When I took the car to drop it off at MAACO 2 weeks ago, the gentleman from corporate was not there. One of their main guys pulled my paperwork, and wanted to go over everything with me. They now did not want to do the door jams, under the hood, trunk, or the repair above the tail lights, as it was not on the paperwork. Wow, DeJaVu! I had to go over everything that the man from corporate had told me, and show proof with pictures on my tablet, that they had indeed painted those areas of the car. He was pretty adamant that the door jams and under the hood and trunk were painted after the car was taken from their shop. This is all the same exact stuff I had to show to the guy from corporate to get him to say they would repaint the car.

Just to get this information in here, as I had not mentioned it before:

Here is a photo of the car the moment it was backed into MAACO:

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Before I left, I removed the drives and passenger mirrors, and gave them new Fiero store gaskets to put on after the car was painted. I had removed just about everything that I could to not leave any seams and to ensure the car was painted correctly. I removed the gas cap and surround, the hood, headlight doors, all trim and molding, side markers, front bumper, outer dew wipes, the sunroof tracks, antennae, the reflectors in the rear bumper, removed the tail lights and both rear and front trunk area gaskets, and I removed the quarter windows. I also called a local glass shop to come remove the front window from the car so there would be no paint seam around the window molding.

When I originally dropped the car off, We had went in circles about the color that I chose for my Fiero. I had originally provided the color name, the year and make that the color was used on. A 2007 Mustang GT. (Sapphire Blue). We went around and around, and they tried to get me to pick another color from one of their books. It was not 10 minutes later when one of the paint guys came out with a can showing me the color he just mixed to paint my car. In the can it looked exactly like the Ford Sapphire Blue. When I received the car, it looked great, but was not near the color that I wanted. They refused to budge and I learned to just live with it.

With all of this prep work done myself, they still charged me $2800 for the paint job. A basic 2 stage, paint and clear coat. I think that is FAR more than fair to get a decent paint job and done right. Especially as there was NOTHING to remove and just having to throw covers over the tires, and minimal taping and papering around the windows & sunroof opening.


I had left them alone, as I said to take their time and do it right. Well it has been 2 weeks since I dropped it off, so I called for an update. He told me that they have not yet started on my car. Sure, I told them to take their time, as I wanted it done right, but not to forget about it I told him I was coming down to get the tail lights out of the trunk. After losing all of the new side molding and markers I bought from the Fiero Store, I honestly did not trust my brand new tail lights being left there.


Now, on to my experience with them today:

When I got there, we had the exact same conversation and argument that I did when I dropped the car off 2 weeks ago, and the week before that. The gentleman from corporate was not there, neither was the owner, so I had to explain everything all over again, this time to the manager. He wanted to just touch up areas of the car. He was now reluctant to do the door jams and under the hood and trunk, fix the chip in the hood, fix the back where they batched a repair job, paint under the headlight doors, and so forth. His excuse is that none of these items were itemized on the original paperwork. I was thinking to myself are you serious, I went through all of this already, TWICE! The man from corporate said they would just respray the entire car. Here I go again having to explain everything all over for a third time.

First he starts by telling me that they can not do the door jams as he has had people get the car painted there, then take it somewhere else to have those areas painted! I tell him the jams do not need painted, just the rocker panel corrected, as the paint to the touch, from when they did it felt like 200 grit sandpaper. I explained that the door jams and inner door itself stay black and untouched.

(Do they have some secret code of conduct to follow to get out of repairing something? This is the 3rd time that I have been accused of having under the hood, trunk and door jams painted at another shop after picking the car up from them....LUCKILY I have over 100 10 megapixel photos of EVERYTHING to prove otherwise.)



I then just casually asked if painting the door jams was extra, and he said "of course". I show him this photo, of the car in their paint shop showing the door jams THEY painted the first time around:

He then tells me that in the photo the door jams are blue already, and it came into their shop that way, and he is not going to paint them!

After listening to him accuse me of painting the jams after I took the car back from MAACO, I pulled up another closer photo, showing that the jams are masked off, and the did that to get to the lip of the white rear quarter panel to match it. The blue he is seeing in the photo is painted masking tape that they used to cover the black paint of the inner door frame I then walked him over to the car to show the door jams are still painted the original factory black. I then re-explain that it is JUST the rocker panels that need painted.

