Paintscratch.com or Maaco job?

[huskyfan23]

:d

 

[Brian_B]

Around here you will pay $1000-$1200 for an average paint job (not show quality by any means). They fix minor dings, scratches, sand, mask, and paint. For that price they won't fix major damage, but thats not what he is looking for.

I have painted a few cars at home myself (not a pro). I have all the equipment. The last car I painted was a 71 bug. We dismantled it and painted everything inside and out. It was just a one step paint though, so it was not that expensive.

Paint, reducer, hardner, masking tape, and a few other minor things. We did some body work/replaced panels, but that was not part of the paint cost. It added up to a few hundred total to paint and had a completely different looking car. The biggest part was labor.

Shops get their paint/supplies a lot cheaper than the public can, so they can do some pretty good deals for painting. You save the labor cost by doing as much as possible yourself.

 

[unclemeat]

There is a lot of bad infomation on this thread. I repainted mine last year with the help of an experienced body man. The paint and supplies were about $400 retail (base, clear). The prep is where all the labor is. Painting is relatively easy. It took about 20-man hours to prep and paint, no wet sanding or buffing. The devil is in the details, if you cheat on the prep and paint quality, you get a lousy paint job. I estimate that my paint job would have cost about $1500 ($50/hour labor), no color change and a good (not great) finish. You definetly get what you pay for.

 

[MONMIX]

Yikes
I step away for a few days and this thread takes off !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It keeps getting repeated and it is 100% true. It boils down to your level of expectation.

A buddy of mine got his car painted some where other than my shop and he was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO proud of the results. He said it was flawless.

I didnt want to hurt his feelings or embarass him but I saw countless flaws ten fet away. When you know what to look for these things stand out like a sore thumb.
Believe me, I can point to each and every paint flaw on my Ex.
I have memorised them

Looking at a fesh paint job will not tell you much. Look at a year old paint job.
See if the shops you visit can give you some phone numbers of cars painted a year or more ago.

If you want the best job, go to a shop that does the best cars. Show cars, Lexus, Mercades.
If you want a good job, look for the shop that does Toyota, and Honda

If you want a crappy paint job look for the shop that does Jeep
( sorry !! j/k )