like a factory job you can pull the panels off and present them for the work up, no taping necessary.

I was quoted $275 plus paint for a camaro if I prepped it, by a reputable body shop once. My experience with Maaco wasn't to bad, the car looked better than it did when I took it to them however the paint was a bit thin in some areas and judging from the over spray on the wheels they did take a fast food approach to doing it. I wouldn't do it again unless I could get a commitment to a certain level of quality for my money, and as for the getting what you pay for, for me no matter how little I charge for a service, the pride I take in my work keeps the effort I put forth at not less than satisfactory. The end product is representative of your character in some way and that's not something I would want to compromise to make a buck at least not at someone elses expense.

[This message has been edited by Joseph Upson (edited 07-29-2005).]

Here is what I did:

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/065148.html

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-Brady

[This message has been edited by Bradester (edited 07-29-2005).]

I'm gonna go against the grain here.....We had our 96 F150 reshot at Maaco. We bought the truck new, but after 7 years, it had a "Texas Suntan". We didn't want to pop a couple of grand on painting a truck that we work on our land, so off to Maaco we went. $600 later, here's what we have.

It's been two years now, and it's still very glossy and hasn't peeled. It once again has parking lot rash courtesy of the fat ladies at Wal-Mart ramming their doors into it, but other than that, looks good. My only complaint is that their masking was obviously rushed, and I spent a couple of hours removing overspray.

Bottom line....it varies by shop. They have to be a little better here, as cheap (and good) paint jobs are available in Juarez with little hassle. Would I have my Vette painted there? Not a chance. A show quality Indy or 88 GT?....no way in Hell...but a beater Fiero....absolutely.

If you go to Maaco, don't expect anything great. I took my GT to Maaco last year and did all the prep work myself. I removed the spoiler and they still didn't paint the underside becasue they thought you wouldn't be able to see it once it was on ( made them repaint it ). The sides have some orange peel but the top surfaces look OK. I used a spare set of Grand Am rims so they couldn't ruin my good ones. There are a couple of small runs but I can live with them. Like others have said, do all the prep work yourself and don't expect showroom quality and you'll be OK. ALso, don't get the cheap paint job for $250, get the $500 job or the $800 job that comes with a clear coat. Or save your money and get a REAL paint job. Mine turned out OK, but I knew what to expect. Here are a couple of pics from the day I brought it home. I hadn't put the ground effects or spoiler or mirrors or anything back on yet:

-Rick

those last two examples you can really see how bad the orange peel is.

also, i'm not sure about this, but are the maaco's franchised? cause i've noticed at least in winnipeg that there is a "bad" maaco and a "better" maaco. so i'm sure the care they put into the job depends greatly on the owner as well. i think the only thing that will be the same all over is that they use cheap enamel paint to cut costs. and that stuff could be applied by michaelangelo and still look terrible after a winter or two

All Maacos are franchises. Each individual shop is responsible for their own screwups. You will get absolutely no support from corporate. Check their website. There's not even any way to contact them.
Fierofool ended up having parts of his car damaged by one of the local Maacos. He was looking for some recourse through "corporate". Guess what?! All that "corporate" does is license the name. No freaking help whatsoever.
I'll let him jump in with the gory details if he feels like it (he sued and won), but after seeing what he went through, there's no way in hell that I'd take a car to Maaco. I'd paint it myself, first. And I don't even know how to paint.

Well I've got a policy when I comes to maco NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!. There work isnt very good at all. They rush it and get overspray all over everything. I can see getting a maco paint job for a work truck or something like Frizlefrak did, but if you love your car dont go to maco.

From what I've read the paint jobs at Maaco run from poor to excellent. Some Maaco shops have some very skilled painters and some hire cheap, non-english speaking ignorant labor. The Maaco by me does very good work. In the winter when they are slow they take their time and do a great job. In the summer you get more of a rush job. I've had a few cars painted by Maaco and they all look quite nice. Last year they painted my 97 Monte Carlo and you'd swear that the paint is showroom new- no overspray orange peel or drips. A maaco is only going to do work as good as the skills of the head painter will allow. See their work beforehand and then decide if it's right for you.

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87GT 3.4 Turbo- 0-60 5.2 seconds -Best
Engine Controls, ECM goodies, Chip
re-programming & odd electronics stuff

I agree...

I've had cars done there that looked like factory, but I've seen cars there that looked like shite too

One key area is prep. If you remove lights, etc and prep the body yourself, it will look better. If they'll let you mask it, do it as it'll take less time to do it yourself than the many hours later you'll spend removing overspray. 3-5 hours is typical to remove overspray from a maaco job...

