My father ( Rverhalen), had his car painted by Maaco and it looks amazing. On the other hand, my car was painted by Maaco and the job isn't so great.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: 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.

Just getting back from vacation and catching up on things. Yeah, MAACO doesn't give corporate support or interaction with the customer. I couldn't find any way to contact them, unless I wanted to purchase a franchise. I did, however find the name and address of the President of the corporation.

We stripped the ground effects, headlight doors, mirrors, deck lid, removed the spoiler, removed the rear fascia, tail lights, and turned it over to them for the top of the line base coat/clear coat paint. When I got it back it had buffing compound clear coated into the top. I made them strip and repaint the front section of the top. There was buffing compound in the door seams, in the area between the front edge of the hood and the front fascia, all clear coated into the paint job. I had installed a new right side quarter window and they used a razor knife to cut masking on it. When it went back for the repaint of the top, they put numerous other gouges into the quarter window. Since the shop is some 75 miles from my home, I left it at another club members home, near their shop. This is where we removed the body parts and reinstalled them. They tried to blame the physical damages on him.

They gouged a 1 inch strip out of the leather steering wheel, sprayed the inside drivers side with some kind of brown powdery muck, to include underneath the dash, threw away my floor mats that had the fiero logo embossed into them. There was a set of finger prints in the hood, and flecks of trash all throughout the paint. The paint is chipping off the hood and front fascia. It looks like stone chips, but in the first 18 years and 100,000 miles of its life, it never got as many chips as it has in the last year. Obviously they aren't stone chips, but just the paint chipping off, due to a poor primer coat or prep.

The only thing I can say positive for them is that there was absolutely no overspray, and they matched the color. Yes, I did sue them for the quarter window and floor mats, and I won. But in the long run, I lost because I'll have to have the car repainted. It's no longer suitable to show in competition.

When we paid $600 for a Maaco paint job to repaint our car silver---they decided it would be funny to paint it Pink! When we complained, they gave us a ration of backlash. Not only was it the wrong color, but it had runs all over it--and it was rough to the touch. We finally got them to repaint the car, however, there is pink overspray visible from outside the car and the new paint looks very dull. In addition they broke $275 worth of parts on our car which they refuse to pay for-----so you see what we got for $875 plus a load of aggravation?
You want to pull your suspenders out and say, I'm using them anyway? I wish you the best of luck. Since I have a compressor, a garage, and used to spray cabinets --I am considering painting our Fieros myself---not decided for sure yet though.
Check around----there are always some guys who are good at shooting cars that will do it for a few hundred bucks---you buy the paint and do the prep----the results will be way better than Maaco will ever give you and it will probably be cheaper.

[This message has been edited by jeffndebrus (edited 08-01-2005).]

Maaco does what I call a "five foot" paint job. Looks perfect from five feet. As people here are saying: it's all about the prep. It will be exacly as good as the prep you put into it. Maaco did mine, and it was fair.

you know what your all problems are? you need to go to Earl Sheib! For $380 I got a two-tone red & silver with clear coat (okay 90% clear, 10% red, but that makes chips easier to repair)
that rocked after I wet sanded and buffed it out. It was okay before sanding. I also did an Audi wagon in blue metallic and clear coat. After I made them repaint it
because the first time they didn't clear it, it also turned out great. He wanted to give me my money back, said I was too picky, couldn't please me. I said no, I just want it clear
coated like I paid for, glad I did! Unfortunately, they closed it down, the only one left in Colorado is in the Springs, so now I'll be doing them myself!

------------------

Theres on in Detroit!
And those prices... yes I think that might work for me!

Are there any other large chains that do painting? Im looking to get my front fascia re-painted and perhaps some new side scoops painted to match. Im just curious about prices and quality. Obviously the popular opinion is "avoid maaco" but im not painting my entire car, just small parts, if that makes any difference.

The paint you see on my car was an $1,800 job done by some shop in Colorado. The previous owner made the mistake of taking it home too early and getting stuck behind a snow plow. The result: My front end is badly chipped and the teal colored primer shows through. From a distance you cant see it but when you get up close its hideous. Here take a look........

------------------
My 1986 GT

[This message has been edited by CaliforniaSpeeder9 (edited 08-10-2005).]

quote Originally posted by CaliforniaSpeeder9: The paint you see on my car was an $1,800 job done by some shop in Colorado. The previous owner made the mistake of taking it home too early and getting stuck behind a snow plow. The result: My front end is badly chipped and the teal colored primer shows through. From a distance you cant see it but when you get up close its hideous. Here take a look........

That really bites the big one. Such is life.

------------------

The guys at Maaco here shoot pretty good paint. I wouldn't recommend them for a custom show job but for a daily driver they have done some excellent work for me. At $300 you couldn't even buy the paint for that. Certainly you can't expect a $300 paint job to look like a $3000 paint job. However, the paint that Maaco put on my Monte Carlo last winter looks near excellent. Some very tiny flaws exist but overall the paint looks super even closeup. I'm taking one of my GT"s for a Maaco paint job in late September. I will post close up digital photos afterwards. While I wouldn't recommend every Maaco location, some select shops do some very good work. The Maaco here paints well with no sags, runs, overspray or orange peel.

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

Maaco F'ing sucks. Paint is peeling off of my car so bad it isn't funny. I can't even wash my cr or there will be purple paint flakes all in my driveway. They did will at not spraying everything, Of course they didn't even prep the car! Take it from me, Buy a freakin compressor for $300 on ebay (nothing below 60 gal) And paint for about $200 (more than you will ever need). Learn how to paint it yourself, and you will never have to worry about anything ever being done right again.

quote Originally posted by Emc209i: Maaco F'ing sucks. Paint is peeling off of my car so bad it isn't funny. I can't even wash my cr or there will be purple paint flakes all in my driveway. They did will at not spraying everything, Of course they didn't even prep the car! Take it from me, Buy a freakin compressor for $300 on ebay (nothing below 60 gal) And paint for about $200 (more than you will ever need). Learn how to paint it yourself, and you will never have to worry about anything ever being done right again.

I hear ya EMC. Some Maacos do suck the big one while others do good work. In your case it sounds as though the prepwash, sanding, primer or adhesion promoter wasn't used. Don't forget that for $300 you get paint but not much of a sanding job. Fortunately Maaco does provide a warantee. Take out your bill of sale and look. You might very well get a new paint job for free.

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