WONDERING IF ANYBODY HAD THEIR CAR(FIERO) PAINTED AT MAACO AND HOW GOOD OR BAD A JOB THEY DID!!!!

All I can say is that you get what you paid for. I've seen some of the worst paint jobs in history come out of MAACO, however I knew a local MAACO owner and said I'd throw in an additional 150 on top of there top of the line job, if it met my satisfaction. After it had time to cure and a few wax jobs. It was almost show quality. Make sure you have them strip off the old paint and get as many coats of paint and clearcoat possible.

just my .02

mw

Like Marc said.. you get what you pay for... save your $ and do it right once not wrong twice. take it to a reputable shop that shoots Sikkens , PPG, Spies Hecker, Glasurit, ICI, DuPont, House of Kolor, or other decent coatings and be sure they seal your panels.. if not you WILL have orange peel on the nose and rear bumper... and if they tell you you can't wash your car for a week or drive at night or only in the far left lane on tuesdays.. walk away.. find another shop. it well worth the wait to have a nicer finish that will out last the car!

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MAACO centers are individually owned and operated, so it's hard to gauge the worth of one center from the performance of another.

My buddy bought a Cutlass Ciera whose previous owner paid for a mid-line MAACO paint job. The paint has terrible orange peel and is coming off in quarter-sized flecks. But I recall another Forum member (can't remember which - really!) getting a MAACO paint job that he was really happy with. He posted pics and it looked great.

One of our club members had his car done by Maaco in metallic green. It looks very good.

I've heard good and bad things about Maaco but don't have any experience with them. Try searching the Technical and General sections on painting Fieros, you should find some good info already posted in the forum.

Are you planning on changing colors? This would involve painting the door jams to match the body to do the job right.

I agree with 1FST2M6, take it to a few shops and get some quotes. You will spend more for a nice 2 stage basecoat/clear finish, but will be well worth it.

By the way, all caps means shouting. No biggy, Welcome to the Forum!

My dad has been painting cars for a long time as a hobby, and I wouldnt have any of my cars painted by anybody but him. It's not his profession, just a hobby, but we've gotten some awesome finishes before. And, we can paint as many coats as we want for the best price (labor's free!). And best of all everything gets done the way we want/the right way. I've always been skeptical of these discount auto paint stores. In my opinion, whatever you invest in your car's paintjob is just what you'll get out of it.

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FieroJoe
c311t@yahoo.com

where's mason? i might have to call you if i want mine to get painted. extra money for dad

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As was stated earlier, all Maacos are independantly. Ed Parks sends all of his paint job Fieros to his local Maaco(he knows the owner or something). At the swap meet earlier this spring there was an absolutely beautiful oragne Formula in the lot that had just come back from Maaco with a color change. I didn't hear a single person say it "looked like a Maaco job", noone could believe something that nice came from Maaco. Guess it just depends who does the work.

[This message has been edited by fiero56 (edited 12-18-2000).]

Has anyone heard of EARL SCHEIB PAINT & BODY it seems to be in competition with maaco and like to know if anyone has have any experience with them.

I think the key to finding a good painter is to look at some cars he's already painted before turning your Fiero over to him. My Yellow GT got a Macco job (Sikkens single stage) when the previous owner had it. A friend of his worked there. I have no Idea how much he paid, but it had bad orange peel and runs on the belt moulding and around the bottom. I've done better paintjobs myself. It may have looked OK if it had been color-sanded and buffed, but I was affraid there wasn't enough paint on it.

My brother is a professinal painter for about 8 years. He painted my Countach. The DuPont paint, clearcoat and reducer alone was in excess of $800, but the finish was absolutely flawless. If you want it to be smooth as glass, plan on spending a few days wetsanding and buffing the entire car, or paying someone to do it. You generally get what you pay for in labor and materials.

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Jon Lagler
'87 GT
4.9 liter V8 Testarossa Spyder (under construction)

As others say above, I think it depends on the individual Maaco shop. I painted about half of my Fiero, and the local Maaco shop painted half. (Why? It's a long story . . .) My half looks as good as or better than their half, and this is my first attempt. Maaco's paint coverage was uneven; their masking was sloppy; they painted my exhaust and AC condenser; etc.

