Painting an Older Car

[NewEnglander]

Originally Posted By: oilmutt
Are you doing this for you or her? If for her take the $600 to $800 and spend it on nice weekend at Bar Harbor or Newport!


The weekend thing is a nice idea but we'll probably do that anyway. Ironically if it was for me I'd get her a new car!

 

[Gimpy1]

Originally Posted By: SirTanon
I think that car might be an excellent candidate for a good dipping

Or a vinyl wrap. Which should last longer than 2 years. My old company car was wrapped and lasted 5 years, in extreme Texas weather.

 

[Wolf359]

I used Maaco once for some auto body work. There were several cars in the lot that had peeling paint. That's basically the problem with a cheap paint job, the paint peels after a year or two. Which is why someone here mentioned it's basically a 2 year paint job. The key is really the paint prep, they normally do a lousy job for that cheap a price. You're better off prepping the car in advance yourself. Give it a good cleaning and clay bar it before bringing it in. They also do a lousy job taping it so you'll see some paint over spray on areas that aren't supposed to have paint. For a 15 year old car, I wouldn't bother, you'd get nothing from the insurance if someone smashes into it after a year. That is, an $800 paint job won't add any extra value to a car.

 

[SatinSilver]

You can have a mobile painter come and do touch up work to the car. Maybe after it's professionally detailed. That's what a dealer here does that has their own top-notch body shop. The guy will juggle a few cars at a time. They focus on all the nicks, scratches that a good detailer isn't able to remove. A good detail will spruce up the interior as well and the mobile paint guy will take care of the blemishes. A good one, two punch.

Here's a thread on a two year old Maaco paint job. Too bad the pics don't load anymore but I remember what they look like.

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3042950/1

 

[Trav]

I agree if you do your own prep work it can go a long way in improving the overall quality of the job but from what read into the OP's post is all he wants to do with this car is drive it to the shop and drop it off.
That's fine too as long as you know what you are getting from the get go and anything over what you expect out of the job is a bonus.

 

[demarpaint]

I had Maaco paint a work van years ago black. I went to three local Maaco shops and spoke with the man in charge and looked at their work. As it turned out a few body shops used them for complete repaint work on occasion. Their work looked the best of the three shops, his prices were fair so I went with it. They did a great job considering, certainly not showroom quality, but a lot better than I expected. I was pleased and the job lasted, I sold the van a few years later still looking good. If you spend your time and shop around you might find a Maaco shop that does good work like I did. I paid way less than the body shops were asking for.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Find the professional automotive paint stores in your area. Walk in, or call them. They probably know a guy who does good work in a home booth, or professional painter that also does it on the side.


And they'll be ready, eager and willing to put the OP in touch and undercut their own bizniz?

 

[andrewp1998]

Maaco xxxxx my car up after an accident. It started rusting 1 yr after repair! I had to bring it back and it rusted again. Stupid of me to even consider them ! Live and learn and I have learned alot since then. Never again!

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Find the professional automotive paint stores in your area. Walk in, or call them. They probably know a guy who does good work in a home booth, or professional painter that also does it on the side.


And they'll be ready, eager and willing to put the OP in touch and undercut their own bizniz?


No, they know the guys they sell paint and supplies to. I'm not talking about body shops, I'm talking about body shop supply stores.

 

[Ducked]

Ah OK. Makes sense.

 

[NYEngineer]

I second the vinyl wrap but you would want to clean up any body issues first.

My wife currently has a 2009 Kia Sorento. The car is white. No pearl or metallic. A while back, some drunk girl smashed it good and I was sure it was going to be totaled. It was not. A friend who owns a collision shop took it and fixed it up great. He painted the entire car and it looks better than it did from the factory. I think the insurance check was around 6 grand.

 

[NewEnglander]

Thanks for all the advice and feedback. To speak to it generally, I would not be expecting perfection or miracles from a basic level job at a MAACO. Just an improvement on where it is at.

But I am also intrigued by the idea of giving it a real professional detail first and seeing what happens. I guess my question after that would be - OK, the detail livens up the car and most of the paint looks great. What about some of the scratches or dings? Is there some kind of extra detail/buff job that can mitigate, or are we still talking paint? The scratches I am talking about are typically from tree branches, small animals, and occasional door smacks etc. Nothing super deep like a keying, accident, or deforming the body in a real serious way. So essentially trying to gauge where is the middle ground on that etc.

Thanks all, great discussion.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: Ducked
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Find the professional automotive paint stores in your area. Walk in, or call them. They probably know a guy who does good work in a home booth, or professional painter that also does it on the side.


And they'll be ready, eager and willing to put the OP in touch and undercut their own bizniz?


No, they know the guys they sell paint and supplies to. I'm not talking about body shops, I'm talking about body shop supply stores.


This is also true of other supply house type businesses. I use a local window store and they don't like to make recommendations, but if you twist their arm, they make them and a friend of mine ended up with someone who was pretty good that did for a fairly low price. They know who's good and cheap.

 

[ted s]

waste of money. to do it right will cost more than car is worth

 

[Trav]

You might have to wait until Sept at this point but try a local trade school, you provide the paint and materials, the school carges a few bucks. The work will be good it just takes a little longer.