A "little" update… (Sorry, if you haven't noticed, I am kinda wordy) I'll post some pictures tomorrow when I have some daylight. I picked up my Cruiser today from Maaco. I have mixed feelings about it.
Quality: The quality of the work seems decent. There is a bit of orange peel on vertical surfaces, a speck of dust or two, but a good shine. There was one spot of rust repair, which seems to have been done well (time will tell on that one) and the three welded up holes on each frond doors look real good. Quality-wise, I am satisfied
Color: The color though, I am having a hard time dealing with. According to my trim tag, my paint code is 4E8, which is beige metallic. The only beige metallic offered in '85, but one of three offered over the 60's production run. Maaco claims they used the proper paint code, but stated the color was different since the paint is different today, from the paint and techniques used in 1985. Okay, I get that, but I still feel like regardless of paint types and techniques, colors can still be matched. They didn't paint the door jambs, so there is a clear difference between the new paint and the old paint. There is a definite rose color to the beige, perhaps one might call it mauve. I know there was a little bit of red in the original beige metallic color, but in my opinion, there is just too much red in the paint they used. For reference, I went to Overland auto paints in downtown OP and had them mix up a 4 oz. touch up can for $20.00 to see how their mix compared to Maaco's mix. Sure enough, Overland's mix was a hell of a lot better than Maaco's mix. This was more for my own satisfaction than anything else.
Customer service: They guy I dealt with, was a nice guy and seemed genuinely disappointed that I was not happy with the color. I also think he knew the color was wrong, but the manager wouldn't budge on it being the wrong color. He was adamant that it was the correct color, and came up with many excuses as to why the new paint was a different color than the color I brought in. (Don't get me wrong, I understand paint fades and ages over it's near 30 year life, and because of that, I compared old to new in areas that would be mostly protected from the elements over the vehicle's life.) In the end, the manager offered to respray the truck in any stock DuPont color or factory Toyota color I wanted for $400.00. I appreciate the effort/offer, but I will not give them more money to fix a color which I believe they just got wrong.
So, in conclusion, I got 20% off, ended up paying $2600 for all the prep, body work (about 15 small dings and one rust spot) and paint, for a decent warrantied paint job that I don't like. First world problems, right? I have been looking for the perfect nickname for my Cruiser, and today she earned the name: The Mauve Monster. My wife said the color is growing on her, it definitely looks like it came from the 1980's. I guess, buyer beware when it comes to Maaco. If I ever use them again, I will absolutely be taking my own paint. Like I said, pics coming tomorrow.
--Sam and the Mauve Monster.
