Maaco Paint Jobs

Today I went over to Maaco and priced some paint jobs, they let me go back and check out their $259 paint job (nearly $600 total with preping and sealing included), it comes with a 1 year warranty. I got to check out a Firebird they did this job on and it was nice! No defects, blemishes, overspray or anything, they did a clean job and it looks factory!


They have another package where you get factory quality paint, more coats and a 4 year warranty for $659, it's like $75 each door jam and to paint underneath the trunk and hood! For about $1000 you get what looks like a damn nice paint job! I was surprised cause I've seen a lot of people on the internet talk a lot of sh**t about Maaco but the cars I saw there (they had quite a few), looked like they did really nice jobs, they had a guy out there inspecting the jobs and letting the customers fully inspect. These weren't really the most friendliest guys but they seem like they do good pain jobs here.

Maybe it depends on which Maaco you go to?


I'm really thinking about having the '87 Sedan (I want to paint it black) done here especially after checking with what was supposed to be a hookup that quoted me about $3500 today!! "oh well, we only do premium paint jobs, we are experts other places just slap the paint on and don't care, they're paint jobs only last 6 months, there are chemical reactions they don't know about etc etc." I replied sh**t, I can buy a newer Volvo for that in the color I want!



Anyone here get a Maaco paint job that's happy with it? What do you guys think?

the thing about maaco is that, The people who spray the paint can be awesome at it. but the prep work and the quality of the materials may not be at its best. What i was going to do with my old vw was...well i got halfway through it.

I sanded and sandblasted the car down
cleaned it up, dismantled it, painted all the imposible places that the maaco guys couldn't get to and put it loosly back together. The car was a nice shade of green from the self ething primer that i sprayed on it...the great thing about primer is you can be drunk and spray it on with out any fear.

Now paint is something i wont mess with. but as far as prep work, its worth it if you do it yourself.

I've seen a couple of Maaco jobs on 240's. They're not bad, really. The prep work was not top notch, and they might miss a spot or two that's hard to see, but paint looks OK.

Also lighter colors are harder to spot defects in, i was convinced from dark blue to white with my vw...even if it never got to the shop for the paint

They differ from shop to shop. Check with your local BBB to see what kind of track record they have too.

At the end, still be mindful about how much you're spending. Relative to the price, they can do a pretty decent job, especially if you're doing some prep work yourself.

-- Kane

Both my 122tic and my 242tic were painted by maco. What you have to consider is what the car is going to be worth. why put a 2000.00 paint job on a car that will never be worth very much. it seems like no matter how much I put into my 242 it will never be worth more then $4000.00 tops. I could paint my car 4 times by maco for the price of a really nice paint job. and even after doing a bunch of prep work, you will probably have some rust or something come through from the inside that you never knew was there. If the maco nere you seems to do good work, I say go for it.

the more prep you can do the better (ie remove bumpers, trim, glass ect). Macco's nicer paintjobs are actually pretty nice.

Pick easy colors for them to shoot (lighter, less mettalic) and it will really help to make it turn out nicer.

Preparation is 95% of a great paint job.

Talk to the guy who will actually shoot the color and quietly slip him a 50 dollar bill. You will get a superb paint job.

This all sounds like good advise. I got a $450 Earl Scheib paint job. (pretty damn similar to macco) It looked good for a while. Now, 6 years later, it still shines and looks good as long as you don't go too close to the car. Up close you can see where the layers of paint in small areas that are peeling off and exposing the old paint that they sprayed right over. So yeah, prep work is everything.

Oh yeah, and when I got the car back when they were 'finished', there was a huge hand print on the trunk right in the paint. Needless to say, I made them redo the trunk.

Best of luck to you.

I had my car done by Earl Sheib for $700 including dent removal. Not including jams. They had to do it twice (first time was absolute crap) and the second time they left a run in the clear coat. I'm not too pleased with the run but I can colorsand it out and if it doesn't look ok they will respray again. Otherwise it looks fantastic mostly because I did all the prep and removed damn near everything from the car. Black is a pain in the ass, it shows every minute detail. I love the look though. I do have a great warrantee on the job. 6 YEARS.

Macco did an amazing job on my mom's porsche 912 for about $1500. She stripped the car to bare metal and the thing looks showroom new even 7 years later.

Earl Schieb put a clearcoat on your car? Bastard.

SwedishBrick240 said:

Earl Schieb put a clearcoat on your car? Bastard.

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Muhahaha! Yes, 3 coats. It comes with the premium package. Right now the deal is $349 for the best they have. I didn't have to pay extra for the paint run.

Oh, I'll post pics this weekend when I get the photos developed.