Show me Your Maaco Paint jobs

[OffRoadScott]

The pictures of the Maaco paint jobs do not look bad at all. I got a quote from a shop near me and they said without seeing the LC it would be a minimum of 3500. That is to repaint the same factory color. I've also thought about rattle canning the damn thing a tan color.

 

[offroadvegan]

A local shop here quoted me 12k!!!!

 

[PDoyle]

Prolly wouldn't hurt to stop by your local Macco and chat them up. Just don't forget to wear your cheap suit.

 

[ifsmithy]

They have

They will but they won’t honor any warranty they usually offer along with the paint job so if the paint ‘lifts’ - it’s on you....

Have been shopping around myself as well - found a local cruiser head @oceanful who had a maaco job and his came out great - unfortunately that maaco no longer paints....

Was chatting with the manger of this closed down maaco (after centralizing a few shops) and he says check out reviews and more importantly go to the maaco itself and check out some recent paint jobs at the facility - so you can see the level of detail they go to - each one is different.
Most importantly (and advice I like to follow in my life as much as possible) is ‘don’t be a d!ck’ - his words - when your chatting with them - it’s a 950 dollar paint job - accept that’s what your getting from production facility - and not a 5k ‘entry level’ job that I was also quoted from a more ‘professional’ place.....

Other advice - strip the truck as much as you can - pull the bumpers, rack, lights, sliders, door handles.....etc..

At the end of the day for me - I’m looking at getting a paint job that is reasonable, looks better then current, affordable and one where I won’t have riding buddies jump out on the trail to hold back pinstriping bushes/trees to save a 5k job..... yes I’ve seen that recently.....

Will post up photos - warts an all in a few weeks when I get mine back!

 

[Shoredreamer]

I got quotes locally to touch up my hood and roof upwards of $6k so I went to Maaco. If I remember, it was $2300 for a full repaint. I removed the roof rack, lights, bumpers but did zero prep. Very happy and it’s held up well now for 3 hard years. Typical CC breakage on hood and roof

fresh

3 years later

 

[White Stripe]

I got quotes locally to touch up my hood and roof upwards of $6k so I went to Maaco. If I remember, it was $2300 for a full repaint. I removed the roof rack, lights, bumpers but did zero prep. Very happy and it’s held up well now for 3 hard years. Typical CC breakage on hood and roofView attachment 1824710freshView attachment 1824903 3 years laterView attachment 1824712

That looks good. How much of a lift do u have?

 

[mikedamageinc]

Not my cruiser but I had my Camaro painted at the Fredericksburg, va Maaco about 7 years ago and with proper maintenance it still looks great. I went by and talked to them several times to get a warm and fuzzy that they would take care of my baby and when it was time I removed all lights, mirrors, front and rear bumper cover and delivered everything to them so I didn't have to worry about overspray, bad masking, lazy spraying, etc. Also I got the base/clear paint job, part of their bad reputation comes from their $99 drive thru spray paint single stage crap.

 

[mikedamageinc]

Please delete duplicate

 

[spyduh]

In my opinion, don't do maaco. Waist of money, their products are too cheap. Go buy a harbor freight DA, a cheap paint gun, and do it yourself. All u do is sand smooth the paint u have on your rig, clean it when done sanding, mask, and shoot with some quality paint. If u just want to do the hood and roof just do that.

Exactly! I did my own paint job on my Rock Crawler for $500 in paint materials. I bought quality PPG Shopline Solvent Primer, Shopline Solvent Base and OMNI Clear. Turned out better than a Maaco job. I did the bodywork and shot the whole thing on my driveway out in the open. I should have did a ghetto canopy and tarp walls and it would have turned out better.

I didn't add the cost of a real SATA (german) spray gun I bought used one from a buddy. I don't count tools cost as it'll be used more than once. But the $60 HF that I borrowed shot primer and base fine on my doors. I finished the cab and fenders with the $300 SATA gun. I used the $13 HF gun and threw that in the garbage. Sprayed like crap. The Eastwood gun I borrowed also shot decent. I ended up respraying the car with the SATA gun because the finish was smooth!

Even if you used the $13 gun it would turn out better than a Maaco job. PREP PREP PREP is where it's all at. Take your time and prep it right it will turn out perfect. Maaco spends hardly any time on prep.

 

[PDoyle]

Nice pic. That's 1/4 to 1/2 of a cruiser tho. Just sayen.

 

[spyduh]

Nice pic. That's 1/4 to 1/2 of a cruiser tho. Just sayen.

Yup I know. There's more panels on my 80 but this was an example of DIY vs Maaco job.

I did a recent cab swap since I flopped my Crawler a few years back at Rubicon. The cab I bought was better than mine but still needed body work. I had to splice my original front rad support into my new cab to make it perfect.

I don't need to paint my Cruiser since the paints in great condition. White holds up the best under age/sun abuse. =D

 

[bicycleagent003]

Yeah, my dark blue Cruiser is showing it's age. I wish it were white. I would love for it to be white, but I cannot get myself to paint the truck white, knowing the firewall will still be blue, and the door jambs would probably end up looking terrible if they painted them white, and worse if they left them blue. It's the one thing I dislike about my truck - the darn color.

 

[OGBeno]

Yup I know. There's more panels on my 80 but this was an example of DIY vs Maaco job.

I did a recent cab swap since I flopped my Crawler a few years back at Rubicon. The cab I bought was better than mine but still needed body work. I had to splice my original front rad support into my new cab to make it perfect.

I don't need to paint my Cruiser since the paints in great condition. White holds up the best under age/sun abuse. =D

Nice forklift.

 

[spyduh]

Nice forklift.

haha I wish that was mine, I could do so many things myself if I owned one. I bought the cab from my buddy who owns a junkyard and used his forklift to swap the cab in 2 nights when the shop was closed. Then had another buddy that owns a tow truck who owe me a favor tow it home for me. Took me 40 nights to cab swap, body work, paint and rewire the entire truck at home.

 

[spyduh]

Yeah, my dark blue Cruiser is showing it's age. I wish it were white. I would love for it to be white, but I cannot get myself to paint the truck white, knowing the firewall will still be blue, and the door jambs would probably end up looking terrible if they painted them white, and worse if they left them blue. It's the one thing I dislike about my truck - the darn color.

Pull the cab off the 80. It's pretty easy to do. You'll be surprised how very few bolts hold it down. Have it painted off the frame. =)

Or just leave the engine bay alone and spray the jams and under the hood. It's super easy to spray the jams. The hard part is PREP work and stripping down the trim pieces and then masking them off with plastic. I hate tape and plastic with a passion but it has to be done.

 

[bugsnbikes]

Went to a local Maaco and they said their best guy “the undertaker” could ‘bury anything’ under paint.

I opted on burying it myself with ultra flat khaki.

 

[alia176]

We need another thread that says "Show me your five year old Maaco paint job" Newly done, s***ty paint job usually looks good through a camera lens.

 

[96FZJ80]

That's the beauty of it. If it gets s****y (pinstripes or otherwise) you either don't care or get it redone. Paying more doesn't guarantee a better job.

 

[alia176]

That's the beauty of it. If it gets s****y (pinstripes or otherwise) you either don't care or get it redone. Paying more doesn't guarantee a better job.

Hmm, that's an interesting approach.

 

[Heckraiser]

best $800 I ever spent :EDIT 2021: FOR POSTERITY: I have since had my 80 painted at the same MAACO shop (a few years later) and they did a godawful job, probably damaged the body moreso than if I had not brought it in.