What do I need to know about Maaco?

[HangerHarley]

Is anyone familiar with their quality, expertise, finished product?

Time to service the vehicle? Do they ask if you have Insurance, etc?

I have some fairly old Paint on my Car and i wonder what Maaco would do. Ive taken minor repairs on other cars to them with Average results (you would have to look hard to see it was Maaco, doing Front Valences on a car, for $550, etc) but as for Paint..

They may tell me i need "Re-sprays" in which case they do the whole panel, right? The price of a whole car would scare me.

(If they determine the paint is too far gone. They would know, right? Or would they give a blanket answer: "Yes you need new paint, we can take care of you," them being a PAINT SHOP? See my point?)

Can their shops produce a quality result with "Ambassador" Paint Service, or is it all a bunch of Bull?

Mainly, old, cracked, dry Paint with all its Clear gone, to a paint job you can see your reflection in, smooth if not extra shiny, normal reflectivity is fine.

I wonder if they get a lot of that, and how exactly do they accomplish such a low price point?

Its like its all going to their labor, the price is for their work where does the Paint come in..

 

[Mr Nice]

I believe Maaco are a franchise so the quality of work will vary from each shop.

My brother got his car painted after a minor fender bender with an F-150 and they did a very decent job. The only thing I noticed were some spots with overspray on the muffler and inside the wheel well.

 

[40Deluxe]

They are a high volume business.They wont take the time with prep like a high quality shop.The bulk of their business is used car lots.Having said all that their painters can lay down some of the best paint jobs because that is all the painter does is spray the color on.I have had two Maaco paint jobs and both were good paint jobs but i did all the body prep and body work,they just sprayed them.Prep is where they save the big money.

 

[tomcat27]

you will get what you are paying for. when I had my 1970 Cougar painted back in 1993, my paint man sat down with me and told me it would cost me anywhere from $500 to $10,000 to paint the car. how good did I want it? all the time is in the prep. when I took bodyshop class my instructor would not let us spray over anything but bare metal - just to teach us the BEST way to paint. sand to bare metal, spray with DP40 primer, spray with Euro primer, then base coats, color sanding, clear coat.

so, what are you expecting? and how much do you want to pay? the other responses here are spot on.

 

[HangerHarley]

Originally Posted By: tomcat27
you will get what you are paying for. when I had my 1970 Cougar painted back in 1993, my paint man sat down with me and told me it would cost me anywhere from $500 to $10,000 to paint the car. how good did I want it? all the time is in the prep. when I took bodyshop class my instructor would not let us spray over anything but bare metal - just to teach us the BEST way to paint. sand to bare metal, spray with DP40 primer, spray with Euro primer, then base coats, color sanding, clear coat.

so, what are you expecting? and how much do you want to pay? the other responses here are spot on.


I will send you a PM. Thank You!

 

[97tbird]

This thread might help you, too. (I started it at tccoa.com):
http://forums.tccoa.com/showthread.php?t=130203

Checking out bbb reviews for Maaco shops help a lot..
there are 3 in my area, one has a A+, another A, and the other F (from bbb)

 

[RTexasF]

My only experience with Maaco was a tragedy. All they had to do was paint an area I scraped beneath the front bumper. When the car was ready (phone call) I went to get it. All the items they removed (why?) to paint the area were in the front floorboards. In addition they painted 1/2 of a plastic airdam in the same area and left the rest black.....none of that required painting. Absolute and total idiots shown by the work and trying to communicate with them after I went to pick it up. They corrected everything and I left promptly only to return several times. A short time later the whole place closed up. Gee, I wonder why?

Based on one episode at one shop they could not pay me to go back to anything named Maaco. Three trips back to complete a one hour job? Never again.

Had I known in advance I would have done the work with a rattle can and been done with it in an hour or less......for a lot less moola!

The store closing was a service to the community.

 

[wallyuwl]

We got our Vibe painted by them about six months ago. It was a mixed bag. We got the "Supreme" (single coat poly) paint job - their second best. We got this because our major problem was chips, and they (and another independent shop we looked into) said it is more durable than the standard basecoat/clearcoat.

