77gp, I agree. Maaco gives you a good price on a paint job because they get their paint at huge discounts due to high volume purchasing. What gets you is the body work involved. Not very many people know how to do body work, or prep work, before painting so Maaco makes it's money there.

Special paint, like Galaxy Silver and others, will cost much more and Pro shops will charge you. I wouldn't discount Maaco for a paint job, but I would check the BBB just to be sure the particular shop you're planning to take your car to doesn't have a laundry list of complaints against them.

 

Not sure what Maaco charges, but if you go to Earl Scheib's website you'll see that they will paint your entire car for $249. For that same $2,500 you were going to spend, you could have Earl Scheib respray your car every spring for the next 10 years. You won't even need to worry about waxing your car any more. And think of the protection that 10 layers of paint will offer - -what if a rock hits your hood and chips off the first 3 layers of paint? Who cares, there's 7 layers under that.

 

im talking about this 250 doller ambassador paint special

its so cheap is beacuse they don't remove anything.... door handels, bumpers, windows, side mouldings , lights. all are simply masked off. thats not the proper way to prep and paint any vehicle

you want that stuff removed , it will cost extra, they dont tell you that stuff in any ads

ever watch the commerical, they say you get $250 of free body work.. well let me tell you friends....$ 250 buck worth of body work is like one door dent and a few rock chips.

for something liek simply painting your lower trim, then yes sounds like something maaco could do..

as for a complete paint job at maaco.. NEVER!!

 

actually they said for that 250, it only includes paint. the car would have to be sanded down, preped, and primed. she wanted to get her whole car painted. they told her 700 for black. different colors cost more. she also has a small car.

i agree maybe your local shops suck, but the one i went to did a great job. thats like saying your local Mcdonalds, makes 100 double cheesburgers at noon, and sells them all day real fast. i dont care, i live in a good part of town where they make them fresh.

so whats your point.

 

I really like that two tone paint job in the picture. I've been thinking of doing mine like that but using the Rolls Royce Corniche colors. I think you have come up with a great idea.

 

That is how my stripes were done, whole hood/trunk painted, then stripes, then all clear coated in together. To do like mine you are looking at $800-$1000. I think today I will make my album on my profile of the evolution of my stripes from start to finish. It is a long process, time and materials and find someone experienced...or you can just scuff and spray paint your ground effects and get vinyl stripes...ALOT cheaper...

Lisa

 

one thing to remember you get what you pay for a good shop will remove all trim go over the whole car let you know what needs to be done before painting it. a bad shop will low ball you then hit you up big in the end or just scuff the car and shoot it.

 

Don't go cheap. I have one shop that does all my work. Some kid at school backed into my car. Estimate was around $1800. I have seen maaco's work, and frankly, it looks like ****.



damage done to my car as mentioned before:

 

I know this is a old thread but I have a 86 ss burgundy. I just installed a 2 inch cowl hood by A.M.D.. I was quoted 1000 bucks to paint my hood and front bumper. That's not even going down a removing the old stripes. They said they would be able to blend in the hood by going down to only the top of front panels. Is that price to high

 

Seems pricey to me I want to add a scoop to my hood and the local body shop told me he would do it and then fix a couple of hail dents in the hood and repaint it Black for $400.00 So I am not sure the 86 may have a larger hood also. I checked around on this too.