is anyone famaliar with that bodyshop called maaco? i see the commercials on tv all the time and the advertising does a good job of making them look like a great body shop! i have a few dings and scratches on my taco i want to get rid of. just wondering if anyone has anything they could share with me about their experience with maaco. i usually hesistate when it comes to "big" companies advertising all over the place about how they're "better" than all the competition out there. unless they're really good at making commercials, this maaco place sounds interesting!!

-alan

 

They suck, big time. Don't waste your money.

 

if you want paint on your truck they will put it on for you ..

 

it might look worse than a 3 year old doing it with a marker though.....

 

hahahaha! so my instincts serve me right.

i've always noticed the better mechanics/shops are always the little places!

 

Their specialty is price. You can draw some conclusions from that...

BUT, I've had a couple of cars painted by them over the years. I have never had any body work done there though, I do my own. If your local Maico hasn't had big turnover recently the guys get enough practice to spray the paint very nicely. I was actually impressed with the quality of their work. It's cheap paint, that's all, fine for a POS daily driver or a trail rig or a car you want to sell. Hint: step up another $100 to their better paint job - it's better paint. Another way to look at it is they can paint it for you, better than you can probably do (because if you could do better you wouldn't be considering them anyway,) cheaper than you can buy the materials alone for. They are worth what they charge - its a good deal, BUT-

If you are looking for a top quality paint job, they are not the place. A top quality repaint will usually run you $2000 to $5000+, not $299 - $499.

 

i agree with Flamedx4; maaco may be better than the average DIYer can do, but they use the cheapest materials...even if it looks OK, it won't last. if you're keeping the rig it's probably not a good way to go.

 

I have heard that maaco has gotten alot better recently in quality of paint and work. I read an article a while back in a paint/body mag about how technology has improved so much that they actually do a good job for the price.

That being said I havent seen a maaco job in a long time. I do not beleive they do any body work, so what you bring in is what gets painted. (which is probably done well if the prep and body are good).

 

From what I hear, Maaco and other cheap places use an integrated clear coat in thier paint, meaning they don't spray the paint and then the clear on top. Everything is mixed in together. I know several people that got thier cars painted at cheap places and they didn't look that great at all. Lots of overspray too.

I thought about getting my 4runner repainted. I know a guy that will paint mine for $500 if I do all the prep work myself. Most of the cost goes to materials (paint and clear) and about $100 for labor. He is one of the best painters from where I came from and he uses either PPG or House of Kolors paint. If you can find somebody to do this, I think that is the way to go. Do some work yourself and save some money. But, if it is just a trail rig, just rattle can it or do a cheapo paint like maaco.

Just my $.02.
Have fun all.
Daniel

 

Maaco uses a one stage paint that is cheap. It includes the primer,base, and clear coat all in one. That's the reason why they could paint whole cars for so cheap. You could buy the one stage paint yourself also. It super cheap some colors you could get a whole gallon for $40. Stay away from Maaco, but if you want a cheap paint job that might chip and peel in a few months, then go there.

 

Yeah, one stage paints are synthetic enamels as opposed to urethane multi stage paints. They are no where near as tough as a good urethane paint from a reputable body shop or the factory. They will scratch, chip, fade, etc much sooner than any well done multi stage paint job costing $2000 and up.

 

i think DH6 is on the right track...find a good shop that uses high-quality materials and do a lot of the prep work yourself... you can save a ton of money by just removing all the trim and doing all the tedious stuff so that the shop can concentrate on doing what they do best...

 

I have used Maaco with great success. I did a car for Jeg's and had my painter flake on me so after an agreement with the owner of the car we had it painted at Maaco.

They used DuPont Paint (Oil Slick Black) blocked the body ( shaved the door handles and use LEAD to fill in most of the work) and it turned out BEAUTIFUL! Kept tabs on them like you should with any shop and they had to check off with me on every stage of the paint.

Total price was 1500.00 for one KICK ARSE paint job.

It can be done,

 

I hear they stop your car before they start painting now...