My brother just had his 2007 Dodge Ram painted. The truck is in great shape but the original paint was fading and cracking. He paid Maaco $1000 to paint it and another $600 to prep it and address the spots that had cracking paint. He wasn't expecting a showroom finish, but he was expecting better than a paint job that looks like it was done in the parking lot on a windy day. He is taking it back to address the defects, but would like to know what they are called and possible causes before he takes it in.
Problem #1 is self explanatory, they missed the fix of a whole section of a bedside that had cracking paint. He paid specifically to fix that area, it was charged for on the work order. They just painted over the cracked paint. Surprise, the cracks show through. Not really a surprise, as you can feel the cracks with your fingernail.
Problem #2- The truck is covered in pits, kind of random but in many clusters. This is not orange peel- there is plenty of that, these craters are way worse than orange peel. They are deep and wide. The bottom of the crater is a metallic silver, different than that silver paint. Almost looks like bare metal. I'm guessing a contaminated air supply?
Problem #3 is a head scratcher. One panel has a large section of vertical striations. It looks like someone leaned against the paint when it was wet.
I'll put the pics in a separate post. The pics keep freezing or crashing my posts.
These pics are in the shade, looks way worse in the sun...
The pits look to be a defect called fish eyes, caused by contaminants on the surface being painted (such as silicone-based wax or oil from a pneumatic air sander). The contaminant 'repells' the paint, creating the pit.
The vertical marks look like whoever was running the spray gun may have drug the air hose through the paint and just kept going.
From what you have said, it sounds like extremely poor prep prior to and lack of care during the job.
Sort of related, my grandfather had a '57 Ford F-100 when the family all lived in So Cal.
In about '66, the paint on the Ford was tired. Grandpa decided to take it to Earl Scheib (We'll paint any car for $29.95). Now Earl Scheib was not noted for their care in masking or doing bodywork, so grandpa decided to do all of the prep. He pulled all of the chrome, the door handles, carefully masked the glass edges and lights, and then filled and primed the couple of dents it had. Finally, he spent several days hand sanding and then cleaning the entire truck.
With the prep done, he masked the door jams and the interior of the doors (Sheib only painted the outside - anything not masked was covered with overspray) and drove it over to get painted.
He actually ended up with a nice paint job; in fact, it still looked good when my dad got the truck several years later. Dad always thought grandpa got a better than normal Sheib paint job because the painter could see how much prep work he had done and was a bit more careful spraying it out.
In reply to CJ (FS) :
Thanks, that makes complete sense. I can easily see that being an air hose dragged across the paint.
I did the same thing as your Grandpa with my Eagle Talon years ago. I stripped it down, did all the prep, and masked everything off. Took it to the same Maaco, and the paint job was great. I always heard that their painting was decent but their prep and masking were where they cut costs. I was planning on doing the same with my Miata until I saw the truck.
In reply to CJ (FS) :
Good paint is entirely dependant on the prep.
My first Miata was painted at a Macco in Jacksonville. PO said he had to take it back three times, but it looked really good.
I have seen three Maaco paint jobs in person. It's like seeing three Ben Stiller movies. No one likes them, no one is pleased with the outcome, and everyone feels ripped off by the price of admission.
FMB42
Reader
3/22/21 12:04 p.m.
As has been said, proper prep is absolutely necessary. Prep imo is about 75% of good paint job. However, many low cost paint shops cut corners on prep.