Maaco Body Shops

Spector_Ray · #1 10-12-2008, 07:57 PM

My wife's hobby seems to be putting a scratch or gouge in my paintjob everytime she drives my truck. Some of her episodes include a buried piece of rebar she didn't see, opening the door to her car right into the door of my truck and various other incidents. The last one was a nice 18" scratch in my fender when she got too close to the mailbox. I

I got estimates from several body shops to fix the last scratch and they averaged around $500. I heard a commercial for Maaco and they're having a special, but how good can the quality be for that price? Does anyone have experience with Maaco? Does the addage 'you get what you pay for' apply here?

Pilgrim · #2 10-12-2008, 08:02 PM

You get what you pay for. If you do ALL the prep and bring it in ready to shoot, they can do OK.

Sounds like you need to buy an old truck for her to drive...or send her to a driving school that will improve her skills. High-performance driving schools like Bondurant and Skip Barber are excellent for making drivers much more alert and improving their car control.

MonetBass · #3 10-12-2008, 08:10 PM

If you want a McPaint Job with lots of orange peel, go for it.

+1 to what Pilgrim said.

Spector_Ray · #4 10-12-2008, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

You get what you pay for. If you do ALL the prep and bring it in ready to shoot, they can do OK.

Sounds like you need to buy an old truck for her to drive...or send her to a driving school that will improve her skills. High-performance driving schools like Bondurant and Skip Barber are excellent for making drivers much more alert and improving their car control.

No, I just need to take away her set of keys to my truck. A high performance driving school is a bit overkill since these scratches and such happen in parking lots and other crap like that. She just needs to pay a bit more attention since she's not used to my truck. She drives a Honda Element and can pull into parking spaces with ease. Luckily, she hasn't damaged any other vehicles AFAIK.

Stanley Design · #5 10-12-2008, 10:05 PM

For $500 you better be getting the whole truck painted.

Bob Lee (QSC) · #6 10-12-2008, 10:14 PM

You don't necessarily get what you pay for, but you almost always pay for what you get.

kissmybASS01 · #7 10-13-2008, 05:54 AM

I got some painting / mild bodywork at a local Maaco and would not reccomend them to anybody. I had a little '93 Maxda MX6 Mystere (a timeless sports coupe IMO) and got their presidential (el-cheapo) job.
The colour choices were okay. I went with a Dodge Viper metallic blue. However, with the colour change I would have had to pay extra $75 to paint the insides of the doors, under the hood, and inside the trunk. That's $75 per item, btw! When I got my car back, from about 10' away, it looks pretty good, but when you go closer....they got overspray on my brand new stainless steel exhaust, the corner light assembly were "foggy" from overspray, and slight imperfections could be seen where they did a half-arsed job prepping.

I was told that it looked like I painted the car myself. Kinda makes me think that if those "Pay and Spray" shops from the Grand Theft Auto games were real....

Spector_Ray · #8 10-13-2008, 05:57 AM

This is exactly what I suspected. Thanks for the replies.

ahkiatt · #9 10-13-2008, 07:01 AM

An 18 inch scratch in your FEND-WHAT?! Oh wait.

Spector_Ray · #10 10-13-2008, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahkiatt

An 18 inch scratch in your FEND-WHAT?! Oh wait.

neurotictim · #11 10-13-2008, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

You get what you pay for. If you do ALL the prep and bring it in ready to shoot, they can do OK.

I know a guy that had his Firebird repainted by them, and he did all the prep and final work, and it turned out really, really nice.

MJ5150 · #12 10-13-2008, 09:05 AM

MAACO = leave your windows down and we'll paint the inside for free.

In my experience, they have done nothing but terrible work. If I had an old beater I was getting ready to sell, I might use them for a small repair. That is all.

-Mike

Bob Lee (QSC) · #13 10-13-2008, 10:18 AM

I've never used Maaco, but various friends and neighbors have over the years. Some of the jobs have been very nice, and others looked like drive-through paint jobs.

Maaco is a franchise operation, but bodywork and painting involve skills that some employees, managers, and franchiseholders get better than others. I'd say the results can vary widely among locations and also among the many types of work being done. For example, a paint job that should have a lot of prep and sanding work will probably turn out poorly if it's done on the cheap.

flakeh · #14 10-13-2008, 01:00 PM

We used maaco to paint the stock car we made in auto class. they oversprayed the inner panels in the engine bay and painted our engine, along with the airfilter, and the ignition box. they oversprayed on the tires and all over the rear susp. too. I wouldn't ever use Maaco again. I coulda painted it with rattle can paint better then they did.

tplyons · #15 10-13-2008, 02:18 PM

For the price of a Maaco paint job, you can buy all the gear and **** it up yourself.

Same results, more toys

Mike Money · #16 10-13-2008, 02:57 PM

We just had the buick repainted at maaco.

It came out pretty nice.... not show room quality, for still nice.

HollowBassman · #17 10-13-2008, 03:22 PM

I always heard bad things about Maaco until very recently. The guy I was going to ask to help paint my Panel truck project told me to check them out as they would do as good a job as he could do, and do it cheaper(assuming you don't cheap out and get the low grade). He told me that several of the nicer looking muscle cars around here were painted by them and that he himself has had several cars painted by them.

Since then I've heard several other local car guys talking good about them and that leads me to believe that most of the bad things you hear about them are from people who get the "Ambassador" grade and expect it to look like the "Signature" grade.

Mike N · #18 10-13-2008, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd Stanley

For $500 you better be getting the whole truck painted.

You priced out materials lately? $500 doesn't go very far.

steve66 · #19 10-13-2008, 06:37 PM

Maaco is great if you need a quick paint job to sell the vehicle

hbarcat · #20 10-13-2008, 08:03 PM

My opinion as a full time professional spray painter is that you get what you pay for.

--I can take my car to a pro shop and spend $5,000 on a modest paint job. Result: looks good.

--I can do the time consuming prep labor myself and have a pro shop spray it for $3,000. Result: looks good (assuming I know how to prep).

--I can do all the prep work and spraying myself for $1,500. Result: looks good (assuming I know how to prep and am a good, experienced painter and have the right equipment and facilities).

--Have Maaco hose some paint on your ride for $500. Result: crap.

The reality is that high quality paint, supplies and equipment, lots of labor time and meticulous attention to detail by experienced and skilled workers is absolutely essential for paint to be properly applied to a car. It stands to reason that if you cut the price of a good paint job by 50% or more then there will be lots of skimping in all these areas.