Anyone ever goto Maaco?

[Lucky]

up..any more comments?

 

[thawolfman]

<< up..any more comments? >>



sweet, thanks for bumping the 16day idle thread

 

[Lvis]

Well I don't know how they do it.. The guy across the street from me had his toyota done with the two hundred dollar special. It looked fine (though I didn't look too close) He promptly sold it.

As a professional painter, I have to wonder how they do it. Anyone any good with a spray gun should be getting $14+ an hour, and I doubt you could buy the paint to do a car for less than $200.

The guys who suggest you do your own prep work have the right idea. You're just not spending enough for a proper job. Doing the sanding and masking might be enough to get a quality job out of it.


I paint boats, btw. Much the same thing, just different materials used.

 

[Lucky]

as far as prepping, would you need to sand the car all the way down to the metal? Or just lightly sand it to get the finish even?

 

[tcsenter]

<< as far as prepping, would you need to sand the car all the way down to the metal? Or just lightly sand it to get the finish even? >>

It depends. What is causing your car's finish to be unsightly? Is it rust, dents, scratches, swirls, haze, cracking of the finish, etc? And, do any of those things involve layers of finish that are deeper than the base coat? If it does, then how extensive is it?

If we are just talking defects in the finish (the paint itself) like old and weathered paint, and it involves nothing deeper than the base coat, you can just knock the clear coat off to expose the base coat. They'll shoot one additional coat of color then finish with a new clear. The great thing about clear coats is that your base coat can have many irregularities that won't show after the clear is applied. That's why they can do these cars and make them look so well.

 

[Lucky]

<<

<< as far as prepping, would you need to sand the car all the way down to the metal? Or just lightly sand it to get the finish even? >>

It depends. What is causing your car's finish to be unsightly? Is it rust, dents, scratches, swirls, haze, cracking of the finish, etc? And, do any of those things involve layers of finish that are deeper than the base coat? If it does, then how extensive is it?

If we are just talking defects in the finish (the paint itself) like old and weathered paint, and it involves nothing deeper than the base coat, you can just knock the clear coat off to expose the base coat. They'll shoot one additional coat of color then finish with a new clear. The great thing about clear coats is that your base coat can have many irregularities that won't show after the clear is applied. That's why they can do these cars and make them look so well. >>




Thanks for the reply tcsenter. I'll give you a little more information:

My 92 civic's grey-black paint is pretty much shot all over. Dull a little all over, but many, many, light scratches and swirl marks. Very few scratches penetrate deep down except for one long one on the hood, a 12" "keying" scratch, and a 4" 1/3" deep gouge on my rear bumper. Like most hondas of this vintage, there is minor rust by the wheelwells. I was hoping I could buy a power sander, lightly sand the whole body (clearcoat like you said). Also, I planned to flake off the rust, sand it down, and add some compound to fill it back in (is that what bondo is for? I also planned to do the same for the gouge on the bumper-just fill it in with a little compound or whatever is needed. I planned to have them go over it with a black paint, probably not exactly the same color (as I somewhat dislike the "light" black current paint, planned to get a "jet black" paint.).

It sounds like this would work but anyone with pointers would be helpful. I'll wash my car tommorow and take a few pictures to illustrate the condition.

 

[tcsenter]

<< It sounds like this would work but anyone with pointers would be helpful. I'll wash my car tommorow and take a few pictures to illustrate the condition. >>

Before we get further, have you tried to wheel your finish out with a swirl/haze removing polish then follow it up with one or two coats of a good paste wax? Black is sorta hard to work with, but it can be done. I don't know how much money you're willing to spend, but trying to polish the finish is definitely the least expensive route, and if you screw it up or make it worse, well you originally wanted to paint it anyway. ;-)

Just remember that restorative finish work like this is all about taking minute layers of the finish away then building them back up. You can always take more of the finish away if you didn't take enough the first time, but if you take too much of the finish away, you can't easily put it back. ;-)

When using a polishing wheel or sanding, always observe that philosophy. Its more work, but has better results and fewer accidents. The first time you burn through your finish right down to the primer by pressing too hard on your nifty new orbital buffer is always a great if not expensive learning experience, take it from me. hehe

The rust spots are a little more complex, but if you go to an automotive supply place and pick-up a good autobody work and finish book, especially one that deals with restorative methods like haze, swirls, scratches and small rust spots, it will much more helpful and informative than I could ever be.

 

[Lucky]

I've tried the 3-step meguiers (sp?) kit about 6 months ago, it didnt noticably help.

I'll update it with pics so if anyone is interested I can get some better advice, but I will take your words to heart and look for a book on this.

 

[Bignate603]

About "bondo"ing your wheel well, I've worked a little with bondo and fiberglass and you may went to do fiberglass for that. It's better at spanning holes or rebuilding sections that are missing. Bondo is fairly weak and will crack, it's made more for filling in cracks and dents. I would think the easiest way to do it was to chew out the really rusted parts or cut them out if they are really bad, using the fiberglass to span the hole and then using bondo over that to make a sandable and primeable surface.

Other people may have better advice though, I've only worked with the stuff once.