$2300 Quote from Maaco....what do you guys think? (1 Viewer)

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For reference, A good friend of mine owns a body and paint shop, all family run, all work is word of mouth and he's always out 6 months or more. He gets a lot of vehicles in and out. Not slow.

I have always done machinework for him at a friend price and he has done bodywork repairs on my newer vehicles for the same.

I recently asked him to quote a nice paintjob on my 94 80 series. The good friend price was $3500 without jambs or $4500 with jambs (changing color). That is no rust repair, fixing a bullet hole in the rear hatch, welding and bodywork on the roofrack holes. I believe the non-good friend price would be north of $10k and he is essentially just charging for materials plus 10% or so.

I think that's a steal, almost too cheap even for a friend. I will probably pay him more than he asks as I know it's a ton of work.
 
I have 0 experience with macco, but have had a 64 and 71 corvette and fj60 painted years ago by a good friend of mine that owns a large car restoration shop. 2300 with any rust work at all is dirt cheap. My fj60 had more in rust repair alone, ha. Have you asked to drive by and look at any of the cars theyve wrapped up painting since getting the quote? With all stores being different, it may be an easy way to ballpark the level of quality you can anticipate. Best of luck regardless!
 
A friend of mine got a $3000 paint job from maaco on his tacoma. He brought it in with the body work done and the truck in epoxy primer and it looked like a group of 12 year olds painted it. They repainted the truck again for free, after that it looked like a group of 12 and a half year olds painted it. I believe they ended up giving him his money back, or he sued them or something.

I also had a parts 80 years ago that was re-painted white over white by maaco - not sure of the price, but they didn't mask anything. There was overspray everywhere, they painted the window frames, didn't even remove the license plate etc.

They CAN do a quality job, but they wont charge any less than any other quality paint/body guy for the level of work.

Keep in mind materials alone for a quality 2 stage paint job are as much or more than your all in estimate.
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You're getting a 1 stage paint job.
I used to work at a Maaco. I have my own shop now. Any questions anybody might have, happy to answer.
 
URETHANE + IC is basically a single stage job that gets clear coat mixed with the paint. It gives you a 4 year warranty, and will last 4 1/2 years. Shininess 3.5/5. Not factory finish of course.
Many people here don't understand that everywhere you go, you get what you pay for. I offer $800 paint jobs, they are not the greatest, but some people can't afford a $7k paint job.
Most of the price in a paint job is labor for preparation and removal of items.
You are not getting a factory finish job for the $2300 at Maaco.
Are they removing the rear glass for the rust repair? If not, is just patching, since rust is worse inside than outside.

Quote is not bad, out of a ten, is a 6.5/10 paint job. And again, you're paying $2300.
 
I have two 80s here that customers want painted. I don’t do paint nor body work. Not my wheelhouse.

Getting local quotes ranging from $12-15k for full to the metal prep and paint including jams and engine bay.
that sounds about right. gone are the Earl Schieb days
 
When I was young (decades ago) got a VW beetle done at Maaco. Stripped-pulled glass- did (basic) bodywork. Was dirt cheap and turned out beautifully- lasted for 20 years. Changed now I'm sure however on other threads on here about Maaco- it is stated that each shop is different and to get some recommendations about the one you are going to. Probably like many other types of businessed.
 
I just used POR 15 industrial paint on mine. smash body panels every few years so its easy to pound out and fill the dents and paint with a roller at home. Good from far, far from good but its a trail truck.
 
I just used POR 15 industrial paint on mine. smash body panels every few years so its easy to pound out and fill the dents and paint with a roller at home. Good from far, far from good but its a trail truck.


Not going to lie I've thought about it, I painted all my trim satin black and it came out pretty nice.....definitely not perfect some drip lines in there but pretty nice. I've thought about saying screw it and just rattle canning the whole thing dark grey but that wouldn't fix the body work and the other things they are doing.....the painting itself is the cheap part it's everything else that made it $2300. Not to say $2300 is expensive....
 
I just got an $11K quote for a full body, same color respray on my 1997LC. No jams. Exterior only. Also, I stripped and reinstalled all the trim. They were responsible for very minor bodywork (remove some small dents) as well as surface prep and paint. I'm in California, so take into account CARB regulation drives the price up, but I was still a bit shocked. Good paint ain't cheap. Cheap paint is cheap.
 
I spent about 1700 almost 30 years ago at a maaco on my first car. I pulled all the trim, grill headlights and door handles off.

They were suposed to weld some holes and knock back some small easy dents. They didnt. They just used filler on the holes and dents. Didnt clear coat it like they said they would just a single stage. No rust to start with at all.

Overall it looked ok for the first few years but lost its shine quickly.

I would at least have low expectations and remove everything you can from the truck, all bumpers and trim. Glass if you can but that's a much bigger job.

I think if you stripped the truck and did most of the prep work you might get a ok "trail" paint.

The green paint on my 80 has almost no clear and shows white in a lot of ares. I am going to let it age and patina unless I see any rust. I would rather have oem worn paint at this point than have someone do a crummy job. But that is just me personally.

My truck has 341000 milea on it and I would drive it to Alaska tomorrow morning if needed. I put about 20,000 miles a year on driving all over the country. But the way I use it and its age I dont know how many more years it will last. So I cant justify a 10,000 paint job.
 
You get what you pay for. Walk in their shop and see the quality of work they are putting out. That's the best way for you to figure out if you're getting a good value.

I once had a race car painted by Earl Schieb.

I took everything apart everything...trim, glass, moldings, lights, etc. They still managed to get overspray in some places. The paint job had a ton of orange peel. It was definitely a 15 footer. Granted, I only paid $900 + tips to all the shop workers in effort to get a "better" outcome.
 
I just got an $11K quote for a full body, same color respray on my 1997LC. No jams. Exterior only. Also, I stripped and reinstalled all the trim. They were responsible for very minor bodywork (remove some small dents) as well as surface prep and paint. I'm in California, so take into account CARB regulation drives the price up, but I was still a bit shocked. Good paint ain't cheap. Cheap paint is cheap.
I know some VW owners in CA will take their vehicles down to Tijuana to be painted, the main shops seem to do a good job and I think it's about a 3rd of the price vs having it painted in CA due to no CARB, etc. Not sure if you're comfortable with leaving your truck in TJ for a few days but as long as they keep it locked in the shop it should be OK?! Anyway just an idea
 
I've had good experiences on an old El Camino and a work pickup, albeit decades ago, with two different MAACO shops. At mentioned, not OEM or show quality but better than expected. The work, as mentioned above, is very dependent on the individual shop. It was pointed out to me once that they do more paint jobs in a week than most painters do in a month or more. I always did the add ons for extra prep, etc. Don't know how much of that I actually got but at least it made them aware I wanted more than a scuff and spray. If you just want "trail paint" and have reasonable expectations, chances are you won't be disappointed. My question to them would be the "fill" lines in the estimate...I'd pay a little more to have any rust cut out and the metal replaced. And strip as much as possible of what you don't want painted off the car before taking it in. That'll mitigate overspray and masking issues.
 
I've had good experiences on an old El Camino and a work pickup, albeit decades ago, with two different MAACO shops. At mentioned, not OEM or show quality but better than expected. The work, as mentioned above, is very dependent on the individual shop. It was pointed out to me once that they do more paint jobs in a week than most painters do in a month or more. I always did the add ons for extra prep, etc. Don't know how much of that I actually got but at least it made them aware I wanted more than a scuff and spray. If you just want "trail paint" and have reasonable expectations, chances are you won't be disappointed. My question to them would be the "fill" lines in the estimate...I'd pay a little more to have any rust cut out and the metal replaced. And strip as much as possible of what you don't want painted off the car before taking it in. That'll mitigate overspray and masking issues.
I just took mine to get painted at a shop here in San Antonio. I took of as much as passible to limit over spray. They quoted $3,500 cash for 2 stage factory color with some body work. Will post some pics after it’s done and wlet you know how it turns ou.
 
As promised some pics of the paint job. Overall came out really good. I didn’t see any bubbles or issues on the finish.



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