Paint Job Price

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-Spike- said:
The paint and materials are garbage, the prep is almost nonexistent. If you plan on keeping the vehicle for any length of time, you'll be in worse shape down the road than if you'd just left it alone. There is no getting around the fact that you get what you pay for. Good quality -not best- materials will be between $6-800 for an 80, unless they've come down drastically since I was painting cars.
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Still looks like new 4+ years later... :meh:

Again, these are off road vehicles... But I still have the factory paint on my 60, and wont paint it for a LONG time. Function before form for me.

Spending thousands on an automotive paint job seems like a giant, huge, waste of money to me. But everyone has their opinions.

:beer:
 
dbleon said:
Spending thousands on an automotive paint job seems like a giant, huge, waste of money to me. But everyone has their opinions.

:beer:
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This one, we agree on. :cheers:
 
Yep, personally I would never put much money into a wheelers paint job. Including wasting money on a cheap paint job.


Krylon!:bounce:
 
Tools R Us said:
You can, may even turn out nice. To do it half right, it is a metric s***load of work and materials are not cheap.
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Well, metric s***load of time I do not have and I refuse to pay big bucks for a paint job as it will just get killed. I may see about trying to learn how to paint it myself. Practice on the roof and then move to the hood.

I'd stick to a single stage paint matching the current paint code. Not because I know anything about painting cars, but one stage has to be faster and easier than two stages. :hillbilly:
 
ChaseTruck said:
Paint - you ask weird questions. Next thing you're gonna want to know about tires... :-)
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All I know about tires is that I have them.
 
GeoRoss said:
Well, metric s***load of time I do not have and I refuse to pay big bucks for a paint job as it will just get killed. I may see about trying to learn how to paint it myself. Practice on the roof and then move to the hood.

I'd stick to a single stage paint matching the current paint code. Not because I know anything about painting cars, but one stage has to be faster and easier than two stages. :hillbilly:
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As long as it isn't a metallic color, you'll be good with single stage. If it's metallic, all bets are off, single or base/clear.
 
How much for a wrap?

We had a new Tundra in flat black in there the other day and it drew a crowd.

Consider in a color that somewhat matches your original paint color so your jambs, interior, under hood are relatively close.

IMO the Maaco paint jobs are a good value but not for the long run. The sun and weather will start to fade and deteriorate the paint after a few years on top surfaces (good 'ol AZ sun!) from what Ive seen on a single stage.
 
FWIW, MAACO offers several levels of paint jobs. I was told once that each level basically represents more prep time, possibly better materials.
 
gotmud said:
FWIW, MAACO offers several levels of paint jobs. I was told once that each level basically represents more prep time, possibly better materials.
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They're okay for the money. About 18 years ago I spent around $600 for their mid level paint job. Factory match silver metallic on a 77 Nova (I know, silver in AZ:frown:). It faded in 6 months. :mad: They honored their warranty, but there was no way I was putting bad over bad. So I coughed up the extra $$ for door jambs, under trunk and hood and a color change to basic white.

Looked good except they couldn't be bothered to bend low enough to get the bottom of the rockers and I could still see silver. The bumper fills had silver edges too. (keep in mind that I stripped this car of bumpers, trim, locks, handles etc.) They didn't use any plasticizer on the flexible bumper fills either. My tint had knife marks and over spray on it in several places too.

Much heated discussion with the manager only resulted in them giving me a qt. of paint to finish the job. And me complaining to the BBB (big deal:rolleyes:) Managers awesome reasoning to me was:
"What, you want me to jack up the car and paint the bottom of the rockers?"
I'm all like ".....duh?"
"We don't do that"

I never got the chance to see how the white held up because it was stolen from my driveway a couple of years later.:mad:

No I wouldn't use that Macco again, but maybe another. Later I had better results for similar money on a Honda at a place called Diamond Auto Body in Mesa. I think they're still there on Extension and the RR tracks.
 
Cdaniel said:
... No I wouldn't use that Macco again, but maybe another.
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IIRC they are franchises, so all use the same paint, etc. IMHO there are better places to spend your $$$.

Cdaniel said:
Later I had better results for similar money on a Honda at a place called Diamond Auto Body in Mesa. I think they're still there on Extension and the RR tracks.
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They are gone, Dougs Buggs and Bunnys has been there for a few years.
 
My one and only experience with Maaco parallels Cdaniels. My wife's car was sun-faded on the hood (silver of course), and a customer recommended the Maaco on Grant. His '68 Barracuda was painted by them and it looked pretty good. I stopped in to get a quote and the manager showed me some "just finished" vehicles-they looked pretty decent. I took off all the trim, lights, etc, since they told me that they would just mask them. I go to pick up the car, and there's dirt all over in the paint and they didn't bother to fix the couple door dings I had specifically asked them to. Now the manger tells me that all their paint jobs have some dirt in them and even had some examples sitting on the lot to show me. His basic attitude was that this is the way it is-too bad. I got nowhere with him and the owners never returned any of my calls and never seemed to be there when I would randomly stop in. Lesson learned.

So Ross, if it's any help, now I have a nice spray gun....
 
If you are anticipating more AZ pinstripes, go with a inexpensive paint job that warranties you a 2-3yr gtd. I did that at Maaco and it cost me only $550. She was in bad shape and I wanted to give her a refresh. Two weeks later I was out wheeling and returned with new stripes. Didn't feel bad at all considering I only spent $550 for a full cover and a 2-3yr gtd. And she still looks great!
 
Thanks for all the responses. Any paint job is low on the priority list. I'm just trying to collect some wisdom.

I should start another thread about new tires. :D
 
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