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So now, I play dumb a little bit, and say that you said painting the door jams and inside the decklid and hood is extra right? he agrees. I simply state that the pictures clearly show that they did paint these area's, and therefore I must have been charged, as you just told me you do charge for this. Thus the paperwork that he keeps referring to is mistakenly missing all of the "itemized lines" on the paperwork. Bottom line, an error on their part, an error on their part, not mine. Heck on the paperwork, they spelled my last name wrong, first letter of the last name so they had a hard time finding me in their computer. That and the fact that they did not even put the paint code on the paperwork. I tell him with all of these known errors, that it is far more than likely that the items he keeps telling me is not on the paperwork, are another mistake, and not my fault.

So, on to the hood and decklid, he still is insistent that they could have been painted somewhere else after I received the car! even after going through this with the door jams!

Exibit A: (Car in their shop, under the decklid not painted)

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Exibit B: Same Shop, their employees, Under decklid painted:

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All of this, and they are trying to get me to tell THEM what color the car is painted, so they can match it. I tell them it should be on the paperwork, of which it is not (Seems to be ANOTHER line item error or something! just proving that the paperwork was not filled out correctly in the first place....... More on this later in this post......

Now that that is settled, we move on to a chip in the fiberglass of the hood. He is insistent that the chip happened after the car left their shop. Again, my tablet to the rescue!

Here is the car after rolling out of the paint booth behind the shop:

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The photo clearly shows the gouge in the hood.


Next, on to the headlight covers, they failed to paint the under side of them, and just did the top. I had removed them and they were with the rest of the parts to be painted separately. He said they were attached to the car, and therefore could not paint the underside as they did with the hood (So now he says they DID paint under the hood! LOL) I reassure him that they were provided separately, and guess what... yep, the trusty tablet to the rescue yet again!

You can see the headlight covers in the back left of the photo laying flat, not hanging as they should be to paint both sides:

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I forgot to mention earlier, that the front bumper was a different shade / color than the rest of the car. they denied painting the front bumper at all..... Surprise surprise! ! ! I point to it in the photo, in their paint booth , and explain that it is a different color as it was painted with the nose up in the air, thus a different angle which will not work with metal flake paint. On top of that, the lip between the bumper and the hood, which is facing down when they painted it, is still white and was never painted.
Now on to the interesting part..... I noticed a bumper in the back right of that photo, that does NOT belong to my car. Could be a rear bumper from a Grand Am or something looking at the round light areas for brake lights. I point this out to him, and ask:

what are the odds that:

1) You try to get me to go to another color
2) The paint guy comes out with a gallon of paint a few minutes later saying here is your paint!
3) There is a bumper to another vehicle getting painted the same exact color as my car at the same time.

This stumps him, and he reluctantly agrees to paint my car the color that I wanted in the first place! They are now, again, agreeing to respray the whole car. Wow, what a battle just to get something fixed that was done incorrectly from the beginning.

I just have to hope and pray that they do not change their minds a 3rd time, and that it comes out the way I paid for in the first place. That is all I want, what I paid, and paid well for, in the first place. Nothing more.

It is now 3:45 in the afternoon, and I asked what time they closed, so I could bring the paint code back to them. He said he would be there till 5:00 PM when they close.


All of that aside, I tell him I still need to get the tail lights, and he points to go around the far side of the paint booth where my car is parked.

To my horror, I walk around the corner to see this:

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The interior is not completed yet, still missing a few trim pieces. However there is new carpet, new floor mats, new Mr. Mike Seat Covers, gauge clusters, switches, new door panels....... I was in no mood for further confrontation, so I grabbed my tail lights and just left.

I left and drove to the Ford dealership to get the color code. I purchased a bottle of the touch up paint so there could be no mistake. When I hauled butt to get back to MAACO, I got there at 4:32 and they were locked up and closed. So much for the manager saying he would be there till 5:00 for me to get him the color code!


I just sent a follow up letter to the corporate office with photos of the interior the way the car has been neglected. I am waiting to hear what they have to say.

[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 07-08-2014).]