Want 2 get my car painted?!

[NWOleman]

So i want to spend some money and get my car painted professionally. What do you guys recommend and who? What about Maaco? I heard they do allright work. I don't want to spend anymore than 1500 bucks tho. I can remove and replace all the trim mostly so that will save some dough but who's good and cheap around portland or salem? Thanks NWO

[djlotus]

If you want a (maybe) good paint job, talk to the local colleges. If you can get a hold of a person who teaches a body shop class you could be in business. From what I recall in my body shop class, all you had to do was provide the materials and the students, maybe the teacher, would do the body work and spray the vehicle.

 

I personally would never use Maaco unless I wanted a quick paintjob so I could sell a car.

[Bleach]

I've had good results with Maaco. Get either the $500 4 year paint or the $1200 7 year paint.

 

Do all your own bodywork first, take off trim, and then take the car to them. Keep the paint clean, waxed, and the car in a garage or under a carport and the shine will last a long time after their warranty.

[Rusty]

yea, I'm with Bleach on this one too.

For that budget range, you are looking at a Maaco or Earl Scheib paint job... for 5-600 bucks they will "spray it" but its definetly a good idea to take all that you can off. shoot, I'd ask if you could help tape off too! :lol: thats where the true Maaco suckyness comes from "overspray"

[Figbuck]

A couple or years ago I was involved in one of those deals where I was cut off by one car and the the second car hit their brakes and I rear ended them. It was a scam, but I didn't know it at the time. I was only going 25 mph but the front of my '83 Ford Ranger was all mashed in. I had just put a bunch of money into tires, radiator, valve job and had quit carrying Comp & Collision.

 

I parked it in one of those self storage units where they didn't care If I worked on it, as long as I didn't work outside of the unit. I hit the Pick' n Pulls and got new fenders, hood, valance and a headlight bucket. I stripped all the lights, trims, emblems and bumpers. I washed the truck with 3M pads and LPS concentrated cleaner, so I wasn't grinding dirt and grease into the existing finish. Then I sanded everything with a random orbital sander and #100 grit aluminum oxide discs and papers. I tried not to burn through the primer but just scuff the paint well.

 

There were a couple of dents that I banged out, properly applied filler and feather it out.

 

I washed it again and right before I took it to Maaco I wiped it with a quality degreaser. I've used napatha and it works too. I always wear neoprene or nitrile gloves. Don't touch anything with your hands, oil in your fingerprints is what you are trying to get rid of. Don't use MEK, acetone or lacquer thinner because it will melt the existing finish flat again. The reason to sand is to rough up the existing paint finish so the new primers and paint will have a mechanical key.

 

There were three or four auto body shops with in a couple blocks and Maaco had a guarantee and the biggest shop. They also talked the biggest line of BS. I end up taking not the cheapest job, but the next level for about $400. I should have spent another $150 to have them paint the two door Jambs but I thought that they told me they were going to color match the truck. Well, it didn't match, and they gave me a sob story about how the truck had faded. They don't color match, they get the paint code and blow it on. That is their version of paint match.

 

The shop manager told me three times, that because they didn't do the prep or body work that he didn't guarantee how it would look. I said three times that I didn't care how it looked, that it was my company truck and I just wanted everything primered and painted well so it could sit outside and not rust.

 

When I went to pick it up, it looked good... until I started to look. The rocker panels under the doors were not primed or painted. All away oround the truck the bottom edges were not painted. Their masking job around the windows and door jambs left a lot to be desired. I ask why they didn't paint the rockers. The kid that actually did the painting, said that he had a bad back and he couldn't bend over to get to to that area. He said that it looked good unless you bent over and looked! I ask the manager if he thought the job was complete and he said yes. The situation went sour really fast, when he said that I never told three times that I wanted everything to have paint on it, and I wasn't looking for a show quality finish, just clean and servicable.

 

In the end, they fixed all the stuff that, if they would have spent another two minutes here and there, would not have been a problem. They sure didn't make any money off me having to fix their work. I know what materials cost, labor and overhead. They ain't getting rich doing cheap paint jobs, but they can make a buck if they can crank out a volume of jobs fast.

 

That was over ten years ago and the paint has held up really well. They used a two part Acrylic Urethane and baked it in an up draft oven. I spent $250 on parts, maybe $50 on supplies and $400 on Maaco. It looked new with about a hundred hours of work! :D

 

If you are going to do all the prep... I would have them do their own masking... I don't see why you can't get it painted for a thousand bucks with a urethane. Obviously, clear coat systems are more money, any bodywork is more, changing the color is a whole 'nother job and so on. It's not about how much something cost... it is what are you getting for the money!

 

I have been in the process of painting my 620 for months now. Paint doesn't hide anything, it makes it stick out, so prep is what costs the money/time. I striped everything to metal, applied chemical conditioners to kill rust, applied epoxy primer, applied 4 coats of primer surfacer, block sanding between each coat. I'm going to apply my color coats and clear coats this week. I've seen restorations like this that cost five to ten thousand bucks and up, depending on the level of final finish, like rubbing out the clear coats. I have spent seven or eight hundred bucks alone on paint materials and supplies. Epoxy primer is $250 a gallon, two part urethane is $140 a gallon and the color coat/clear coat that I'm using is over $400 a gallon.

 

Automotive refinishing is time consuming and materials are expensive. It's relatively cheap to go around and talk to shops. Get a free education, see what different people say, do your homework. Most of the time you get what you pay for. The trick is to know what you want/need and what the options are.

 

I use Industrial Finishes company for my paints and supplies. I go to the store in Beaverton on Arctic Way or the one in SE Portland on McLaughlin. It might be worth a visit to see if they can hook you up with a guy working out of a small shop or just a reputable local shop.

 

There is a bunch of info on the web about auto refinishing. I went to the library and checked out a big pile of books. It took me a while to realized that the all the paint companies have changed their product lines for VOC compliance. All the stuff in these books was out of date. I looked at a lot of books at Powell's and found, How To Restore Your Collector Car by Tom Brownell for eleven bucks used. He has a new book that I got in an auto parts store rack with the Chilton's, Haynes and how to build small blocks. It is called Do-It-Yourself Guide to Custom Painting. It is current with products and procedures. http://WWW.cartechbooks.com

 

I wish I could tell you where to go locally, but the things that I hear about shops in my neighborhood are not, they did a great job for cheap, but they did a marginal job for a lot of money. I would use Maaco again for a utilitarian paint job but I would get every little thing in writing.

 

My wife's Honda car has been hit three times in the last three years in parking lot fender benders. We go to Heitzman's in Beaverton for the insurance work. They are professional, don't rip you off and generally take care of us. If the tab wasn't picked up by insurance, I don't think I could afford them though. They are a competitive shop but quality work is just expensive. It might be worth an estimate there, to get a bench mark price.

 

In my contracting business, I try to use the closest vendors, subcontractors, etc. Every time I have gone across town for a cheaper price I have regretted it. If I have to go over there to wring their little necks when they screw something up, I don't want to have to drive to do it.

 

Good luck.

[Bleach]

results vary by the store you use.

 

In washington, avoid Burien Maaco. Federal Way I have had good paint jobs from. I heard the new Auburn Maaco is good.