Truck's in the shop now getting some things done that are outside my skill level, which is pretty basic, then it's off to paint. I hope sometime next week. Will post pics when I get it back together.

Bottom pic is before I got the right tires. Top pic is close to what it will look like when I
m done, but it will be Dragon Green. Not making it a show car, just a nice looking beater/daily driver/errand-runner. It will keep the dings and dents for charater. Interior will be all new and pretty nice, though.

Michael

nice ride...love the white walls!

Got it back from Maaco today. They screwed up three or four times (depending on how you look at it), but it's better than when it went in. Here's a pic. This is all I could get done on my lunch hour today. Won't be able to work on it again till Friday. (Should be done, but Maaco was two weeks late getting it back to me.) I'm itching to get it all back together. Carpet is gonna be the toughest thing to do.

Cheers,

Michael

nice...very nice...

more please!:D

Thanks. I'll post more as I get it back together.

Here's how it looked in March whne I got it.

For more, check out my web site: www.houseofbamboo.net. Click the Other Projects link to find the truck.

Cheers,

Michael

And another Day One pic.

Here are a few photos of it almost finished.

More

More

More

And one more.

Oh, here's how the interior looked when I got it.

Okay, one last one.

very nice...and the engine bay?

It's not too much too look at now, but I'll get it looking better ASAP.

Thanks,

MG

You have a nice truck there.:dude: What did they charge you at maaco?

$299 for the basic enamel paint, plus $199 to do the bed, doors, floors, back wall and under the hood, plus $100 for a color change (it was primer and green), plus $35 each for three minor spots of body work.

When I said, whoa, my budget is $400. What happened to $299? He told me he could knock $50 off the basic paint because there was a special going on. (Woulda been nice if he'd mentioned that before, no?) That made it $653 plus tax.

When I went to look at it three days after the original promised date of completion, it was just out of the paint booth and they hadn't done any of the body work. They were aware that they had forgotten to do a little weld I requested, but they were unaware of the fact that they forgot to remove a dent and grind off a little extra metal. They also forgot to paint the bed and painted the dashboard, which I specifically asked them not to do. I wanted the original paint there to remain.

They told me I'd have it in four days. Four days later I called and they hadn't even started it. Six days later I called and they hadn't even started it. At that point, they said, I'd have to wait till after Christmas, which was still three or four days away, so that meant another week at least.

After it was finished, I went pick it up expecting them to discount it for all their mistakes and all the hassle and delays. I work in the service industry and I know how it works. This time I went over the truck with a fine-toothed comb and found that they still forgot to grind off the metal surrounding the former hole where the passenger-side mirror had been.  They also painted the headlight bezels (I left themon because the screws were all rusted tight and stripped out), there was overspray on my newly painted steering wheel, emergency brake lever, newly painted heater box, new shocks, new front end and all over the place underneath, poor masking on the dash so there was paint on the black instrument cluster surround, radio, key hole, etc.

So when I pointed all this out, plus their screw-ups mentioned above, the guy said he didn't want to paint it again. I agreed; I didn't them messing it up any further. Then he told me there was nothing he could do about the price. After much argument, all he would do is take off the $37 he charged me for the door repair they didn't do.

I still need to contact the manager.

When I got it home and started putting it back together, I discovered how fragile the paint really is. I had missed a 1/4-inch nick to the base metal on the gate. And when I pulled off the blue painters tape I used to hold the weather striping in place while the silicone dried, it took off a layer of green paint in some cases. Looks like they didn't prep it before they did the second paint--the one they had to do after the welded my door and pulled a dent. I also discovered that they didn't paint the undersides of either rocker panel and there are bubbles on the roof.

In general it is a sh*#y job. And $618 plus tax was too much. The only thing they did well was match the color.

I took the truck in prepped, by the way. All they needed to do was sand and prime it to their satisfaction, the way One Day does it.

I had my 1964 Lincoln painted black by One Day, including the doors (four of them) and under the hood and trunk for $500 total. The paint is stronger, they were more accurate and they did it in three or four days. There was a bit of overspray, but they did a great job for so little money.