I just bought my own paint gun...hoping to try it out soon

quote Originally posted by fierce_gt: those last two examples you can really see how bad the orange peel is.

your going to have orange peel from any paint job. color sand and polishing is needed. not that im defending maaco in any way, dont get me wrong. around here we have a maaco that you just drive through with your winsheild wipers on and 3 minutes later you have a paint job!

its all dependant on the individual maaco, as said over and over again. talk to the guy in charge, if he seems like a dirty salesman, then dont expect much.

I have only seen one of their paint jobs in person, and it was horrible. The orange peel was so bad they could have done better with a roller. Really, you can get better out of a rattle can. I once painted a truck with farm and fleet white tractor paint in the yard with a crappy primer gun, and it looked MUCH better than what they did to my friend's van. actually I only owned that truck for 3 days. Bought it for 150 bucks, glassed in all the rust, painted it, pollished the chrome, cleaned the interior, and sold it for 1200. I was very please with my weekend project.

the thing that really confused me was that my bro had his firebird paint for 99 bux(they had some special on, with an insurance claim they'd paint the rest for 99 bux) and it looked STUNNING. i mean awe imspiring. it was rusting through by the next spring, but still, amazing job and why would i care about rust?
but they did a horrid job on mine. same exact maaco and everything, bout 7 months apart.

anyway, orange peel, yes, you're gonna get it no matter what, but i can spray bomb a car with less orange peel than i recieved from maaco, and judging by the reflection on that truck posted above he got the same deal. orange peel is not a yes or no question, it's a how bad kinda thing, and maaco is by far one of the worst i've seen.

here's what a 2600 job looks like(only the front have of the car too)

those are after about a week, hasn't been washed yet let alone wet sanded/buffed/polished or anything like that. is there orange peel? yes, is it anywhere near as bad as what i got from maaco? nope
it's hard to get a reflecton off yellow, but here's the best i have. this is after wax and polishing

the orange peel is noticeable still if you look for it, but i spent probably 3hrs on that hood alone, and it was more the sides of the car that were bad, so...
heres some more pics i found:

and just to show, we spent a lot of time in the shop ourselves checking up on things, i'd hate to see what they'd have done if we looked like we didn't care.

I know im not too smart, and i feel stupid for asking... but what is orange peal?

ok, here's another look.
this is the paint i had BEFORE(which doesn't mean much since it was an ontario maaco job, 9 months old i might add)

and here it is the day it was painted

no doubt it's an improvement, but still, look at how this angle looks

SO if the job is horrible will maaco redo it?
Is the problem of Orange peal solvable by wet sanding it your self?
And how much is a decent Maaco paint job?
Id like to get mine painted (in my price range) it doesnt need to be anything fancy, i would like to take it to the occsinal fiero show but im not looking for any kind of award winning stuff here.
I think under 1k would be my spending limit... and do they only do one color? like if i wanted my trim (the bottem of a GT) and my spoiler black and the rest of the car red... is that possible or should I just prim it my self there first and then mask it off and rattle can it?

I have lots of questions

It is a case by case basis. All I can say is stop by your local Maaco and see they work that they have finished. Yes I have had vehicles painted by Maaco (work trucks) and it is holding up well two years later. Is it my local Maaco? No it is the second closest---about 15 miles away. Would I have a Fiero painted there? Daily driver---yes, show car no?

i definately agree, go to the place you are thinking about taking it and look at what they produce.
as far as wet sanding youself. yes you could do it, but it's a TON of work. not to mention you need a variable speed buffer to make it shiny again afterwards.

i would do as much prep as you can yourself, remove the panels if possible. i got the cheapest two stage they offered, it was about 450bux. i'm pretty sure their "higher end" paint services will be compairable to a normal paint job at a couple hundred less.

and yes they will paint more than one color, when they did my brothers firebird they painted the mirrors and trim black again, on my fiero they did not touch the chipped and peeling paint on my mirrors

and as for maaco redoing, well the first time i went by the only real problems were a couple runs, they said i could return it and they would buff them out no problem. assuming that was as far as i needed to go i probably would have been satisfied with them. but i had to bring the car back about 8months later due to an insurance claim and lack of fiero parts in manitoba. they repaired a panel, and cracked it again installing it, tried to give it to me cracked, i said no. they had to do it again. so i'm sure they were getting really fed up with the car, and i was really fed up with them trying to pass it on to me half done. but like i said, if it weren't for that stupid panel getting broken, i probably would have been satisfied with them just buffing it out.(the car was hit before the paint even fully cured, so they didn't have a chance to buff out the runs, no idea if they would have actually looked good or not). i can't blame maaco for everything, they just didn't help a bad situation.

despite what i had done, i'm not 100% against maaco. i'd just never go there with a car i cared about. like it has it's advantages, i mean go spend 1500 on a new paint job and they drive teh car, it's nerveracking. you can't go down dirt roads, big trucks, etc. however with a maaco job that has a couple flaws already you can really just enjoy the car instead. it's not like ANYBODY will notice the imperfections while you're driving, even the casual viewer won't pick them out when the car is parked. in fact it'll probably only annoy you when you wash the car and you get up close to all the details. it's kinda like looking at that first scratch over and over again.