Anyone else remember the "I'LL PAINT ANY CAR FOR $29.95!!!" TV ads?

If you want a cheap job done fast they're the place to go. You'll get what you paid for.

quote Originally posted by jlruiz67: Has anyone heard of EARL SCHEIB PAINT & BODY it seems to be in competition with maaco and like to know if anyone has have any experience with them.

Just another data point...

My driver's door received a 6"-8" smear (paint rubbed off) from a lady backing out of the parking space next to my car. She admitted to it; told me to get a couple estimates, and she'd pay for it.

Trying to get an idea what the range might be, I took the car to a Pontiac dealer, and to MAACO, for estimates. Believe it or not, the Pontiac dealer's estimate was less. A lot less - plus, that same dealership has done bodywork on my car in the past, and they did a good job. The only extras MAACO promised, was lots of disclaimers (color match might not be perfect, etc.).

Point -? Shop around; you might be surprised. JuStuCents' worth .

If someone else is paying for it get it done right! Don't worry about the price. 86se

I own my own body/paint shop and I use ICI basecoat/clearcoat for my top notch jobs. I do a lot of dealer used cars where they dont want to spend a lot, so I do all the sanding, masking, bodywork and let the Maaco behind me shoot them for me. There good enough for car dealer and they do it for less than I can buy good paint. I get a deal from them of $150 per car. opens up my space for the good jobs.

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quote Originally posted by jlruiz67: Has anyone heard of EARL SCHEIB PAINT & BODY it seems to be in competition with maaco and like to know if anyone has have any experience with them.

Friend had his Firebird painted at Earl Scheib's. They painted EVERYTHING. Door jambs, dash, headlights, parking lights, Window trim, tires, wheels, etc. Lots of overspray. About 3 months after the paint job the paint started cracking.
It was the "I'll paint eeny car eeny color fur $199.99" job. Needless to say his second paint job was $2000.00 Since the car had to be totally stripped to repaint it correctly.

rogergarrison,
how much would it cost me to bring my car to you and get a paint job?
how long would you take?

years ago, back in high school, a friend had her bug painted by earl scheib, for $99.95.

i remember that they painted the rubber running boards! that was the thickest looking paint i had ever seen.

recently, a friend had his x19 painted by some place, for $200, the car turned out pretty decent (for the price). of course this guy had stripped, sanded and removed most everything b4 taking the car in to get painted. it had a little overspray on the dew wipes, and small run in the hood. but overall, looked decent.

hoop

I was thinking of doing the macco thing because I just don't have 1300 or so to blow on a paint job right now...And the macco job has to look better then the way it looks now. need to find a hood first.... 86se

The previous owner of my '76 Lemans got an Earl Scheib job done... over spray everywears, bad color match, no door jams (except for the over spray) paint started flaking and bubbles came up. Took it arround, cheepest estimate I got was $3500 because it was a big car, and the entire thing needed to be stripped down. And yes, that $3500 was out of my shop arround, the most expencive quote was $5000!!! ahh the joys of small plastic cars, so much easier/cheeper to paint!

I used to deliver paint supplies to a MAACO in PA. Having been in the body supply business for awhile I noticed a few things about their work.

~They didn't actually sand unless totally necessary, otherwise they used 3M green scuff pads. Kind of like the scouring side of the two sided kitchen sponges. And the one Chevy truck I remember the best, there was a shorter guy doing the prep work and he couldn't reach the entire hood so I watched them roll th truck into the booth with the center area still shiny, meaning it hadn't been scuffed.

~ Another time one of my friends has a Firebird with a MAACO job on it and he wanted me to add some pinstripes. I started appling the stripe and there was a slight bend where there shouldn't have been so I started peeling it back off to reapply it and the paint come off with the stripe.

~The reason the Pontiac dealer was cheaper to do the repair is because most $199 paint your car places don't want to get involved in that, they buy their paint n 55gal drums and don't want to bother with mixing to match.

Just my $.02