For the job itself:

We got it on sale for $549 (I think), reg. $799 (I think). It included the basic prep (ie: not a full stripping of the material, but roughed it up a bit so the paint would stick). The paint itself is nice for the price. No issues with the paint. There is one relatively small area of overspray on the roof rack, and one relatively small overspray spot on the drivers side wiper arm. The wheel wells are oversprayed a ton.

As for the experience, that wasn't so good. First, they wanted to charge us more because they tried to say our Vibe is a "truck". LMAO! Out license plate got "stolen" (they say). And they let their little dog run all over the inside of our car and there was dog hair and dirty little dog paw prints all over. When we confronted them about the issues, their response was defensive, to say the least.

The actual paint job was decent for the price paid. For another $1000 I know I wouldn't have any overspray and wouldn't have had to pay $9 to replace a "stolen" license plate. But it isn't worth the extra money, IMO (at least not in this application). The service was horrible.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
I believe Maaco are a franchise so the quality of work will vary from each shop.

My brother got his car painted after a minor fender bender with an F-150 and they did a very decent job. The only thing I noticed were some spots with overspray on the muffler and inside the wheel well.


Quality will vary from one shop to another. They turn out a fast OK job, nothing great. It all depends on what you give them to work with. Years ago I had a work van that ran great but the paint was dead from years of sitting in the sun. I went to two differnt Maaco shops and was quoted the same price. Funny part is I only wanted the body of the van shot and not the roof. One shop would do as I wanted the other guy insisted that he shoot the whole van, the price was the same.

I went with the guy that shot just the body, because after seeing both shops work his was better. I ended up with a nice paint job for the money. The only thing I was a little disappointed with was that they used Enamel paint, 1 part system. Basically they go over the vehicle with a Scotch Brite Pad, chemically clean it and shoot it with enamel paint. The job did last several years. My suggestion is stick with the same color, since they didn't shoot door jams, or the sides of the doors.

As a side note, I had no problems other than dull, dead, scratched up paint, beyond anything that could be detailed out.

 

[xtell]

400Delux,

I'll second you on that one (prep before paint). I had a 1974 Monte Carlo and a 1987 Chevy 4x4 painted by Maaco. I took off all the trim, bumpers, inner door panels, grill, etc, and wet sanded and primed both vehicles. They did a great job on the final coats of paint.

 

[joel95ex]

it all depends on who is working there...i have seen maaco jobs at local car shows that looked great with a lot of attention to detail, then I saw a maaco job from a different shop that I probably could have beaten in my own garage. ask to see some of their finished vehicles, and if you live in a large city, go to more than one shop.

 

[ProStreetCamaro]

Maaco depending on the shop can do a decent job but you will pay for it. There basic $500 paint job will not look good for very long. It may look OK when you first pick it up but with in a year or two the paint will begin to degrade. Now they can do what ever you want. You want better paint and better prep work they can do it but the price goes way up.

Just an example...

The gallon of Dupont Hot Hues Ragging ruby that is on my camaro cost me $550 and that is DEALER cost. That does not include the gallon of Dupont clear, reducers, catlysts etc etc etc. My car has a show quality finish and the entire job cost me $3500 (my relative is one of the best body and paint guys in MD). Any other shop would have charged me $7000 to $10,000 for the same job.


My paint is so deep and wet looking it looks like the paint is going to drip off the car. I assume your not going for a show car job?

 

[RacerE7773]

On your Camaro.

 

[SteveSRT8]

In our area Maaco is not that bad. We often prep the car and mask it, then take it to them to be sprayed.

 

[AdRock]

I work for a paint company and deliver to a Maaco everyday. Well, they're not a Maaco anymore. They wanted to put out good, proper paint jobs. Basically, Maaco franchise costs made them HAVE to do everything quicker and sacrifice quality. They got out of the Maaco deal and are finally making a profit.

Same people prepping and painting,but much better jobs for almost the same money WITHOUT the Maaco sign on the front of the building.

 

[grampi]

I would say the only thing you need to know about Maaco is stay away from them!