Paint Shop delima

ToyoHabu

New Member
Jun 25, 2005
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Huntsville, Alabama, United States
For the people who have had cars painted, How did you evaluate the shops for quality before you plunked down dough for a paint job ? What indicates a good shop from a bad one ? If anybody from north alabama , any sugestions ?
 

Xtreme

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May 23, 2005
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believe it or not, maaco does pretty good work, you just have to slip the painter an extra 100 dollars so he puts some extra paint on for ya, then simply color sand and buff-comes out like glass. Just make sure the prep guy does his job.
If you look at the work a shop does, the tools they use, and the kind of paint they use, you can usually tell a good shop from a bad
 

MKIIINA

Destroyer of Turbos
Mar 30, 2005
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yea maaco isnt as bad as people make it out really. if you specify stock paint i noticed they are alot happoer and will work well with you. adding the extra cash = big plus!
 

malloynx

Member
Mar 30, 2005
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also you can save yourself a huge ammount of money if you strip the car yourself.

things like trim, taillights,foglights,door handle,side mirrors,window trim, spoiler, etc.
 

suprabad

Coitus Non Circum
Jul 12, 2005
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Down Like A Clown Charley Brown
I used to mangage a maaco in so cal and your right if the car is prepped right (best you do it) and you slip the painter a hundred you'll get a decent job.

However, remember maaco is what's called a "production paint shop". What that means essentially is-get them in & get them out. Not to say they do a bad job it's just that a production shop is not going to give you the quality job that a custom shop will.

A custom shop is going to meticulously prep your car, block sand all the soon to be painted surfaces and remove all the trim and bumpers etc. rather then masking tape over all the trim "scuff and shoot" your car. The catch is you pay a lot more and I mean a lot more for a true custom paint job. If you are paying $500 or $600 at a production shop expect to pay around 10 times that for a top quality repaint at a custom shop. But for the $5k or $6k your going to get a finish that will rival the factory finish.
Way, way better prep (which takes along time) better paint, and more attention to detail.

Hint- If you use maaco or another production shop one thing to look at is their paint booth. Is it old? Or not very clean? If thats the case check another shop and try to find one with a newer and cleaner paint booth.

Hope this give you a better idea of what your choices are.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, don't expect factory paint from a production shop. They can generally reproduce the original color of your car but not with factory paint like PPG or Dupont. It's just too costly to use in a production shop and still make a decent profit
 
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shaeff

Kurt is FTMFW x2!!!!
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Mar 30, 2005
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so, bring your own paint, and do your own damn prepwork, dammit!

-shaeff
 

ToyoHabu

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Jun 25, 2005
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Thanks for the feedback, Long time ago I had a VW beatle painted by a shop that had a good rep, turns out they liked doing insurance work better and jerked me around and did a poor prep job ect. spent $2000 on them and felt cheated. so I have considered painting the car myself but that is a big undertaking and steep learing curve.
 

souprat

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Mar 30, 2005
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when i went i just asked them if i could see a car that they had just finished painting. and looked around the shop to see if it was nice or not. go to at least two shops so you can compare.
 

tubbie

Yes, powerful Jedi....
Apr 4, 2005
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For the price some of the custom shops charge, you could build your own painting booth and buy your own painting equipment and do it yourself just as good or better. After your done with yours, you can do all your friend's cars and get your money back.
 

suprahero

naughty by nature
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Aug 26, 2005
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I Live In Walker County, And I Have A Friend Who Owns A Body Shop In Jasper,al. He Painted My '91 Supra For Me For 1200.00. He Would Probably Paint Your Car For 1500.00 He Took My Mirrors & Wing Off. He Also Had To Fix Some Bad Spots On My Targa Top. The Car Looks Pretty Good Too. You Can See It Under Suprahero's Gt Eater. The Pictures Look Bad Because Of The Camera, But The Car Really Shines. Pm Me For His Name And Number.
 

Suprastic

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Apr 8, 2005
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ToyoHabu,
I had a similar case happen to me. My neighbour own a local body shop and they only seem to be busy with insurance claims aswell. They did work for me other times and did a decent job. When I got my 89 white mouldings and bumper I took it to him a week befor I went on vacation for a week. He told me they would be done in two weeks when I came back. I checked in every week for 5 weeks after I got back and nothing had been done. I told him to give my fuckin shit back and I'll do it myself. I told him to look out his window at 9:30pm that evening and my car will be finsihed. I went to Canadian Tire and bought a six cans of Duplicolor Super WhiteII "exact match for my paint" and some primer. Sure enough I was done a half hour before I told him I'd be done with everything mounted. I didn't paint the bumper though. These are the excuses he gave me:

-paint wasn't sticking to the mouldings
-you bought the wrong bumper (eventhough I told him my car was an 87 and the bumper was an 89, and all neccessary lights,grilles and hardware were placed directly in his hand when I dropped everything off.

I knough this reply is long but it pisses me off to see someone screw you around like this. especially when you know them. and he tells me 3K to paint my car. I don't think so.
 

Justin727

T-virus infected
I did my own paint. just find someone with some spray gun skills if ur weary about urself. Do the prep urself and buy all the materials. Just pay the guy thats gonna spray a little and he'll be happy. after all if done right all he has to do is shoot it.
 

Justin727

T-virus infected
heres a better pic of the car in the sun and not shaded like in my sig.
p81957_1.jpg