Most of the price is in the prep anyway. A $350 Maaco job can look great if you do most of the sanding, filling, sanding, etc etc yourself.
Or not. It highly depends on the shop. If the guy doing it took pride in doing a nice job, he might've done a little more prep than $350 would call for, and it came out looking good. I knew a guy that owned a Maaco and they'd do a $100 paint job if you wanted it, called it 55 MPH paint, because it'd blow off if you went faster than that. It was basically a light sand and a couple of spray coats. For a few times that, he did a great job on my buddy's car w/ metallic paint, including doing the prep and flex additive properly for the sharper body lines.
Or not. It highly depends on the shop. If the guy doing it took pride in doing a nice job, he might've done a little more prep than $350 would call for, and it came out looking good. I knew a guy that owned a Maaco and they'd do a $100 paint job if you wanted it, called it 55 MPH paint, because it'd blow off if you went faster than that. It was basically a light sand and a couple of spray coats. For a few times that, he did a great job on my buddy's car w/ metallic paint, including doing the prep and flex additive properly for the sharper body lines.
There is nothing wrong with that if you do it properly, not to mention most places won't sand the paint completely down unless you ask specifically. Besides very labor intensive it will drive the cost up very quickly.
I had a car painted by maaco about 8 years ago. They did a horrible prep job and it started peeling and fading after 6 months. I sold the car soon after that but saw it again ~2 years after it was painted and it looked like total shit. Absolutely horrible.
SearchMaster
Diamond Member
- Jun 6, 2002
- 7,791
- 114
- 106
I had an el cheapo paint job (not MAACO) done once. There were some areas that weren't properly masked, etc., but for the 2.5 years I had the car after the paint job, it held up very well and looked very nice. It wasn't factory perfect but it was well worth the money. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again under the same circumstances (older car with minimal value, paint fading).
JulesMaximus
No Lifer
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,588
- 986
- 126
My Father-In-Law had his wife's car painted at MAACO many years ago. It was a BMW 3 series and they went from metallic blue to black. The doors looked horrible and the paint cracked all over one of them after a few months. The do minimal prep work, which is why it's so cheap, and prep work makes or breaks a paint job.
Yup. I've heard that if you do the prep yourself, it's a great paint job.
My car was repainted years before I bought it. I doubt that it would have looked any better with the stock paint. Mind you, it's an 89, and it isn't exactly showroom condition. But nothing is bubbling, peeling or otherwise showing that it has a cheap paint job. Aside from an annoying bit of overspray on a couple of areas.
The problem with Maaco is the single stage system. They put only a single layer of paint down and it's supposed to automatically separate while drying into a base color coat and a top clearcoat but that doesn't always happen, hence premature fading some people experience.
If I wasn't going to keep the car too much longer(less than 3-5 years), I wouldn't mind taking it to Maaco assuming 2 things:
1. You take care of removing all trim, sanding and primering before letting them paint it. The primer/sanding will make sure the paint actually sticks to your car while removing the trim saves you the headache of cleaning up the inevitable overspray(I've never met anyone that had a maaco paint job without overspray)
2. You're semi knowledgeable about paint and you feel comfortable fixing minor blemishes like overspray, paint runs and thickness variations. Once again, I've never met anyone that had a Maaco paint job stand up when inspected for details. There's always paint runs, overspray and thickness variations somewhere. Someone familiar with minor paintwork and detailing could make it look a lot better and factory like, especially on a Lexus SC. The stock paint quality on Lexuses are amazing, imperfections will show up like a sore thumb because people expect a good paint finish on a lexus.
On a sidenote, the Lexus SC 1st gen(92-00) are arguably the best looking Lexuses ever.
If I wasn't going to keep the car too much longer(less than 3-5 years), I wouldn't mind taking it to Maaco assuming 2 things:
1. You take care of removing all trim, sanding and primering before letting them paint it. The primer/sanding will make sure the paint actually sticks to your car while removing the trim saves you the headache of cleaning up the inevitable overspray(I've never met anyone that had a maaco paint job without overspray)
2. You're semi knowledgeable about paint and you feel comfortable fixing minor blemishes like overspray, paint runs and thickness variations. Once again, I've never met anyone that had a Maaco paint job stand up when inspected for details. There's always paint runs, overspray and thickness variations somewhere. Someone familiar with minor paintwork and detailing could make it look a lot better and factory like, especially on a Lexus SC. The stock paint quality on Lexuses are amazing, imperfections will show up like a sore thumb because people expect a good paint finish on a lexus.
On a sidenote, the Lexus SC 1st gen(92-00) are arguably the best looking Lexuses ever.
A quality one that looks like factory? Easily $5K. I'd say average for a multi stage, quality paint job (metallic) would be around 6.5-7.5K. Add more if you want specialized colors like House of Kolor Candy paint.
To change the color correctly, the whole car basically has to be stripped down. Theres nothing that gets on my nerves more than the color under the hood, in the door jambs, in the engine bay or under some easily removable piece (like say the metal under which the taillights are mounted on being a different color.
My friend bought a Red Miata one that was repainted red over a yellow base and you could easily tell under the hood, trunk and in the doors.
If you want a car in a specific color with a quality paint color, it's better to buy a car in that color and sell what you have right now. If you're going to go a different color, at the very least make sure its similar. If you want say, Candy Apple Red, make sure the car is already some sort of Red.
I just love people that say you can't live without the $5000 paint job, most people's cars are not worth that much. I have a friend that got the $350 macco job on his 78 corvette, the paint handles speed fine (55mph lol), the car sits outside and looks great. Unless you have a trailer princess there is absolutely no point is spending $5K+ on a paint job.
Having said that, I'm sure there are crappy shops that halfass the job, try to find reviews on the shop as always.
Of course if you have $5k to blow and you are super critical then by all means go ahead, but for most people the $350 Macco job should be just fine, as long as the shop is a reputable one.
Having said that, I'm sure there are crappy shops that halfass the job, try to find reviews on the shop as always.
Of course if you have $5k to blow and you are super critical then by all means go ahead, but for most people the $350 Macco job should be just fine, as long as the shop is a reputable one.
And I love people that don't actually read. The whole point of my post is that its not worth it to ever change the color on your car, say from green to White because it will always look like crap unless you sink so much money into it, you might as well have traded it in and bought another car in the color of your choice.
Having said that, paint is a luxury item. The whole point of paint is for appearances, otherwise you'd just drive around with faded or primered body panels.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 23K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter