As far as MAACO,
for $229.99 they can't remove the spoiler. But the quality from one shop to another is lacking. Good employees are hard to find, and management can only work with they have. You as the customer suffers.
Changing the color adds about 30 hours to a paint job, if you want a quality job: ie removing the door panels, weatherstripping, liftgate, taillights and hood. Mirrors and all othet trim. It can be Mickey Moused, but if a shop is willing to do that. Do you really want them working on your car?
Using a quality acrylic urethane system, such as PPG or Sherwin Williams/NAPA Martin Senour, DuPont sucks, will bring the materials bill close to a thousand dollars, with sandpapers, primer-surfacer, sealer, base-coat and crlear-coat, reducers. Then most shops buff the car for the extra high luster.
So, figure at least $3500.00 to $4000.00 for a quality paint job. MAACO can do it so cheaply because:
1: they use prepackaged paints, most aren't factory matched.
2: It's cheap acrylic enamel.
3: You pay extra for hardner.
4: You pay extra for a coat of sealer.
5: They charge you for the clear-coat if it's a clear-coat formula.
Refinish King
Hello. I have an 1894 Firebird, its a little old but I wanted to get it
> painted. Its dark green right now, but I wanted to get it painted black. I
> don't have much experience in the area of dealing with painters/body shops.
> Only once did I ever have to get a paint job, and that was back many years
> ago when I took my 1985 Trans Am to Maaco to get it repainted black
> (original color was black too). I had a bad experience with Maaco. I was
> younger then, so I guess it was easier for them to push me around. First,
> it took them over 2 weeks to get the car painted. Next, I found a bunch of
> inconsistencies in the work. For example, the rear spoiler wasn't removed
> to be properly painted. The underside was not even painted. At least they
> could have told me about that. Also, after I got my car and tried to wash
> it, I noticed the wheels had a rather 'rough' feel. It turns out that some
> foreign material somehow got on my wheels while in their shop. This tells
> me they did not mask off the tires/wheels and they were exposed. >
> Anyways, there is no way I would ever want to deal with Maaco again, or any
> cheeseball shop who operates this way.
>
> What I want to know is, what should I look out for? What questions should I
> ask? Is it worth painting from one color to another, or am I just asking
> for headaches? Body wise, my car is in excellent condition with only a few
> very minor scratches and i think 1 small rust bubble over the rear tire
> panel. Also, how do I go about finding a good shop, is there somewhere I
> can call or some association which has member shops? I am afraid of getting
> into a situation where I am going to hand over my car and be at the mercy of
> some shithole operation with lousy customer service.
>
> Thanks in advance your comments and suggestions.
>
>