Maaco Paint Job

The car is kept in a garage (and will be covered once the paint sets up in a month or so). I think it will hold up pretty well for the next few years. The special Maaco was having is a single stage enamel paint with a UV inhibitor.

Removing the grills and tail lights was easy. Removing the window trim was a bit more involved, but not too bad. Removing the belt-line trim was a pain, but I bought new clips for installing it, so I wasn't too concerned with breaking the old ones. Refinishing the grills and trim, and installing new emblems after the paint job make a big difference.

Oh, I forgot to mention the speed in which they turned it around. I dropped off the car on a Tuesday afternoon (about 2 PM) and they called my at 8AM Thursday morning saying the car was done.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the quality and service of Maaco (realizing it's a cheap paint job).

For the record, I used the Maaco in Holly Hill, Florida.

Had MAACO do my Toyota pickup a couple of years ago - popped for the high quality non-clear coat paint (I don't trust clear coat at 9000 feet, the UV kills it if the car sits out all the time, which this truck does), and the job was really quite good, and hasn't faded at all yet and the shine is still excellent. I'd use them again. Again, did most of the prep work myself.

On my Miata, what would "prep" consist of? I get removing emblems and lights and such, but what about popping out the windshield? Remove bumpers and paint separately?

I'd really like to change the color on the Miata, would this be a decent way to do that, or am I better off staying with the current color and changing down the road when I have the money for a "real" paint?

The more you disassemble, the better. That said, there is certainly a point of diminishing returns. I wouldn't pull the fascias.

As far as a color change, I assume you want to do jams as well? That adds cost, but looks WAY better.

maaco in redford township mi did my '02 challenge corvair, which placed 10th in the concours out of 59 cars and was in a one-page feature in the issue of GRM before the '03 challenge (april '03 maybe). they also did my '03/'04 challenge V8Vair that placed 16th in the concours out of 79 cars. they also did Rusty the Miata, perhaps the best cosmetic turnaround on any miata ever. like someone said, they spray cars all day every day.

Any chance we could get the 3 year update?

Nice revival. I too am interested to know how it held up. The paint on my Miata is TERRIBLE. I am down for $250 dollar paint job.

I have had my race car painted at Maaco twice in the last 10 years. Second time was after a substantial rebuild from a crash and rollover. Each time I did all the prep work and had them apply a sealer and single step color coat (black). Both times the finish was simply fantastic. No runs, sags, orange peel, dust or fisheyes. With occasional polishing and waxing it has continued to look great over the years.

I recommended them to a friend who was bringing back a 2nd gen MR2 on a tight budget. He did the prep and they painted (single step solid color red - no sealer). Only issue with his are some fisheyes in the hood - probably because the previous owner sanded the hood before wiping it down to remove waxes and silicones.

Define prep. Are you sanding/masking or just removing trim?

Put about 10k miles on it, and the front end will look like it's been sandblasted. Squashed bug = paint chip.

Well, you can't expect too much. For what they charge, you would be hard pressed just to buy the paint for that much!

I suspect color makes a difference also (for a car that gets a lot of UV at least). Red has historically been very bad for that (not sure if things have improved) and I would be suspicious of black. White of course, is always the safest choice.

BMW looks great. They got the paint very flat. Take car of it, try and keep it out of the sun (and the sandstorms), it will probably look good for a while.

TLDR: It depends on the maaco you go to. Talk to friends first.

I had them paint a car I prepped and primed myself, and they convinced me to let them do more sanding, spray their sealer and a base color before the top coat. The cars in the shop looked good and they had good online reviews. Fine. It was the first car I really went all out to restore so I agreed.

Came out like garbage. You can see the lines from sanding over the entire car, the whole thing is orange peel, runs and sags everywhere, and even though I pulled nearly the entire interior, they still managed to get overspray on the dash and steering wheel, not to mention all over under the hood. 3 years later the paint is still soft, you can rub color onto your fingertips and probably scratch it with cardboard. When I went to pick it up, before I saw it, the manager came out and acted like he was uncovering a car now touched by God. I looked it over and didn't say a thing but I guess he could tell I was disappointed. He tried to explain to me paint is fluid and will settle out. And the overspray will come off with some acetone (because that's what I want to rub all over my dash?) then asked what I expected. I showed him my truck outside that I painted myself with a HF gun in the driveway, he told me to pound sand.

Met a guy at a show a few years later with a really nice paint job, learned he went to the maaco two towns over and paid less than half the price doing no prep work. Made me want to throw my car off a cliff with that manager in it.

Enyar wrote: Define prep. Are you sanding/masking or just removing trim?

Everything. Delivered ready to paint after a quick wipe down to remove dust. They always do some masking but I even remove my windows and tape in the HDPE templates I use for my polycarbonate "glass". My friends car was ready save masking.