Maaco!

I had a minor part painted at the local Maaco. It was a disaster to put it politely. The BBB had hundreds of complaints on file which I added to. The store closed completely about a month later. I realize you shouldn't judge them all by the morons that worked at that particular shop but you could not pay me to use Maaco again.......ever.
 
Maaco is a quick turn around inexpensive paintshop, very little correctly done prep work, they used to use steel wool to sand down existing paint, and all kinds of corner cutting for those cheap paint jobs.

Again, as has been said ad-nauseum - its all in the preparation - it has to been done thoroughly and correctly, no skipped steps, no bad taping, no primer, paint on anything that is not supposed to have it, no overspray on windows, adjacent panels, have to use name branded factory pack paint, no chinese paint, no paint, sanding, etc., dust inside the car, no primer, paint in door, hood, or trunk jambs that is not supposed to be there, no dirt in the paint, paint had to be cured properly, and get this - buffed out properly with NO swirls, etc...
I dont know if you can find this at your local Maaco paint store, I believe it can be done at the right place with the right people, equipment, booth, and chemicals..
By the time you are done with your "wishlist", you might be up at the price a good custom shop charges anyway...

Good luck with this !

Dan F
 
Stokdgs said:
Maaco is a quick turn around inexpensive paintshop, very little correctly done prep work, they used to use steel wool to sand down existing paint, and all kinds of corner cutting for those cheap paint jobs.

Again, as has been said ad-nauseum - its all in the preparation - it has to been done thoroughly and correctly, no skipped steps, no bad taping, no primer, paint on anything that is not supposed to have it, no overspray on windows, adjacent panels, have to use name branded factory pack paint, no chinese paint, no paint, sanding, etc., dust inside the car, no primer, paint in door, hood, or trunk jambs that is not supposed to be there, no dirt in the paint, paint had to be cured properly, and get this - buffed out properly with NO swirls, etc...
I dont know if you can find this at your local Maaco paint store, I believe it can be done at the right place with the right people, equipment, booth, and chemicals..
By the time you are done with your "wishlist", you might be up at the price a good custom shop charges anyway...

Good luck with this !

Dan F
Click to expand...

I can agree with you here. My reference was we prepped and finished. A nice booth and painter/manager we (client) liked made it nice. Everything was done within our guidelines. We did get that.

I have seen crappy work come out of "professional restoration shops".
The Maaco job I referred to kept someones budget in line.

My profession has been since 95 Concours frame off restoration. I was just saying prep is key and so is finishing. I was not facilitated for painting this job.
 
OK..I visited Macco today. Did not like what i saw or heard. Saw alot of people working there who had their bicycles on the side of the building. LOL...If i got it done "correctly" their cost would probably be a little less than the body shop that i have been going to for twenty-five years quoted me. Granted it was raining. I was not too impressed at the cars they showed me. They also are real intent on fitting you into one of their four packages and they didn't seem receptive to what i was looking for.
 
Northstar01 said:
OK..I visited Macco today. Did not like what i saw or heard. Saw alot of people working there who had their bicycles on the side of the building. LOL...If i got it done "correctly" their cost would probably be a little less than the body shop that i have been going to for twenty-five years quoted me. Granted it was raining. I was not too impressed at the cars they showed me. They also are real intent on fitting you into one of their four packages and they didn't seem receptive to what i was looking for.
Click to expand...
Not surprized !

The one car Ive been detailing that already has clear coat failure was actually prepped from a better shop but the paint itself is not good and never was right from the very beginning . Also every time I polished it I would get green on my pad .

The owner told me they mix the base coat with the clear coat . Thats what the shop told him.
Who does that ?:crazy: I never heard of that .

Anyway last time I polished it heavy green paint kept clogging up my pad and it was a nightmare to polish . My wrists hurt for days afterwards because the paint was grabbing the pad so badly and I could actually smell the paint . NO I wasnt burning the paint LOL .

Weirdest worst paint I have ever detailed /polished !! :(
 
It seems like a lot of insight has been provided here on both sides of the fence for Maaco. I agree it has a lot to do with the prep job involved and the individual painter. Unfortunately the only exposure I had to Maaco seemed rough. Not my car, but a close friend had a door replaced and had it painted at Maaco, from a distance it looked good but one you got about 5 feet away it was severly blemished, the paint was uneven and splotchy, looked like a quick repair with little car taken. So maybe too in this case prep work and finish work could have aided.
 
Concours.John --

Totally understand where you are coming from in your first post regarding your experiences there. And agree 100%, Maaco can have all the best facilities, equipment, everything available to them the same as other high-end paint shops. And, you can get great things done there, as long as you do (or someone you absolutely trust) the prep work, and supply the paint, etc., and most of all have a great Journeyman Painter and a good Apprentice hopefully, to do the dirtywork, etc.., and the results will be beautiful !

Glad it all worked out for you - see, there's hope and that's always a good thing!
Dan F
 
I use to live next door to tell guys that worked at Maaco. Both were nice guys but some of the stuff they told me wasn't very good. They always told me if I wanted to have something painted they would take care of it for me to make sure I was happy. One of the guys had his 72 Chevy truck painted and it turned out really nice. Custom flames and pearl white. I saw several cars they painted... Some were good some bad.

If you want a good paint job go around to different shops and talk to them and tell ten your expectations. I had a good shop that does restorations paint the hood on my car after someone dropped something on it. Turned out nice and it really want more than other shops I checked out.
 
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