Poor mans Paint

[Toms240420]

Well I searched this topic and got very little. I am sure this has been asked many times before so I am sorry for that. I just wanted to ask again about Maaco paint jobs. I have never known anyone who has had one done. I am just a lowly line cook who was lucky enough to get into a 240. I just want something that will look decent and last a couple of years. I don't want it to look obviously repainted like I did it myself. Any input will be appreciated. thanks. I LOVE THIS FORUM

[KDashy]

Hrmm, I haven't heard too much about it from NICO but back when I was on Accord boards, the results vary, some good, some very bad. I believe some Maaco's are privately owned and that could be why some are better/worse.

I think the general consensus is that if you do your own prepwork or know the guy thats going to do your car, it should look fine.

[Toms240420]

I guess I should do some research on body and prepwork. I just really don't have the time or place to do it myself. I hate living in the city, I miss the countryside dammit.

[w1ngzer0]

depends on the macco really. There is someone that gets a paint job a month and continues to change the color of his car lol. I don't see anything crappy about his paint jobs eather.

Its currently a brown colored sil80

[TurboKA37]

my friend had his 3000gt painted by macco about a year ago and the paint started chipping from the front bumper over summer. Not really sure what type of quality job he paid for but i doubt he had the best stuff done considering hes not a real car guy but i could tell there wasnt much prep work cuz stock paint was underneath chips. could have been primer but i dont think it was. i agree that if you do all the prep work then just have them do the paint you should be alright

[Toms240420]

ok prepwork. I just have a quick question. The dings and such would have to be filled right? I dont want to pull off panels to tap them out. Also this is a stupid question but a friend said he stripped his car of paint with razor blades. How would you go about it?

[TurboKA37]

striped his entire car with just razors? i think that might take awhile. anyway, i know there are different types of epoxies out there for removing paint. not sure if macco will include removing dents you would have to talk to them about that

[Tsukai240]

ok prepwork. I just have a quick question. The dings and such would have to be filled right? I dont want to pull off panels to tap them out. Also this is a stupid question but a friend said he stripped his car of paint with razor blades. How would you go about it?

acid: i don'y know the name of it but you put this acid/paint striper on it then go at it with a razor/scraper. maby i would do this but i would need a good place to do it because it takes forever.

[Arrow]

There are some pretty serious chemical paint strippers out today... I wouldn't recommend using them inless you know the precautions involved. The stuff is far from being environmental friendly and can cause some serious repritory issues if you inhail much of it..... I'd say the best course of action to do it yourself would be to generally sand the entire car (not to the metal, just to get out the impurities) and spend some time on getting the scratches and dents taken out then primer it and see what a paint shop can do for you! Good luck!

P.S. - if Macco does it and you get the cheapest service... expect that, cheap.... Before I got my 240 it had been painted by Macco and I doubt that there was any prepwork done to it so it was one of those 100 foot jobs... and on top of it it's been chipping like crazy from any little thing hitting it.... so all in all I'm not impressed w/ the quality.... but w/ prepwork it might have been better, and also I bet that different Maccos do better/worse paint jobs so just look around.

[1991S13]

What I have heard about Maaco is they are only good when you want to slap a nice paintjob on a car to make it look nice to sell it easier. That way it holds up until you sell it, but then the buyer has the chipping to deal with.

Definately prep the car though. I got the shop to primer my whole car when I got the kit put on so I wasnt riding around in a red car with a white kit, so they just primed it without any prep. Now about 2 months later around the front bumper, where the black strip is down the sides, the rear bumper, and spoiler are chipping like crazy. I think if I drove through an automatic carwash I would come out with the car being back to its old color.

[cstang1968]

A paint job is only as good as the surface prep. It is very, very easy to spray paint on a car. The prepwork takes more time and skill. I would recommend block sanding the car to get the high/lows out of the paint. Also, use filler sparingly, and try to pull/hammer out the dents.

[xXxTriStarxXx]

whatever you do dont waste your money on the "macco special" u might as well give it to me and ill spray paint it ive seen the cheepo paint job with the "clear coat" HA! thay crap strats to chip and faid like theres no tommrow after 6 months