auto paint

[steve88]

Anyone recommend a cheap auto painting for a car driven daily?

[samclem]

I would rate Maaco as "fair" based on my own experience. They didn't do a great job of masking, but the large areas looked good.

Some ideas (assuming this car is not to be entered in car shows--you just want to get it looking better for a few more years):
-- Are you sure it needs new paint? Polishing compound can brighten up an old paint job pretty well. Yes, you'll be removing paint, but that's not a problem if you are considering repainting it anyway.
-- Things are a LOT easier if you don't change the vehicle's color. That avoids re-painting the edges of the doors and the door sills, under the hood, etc.
-- You can save a lot of money (and probably end up with a better job) if you are willing to remove parts, do any needed Bondo work, and do the masking yourself. Spraying the car takes relatively little time for the shop.
-- Sometimes you can work a deal with a local shop. If they are spraying another car the same color (or will give you a call when they are), it saves them having to clean out the guns, etc to spray two cars in a row the same color.

[steve88]

Sam,
My car was in an accident that I piece back together after I got it back from insurance. The motor is in excellent condition. I just need to do the hood , fender and bumper. I am afraid to have the whole car painted by maaco or anyone for fear that the paint might start chipping after 1 year. An 18yo hit my car while on the phone.

[Leonidas]

Back when I was in the family car biz we did take some cars to Maaco. But it was always a car that had a defective paint job from the factory that needed to be painted from stem to stern. Paint matching new/repaired parts we either did ourselves (if it was a small job) or took to a local independent painting place that did decent work. It's for the same reason that Sam cited, they can spray paint decently at Maaco, but their prep work is often lame.

We always did all the prep work on anything we took to Maaco (which meant I did all the prep work - if I ever wet sand again it will be too soon!). I remember asking someone once why we did that and was told that the risk you took taking it to Maaco was bad prep work, plus we got it done a lot cheaper by doing the prep work ourselves. The real downside was that if you went that cheaper route, they would not do the tinniest piece of prep work, and if you brought in a car with some mud or dirt on the body, you would get a car back with mud that had been painted over.

So, if you want it done cheaply but decently, take Maaco a car that you have completely prepped. If you don't/can't do the prep work, ask around for recommendations for an independent place.

[mathjak107]

a can of red devil and a brush

[FUEGO]

We had a couple cars painted recently. Maaco gave very high quotes, like $1000 IIRC all-in for a basic paint job, but the quality of the examples they had just painted looked good. We ended up with Peach Auto Painting. They are a chain on the east coast. With coupon it was something like $350-400. That was for the "2 year warranty" job that the guy told me should look presentable for at least 3-4 years. This was on an 8 year old car, so we didn't want to drop $1000 on it. The job looks good with minor defects if you look closely when it is really clean in just the right light. The Peach franchise in my city is in the industrial part of town, and it is probably where the used car dealers go to get a quickie paint job for cheap to flip a car. Not the best quality but it gets the job done. 1 year into the paint job and it still looks great and remains highly reflective.