[bigtrouble77]

Went over to Maaco for a quote to paint my Silver Insight a Glossy black.

here's the quote:
Value Prep surface prep
Supreme Paint Service
INT CLR CT Protection Package
4 year warranty

Total: $450

He dropped the price from $730.
He wanted an extra $350 to paint the interior part of the door.

Any suggestions???

TIA,
-BT

 

[Billy]

You can do what you want, of course, but apparently you know little about automotive painting (no disrespect intended). Maaco, generally, is at the LOW end of the quality scale. They may have a couple of talented workers who CAN do a good job, but often they do not. With the price you were quoted, you will likely get a paint known as synthetic enamel, which is the cheapest junk available. Without perfect care, it can fade in 2 years or less. If you REALLY want to paint a silver car black, I would spring for more money (about $1100) and get a urethane base coat - clear coat system. Then there is always the issue changing colors; door jams, rear hatch jams, engine bay, etc. It will never look exactly right. But I wish you good luck, if you follow through with this...... Billy.....

 

[bigtrouble77]

You can do what you want, of course, but apparently you know little about automotive painting (no disrespect intended). Maaco, generally, is at the LOW end of the quality scale. They may have a couple of talented workers who CAN do a good job, but often they do not. With the price you were quoted, you will likely get a paint known as synthetic enamel, which is the cheapest junk available. Without perfect care, it can fade in 2 years or less. If you REALLY want to paint a silver car black, I would spring for more money (about $1100) and get a urethane base coat - clear coat system. Then there is always the issue changing colors; door jams, rear hatch jams, engine bay, etc. It will never look exactly right. But I wish you good luck, if you follow through with this...... Billy.....

This quote is for the urethane paint with clear coat w/4 year warranty. I know the paint you're talking about and I told him I have no interest in getting that as I plan to have the car for another 4 years, at least. I saw several cars that they did and they looked pretty good.

 

[sunhunter]

Make sure to remove the battery pack or have the drying oven temperature set to below the limit. Look at the warning sticker on your door frame.

 

[Aaron Cake]

Short and sweet: Maaco is crap. Everything they do is garbage.

Find a reputable body shop in your area that works on quality cars (hot rods, restoration, etc.). The price will be higher, but the result will be a paint job that will last more then a year. Prep is 99% of the work, and at a very minimum you are looking at 10 hours. Maaco basically washes the car, scuffs up the surface, and sprays.

 

[Rick]

Step away from maaco! Yes prep is the difference between a good paint job and a bad one. You'll get what you pay for. A good quality paint job is going to cost several thousand dollars. I know, we painted our Camaro two years ago and we had a few thousand in materials alone. Now granted this is an extremely nice nearly flawless paint job, but I spent a month (literally) doing prep work. I 400 hand sanded it down to the base coat then went though spraying on several coats of primer and then did the thing where you lightly spray black paint over that so you can sand that down and see where you need more film build to get it flat. Here's a couple of pictures of this car to give you an idea of how it came out:

http://meguiarsonline.com/gallery/data/500/193IMG_1792-med.JPG
http://meguiarsonline.com/gallery/data/500/193IMG_1779-med.JPG

After it was painted it got 1500 wet sanded using good quality sand papers, this is important. Then it was hit with 3000 and buffed out by a professional. After that I went back over it with a foam pad to get rid of any remaining swirls that were still there.

Now yeah this is a moderately extreme case, though there are worse. In short I don't think you'll be happy with a maaco paint job. You'd be better off for the long run finding a good paint body shop to do the work. People don't generally realize how much just good quality materials alone for paint job's are.

 

[Aaron Cake]

A month isn't too bad. I spent nearly 6 prepping my RX-7. The primer was as shiney as most people's finish coats.

 

[bigtrouble77]

Thanks guys. I guess I won't do it then. I'll call some of the body shops. I really don't want to spend over a thousand. Do you think it's possible to get a real nice paint job for about that? The Insight is really small.

Thanks again,
-BT

 

[Berk]

cheap paintjob cheapens the car!

Remember that a cheap paint job cheapens the car. You'll lose any high resale value that would otherwise have been yours when you sell.
There's more to any job than meets the eye. This couldn't be more true than with painting. You'll kick yourself in the rear for cutting prep time, in the long run.
I've seen this movie before, and it's not a pretty picture!
Berk, used 2000 ~ 58 mpg in mtns.

 

[atlaw4u]

It will be less expensive if you keep the car the same color because you don't have to redo the jams. I also would be careful about changing color. As the car gets older and gets chipped a different color underneath will show through like a neon sign at night.

 

[Resist]

I wouldn't paint it. Your car will be worth less when they find out it has been repainted.