In both cases I was looking to get a daily driver together, not a show car, so I went cheap. But my experience with Maaco did not inspire any confidence in the quality of their work or service. I'll never go back.

I would never go back to one of the 'chain' paint shops.  Maaco, One Day, Earl Scheib, etc.  Find a local shop and check out examples of their work before commiting to have them do anything.  You'll find that in the end there won't be much difference in the price and the work will be better.  I've had two 'chain shop' jobs done in my lifetime, one by Earl Scheib and one by One Day.  No matter how I tried to rationalize it based on the low cost, they both sucked!  A bad paint job is a bad paint job no matter how little it costs. 

I did my paint myself self knowing i was just trying to get a daily driver beater, my garage has a dirt floor. The prep was what i thought was good, and I practiced spraying on a peice of scrap. Not pro by any means, beats Sheibs.  I worked there out of high school. We had 1 hour to sand and mask a car. Needless to say the perp work was non exsitant, the Warranty is for chipping, or fading, not peeling, as you know poor prrep work causes peeling
Matt

Thanks. By chance I met the owner of the place and he promised to make good. When we met at the shop he told me all kinds of reasons why the paint job sucked and would always suck and most of them had to do with the fact that I ony paid $700. 

They made up all kinds of excuses. I'm no pro painter, but I know a thing or two about paint and rep and they did crap work. It wasn't becasue there was old Bondo on the car, like they explained when I asked about the "spit bubbles" all over the top. I know there is no Bondo on the car becasue I sanded it ALL off and left the dings unfilled.

At any rate, I learned my lesson.

Michael

Thanks. I know it looks pretty good and I'm happy with my "design" and choices as far as color, interior and whatnot. I dig the truck a lot, but see much room for improvement. If I could just find a passengers-side bumperette/bracket and a radio blank plate, get my turn signals and dash instrumentation to work and the high-beams to shut off.

I get lots of compliments on the truck all the time. A few eeks ago a guy REALLY want to buy it. (I had half-assed weak offer, as well.) I didn't know how much to ask for, so he asked me to come up with a price and said he'd be back.

Later, I totalled all my expences. . .I had no idea $50 here and $32 there could add up to so much. I could never get enough to sell it now, even if I did just lose my job and am flat broke.

I  know it takes good taste, an eye for detail, a willingess to do research and much patience when retoring a car. I have all that, but it also takes money, which I unfortunately lack. If I had the money I'd have one of the sweetest restored 1964 Lincolns around. My truck would be even more killer, too, with a perfectly straight body, great paint and a rebuilt engine.

Thanks again for the compliments.

Oh, I just did this to it.

Michael

i agree on how well maaco works for their customers. i have a 2002 s-10 extreme and i wanted to get a color change for it . i picked out LG6V paint code from a new vw beetle and i also was told it would be ready in 1 week. after the scheduled job was supposed to be done, i went back to see what the hold up was, when i dropped it off for paint i had 2 rent a car for more than a week. the price was $ 1500.00 and  a 5 year warranty was included in the price but when i went to check on it i noticed that the rollpan and tailgate wasn't there with the truck and i found out why because they ran out of paint before they could finish the job and mixed up another batch of paint and painted the rollpan and tailgate a different shade that the rest of the truck. they said it was the way the light was reflecting off the truck that made the rollpan and tailgate look darker and there was clearcoat overspray all over my windows and darklike tiger strips on my hood and i called the head honcho back east and they said that they are agreeing with their employees here in phoenix,az. and were not going to fix it i did a stop payment thru my bank but to no prevail i still had to pay them and just recently a few months ago the shop where i went to get my truck painted went out of business and closed up shop. ain't that a big screw you and everybody that had there vehicles painted there and a big thank you for your $$$$$$ and good luck of trying to get your money back suckers

A quality paint job will cost (for our little trucks) just over $800.00 in materials, if you use a quality product