[This message has been edited by fierce_gt (edited 07-31-2005).]

Its a daily driver, I see no point in owning a car that I only drive on the weekend... its my toy and ill play with it every day. Whats needed to keep a maaco paint looking like it did the day you got it? Wax every weekend?
Is there a wax that will protect it all year?
If you arnt in a possistion to buy a winter car (which i dont think ill be able to do) and have to drive the car year round whats the best tricks to keeping the paint good. This is also part of the reason I dont want to part with 1600 for a paint job... plus if I could afford 1600 for a paint job I could get a winter car.

quote Originally posted by Frizlefrak: I'm gonna go against the grain here.....We had our 96 F150 reshot at Maaco. We bought the truck new, but after 7 years, it had a "Texas Suntan". We didn't want to pop a couple of grand on painting a truck that we work on our land, so off to Maaco we went. $600 later, here's what we have. It's been two years now, and it's still very glossy and hasn't peeled. It once again has parking lot rash courtesy of the fat ladies at Wal-Mart ramming their doors into it, but other than that, looks good. My only complaint is that their masking was obviously rushed, and I spent a couple of hours removing overspray. Bottom line....it varies by shop. They have to be a little better here, as cheap (and good) paint jobs are available in Juarez with little hassle. Would I have my Vette painted there? Not a chance. A show quality Indy or 88 GT?....no way in Hell...but a beater Fiero....absolutely.

so say I wanna paint my fiero black..would you recommend them? and which one? im in the same city as ya...oooo and lemme test drive your vette =)

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quote Originally posted by stasis-: so say I wanna paint my fiero black..would you recommend them? and which one? im in the same city as ya...oooo and lemme test drive your vette =)

So you've read this thread and still want to take your car to Maaco?

God help people stupider than I...

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well maaco is a franchise..the quality depends on the location..he lives in the same city as me and said they do a decent job, so I said maybe I would check them out..not too stupid =)

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as long as you aren't looking for perfection maaco is a reasonable option. my biggest concern is how easily the paint chips off, i don't know if there is anything you can do about that.

quote Originally posted by AaronZ34: So you've read this thread and still want to take your car to Maaco? God help people stupider than I...

I too have read the thread and am still considering them. But only after I take the advice here and look at some of their work. If its bad then forget it, but if its decent then why not? Im not looking to win awards here, just to have a shiny paint job again.

quote Originally posted by AaronZ34: So you've read this thread and still want to take your car to Maaco? God help people stupider than I...

so what sould peaple do spead 1000 - to 3000 on a paint job even if the car is a 1200 dollar car . i would be happy will a car that is a soild color for a few year . AND YES MY
CAR IS GOING TO MAACO IN A FEW WEEKS . THERE IS NO WAY I WILL SPEND 3 TIMES WHAT I HAVE IN THE CAR ON GETTING IT PAINTED .

i couldnt agree more.......

I reiterate.....after 2 years in blistering West Texas summer heat, my Maaco special on the pickup has not faded or chipped. For a beater / daily driver, it's an economical option.

I had Tony Lewis paint my Corvette. They took it down to the gelcoat, disassembled the mirrors, headlight buckets, separated the bumpers, removed the hood and painted the underside the original semi-gloss black, did the door jambs, and laid on the prettiest basecoat clearcoat I have ever seen. It cost me $3400.

There is no way in Hell I would put that paintjob on my truck. I pull stumps, haul my tractor, bring back a full bed load of firewood from my property every year, and my wife uses it as a daily driver and parks it next to the fat ladies driving beat up High-UHNNN-dies at Wal-Mart.

Maaco was the ideal low cost option. Perfect? Not by a long shot. But a good price / quality balance for this vehicle. Funny thing is, the pics I posted don't really do it justice. I get a lot of compliments on it at the gas station, etc.

It's your call. If you decide to go to a Maaco, ask to see their work first. Advise them that you will be picky ahead of time.....oh....and meet the painter and bring him a case of beer before he does your car. He won't drink it until he's done, and he will like you and do a better job on your car. Trust me on this one.