How much would you spend to paint a 300E. We have a 1989 300E with 179k miles. We just use it as a third car and plan to give it to the kids in a couple years when they learn to drive?
Are the paint jobs at Maaco any good? They want $299 with "integrated clear coat", and $40 per door opening to change the color (it's currently red and peeling bad) They only tape off the body parts, but I think I would remove them myself before taking it in.
My experience (albeit 15 years ago) - You get what you pay for and in less than 18 months you will realize it.
RichieP
Those Maaco paint jobs stink.... THe 87 300D that my woman uses was faded a bit and needed some TLC. I ordered this detailing stuff that came in a kit, it was a polish and wax. I used the polish then 3 coats of this great wax. The navy blue car looks brandy new again. As for the paint pealing, thats a whole different story. TI wouldn' suprise me if the red was a repaint job from Maaco some years back. I dont see to many red MB sedans driving around.
I agree. A decent paint job will cost an order of magnitude more than that. Anyone that has painted even something simple like a room realizes the amount of prep work that is involved to do the job right, let alone a 15 year old car with peeling paint. For that price, you basicly get a drive by paint job.
Peeling paint means one thing... the car already has been repainted. Crappy clearcoat job.
Painting pricing can be best described as dependent on result. Preparation to paint is the highest cost, as the paint is relatively inexpensive. Poorly prepared surfaces will never look good under a few micron layer coatings of paint.
How much you pay will really depend on what you expect will be acceptable to you. Think of it this way . . . do you want a paint job that will look good from 10 feet away . . . or 10 inches?
The car will look just OK if you have them do it. In about one year, the paint will be very dull if driven in the elements much at all. Then you will need to wax it once every two weeks to make it shine any at all.
We had our 1985 300D done at Maaco about 7 years ago and within 2 years it was ready for a second paint job.
We had an estimate for one of our 1987 300SDL's painted the right way e.g. taking all the parts off, working the surface over, using the right quality primer, paint, and clearcoat for $1500.00 in the philly region.
This is the original factory paint job. It's the clearcoat that's pealing off - looks nasty! (but I still enjoy driving it)
The car spent most of it's life in Southern California and Nevada, so it had some pretty torturous sun exposure.
Thanks everyone for the feedback, I will avoid Maaco and go to a local paint/body shop.
Is there anything specific that should look for in a paint shop quote? (e.g. type of paint, # of coats, primer, clear coat, curing method, etc)
I don't want a show car... just a practical paint job where the kids won't be embarrassed by a cloud of clear coat flakes flying off the car as they drive down the road.
Find out what brand of paint they are going to use... how many coats of paint... how many coats of clears... look at the cars they done... see if any of the orange peel look (which is a sign of too little paint)... look at the edges of door, hood, trunk to see how they finished it...
Touch the paint to see if smooth...
"cabob1984" wrote
The most correct answer depends on who is going to paint the car and how are they are going to paint it.
For example, I would pay MUCH MORE to have Uma Thurman get naked, cover herself with paint and rub herself against the vehicle.
I would not really care what the vehicle looked like.
So it all depends.
.How much do you have?
In 1988, the PO of my 380 SL had the color changed from Champagne to Signal Red by a California body shop after they did some unknown body repairs.
Metal labor: R&R parts for painting 25 hours @ $24/hour Repairs to metal 12
Paint labor: Strip & seal 25 Refinish 50 Jam for color change(?) 25 Sand & polish 10 Cleanup 2
----------------- --- Total labor 149 hours @ $24 = $ 3,576
Material: Paint $ 510.00 Parts 731.50 Misc materials 37.00
Tax 76.71
------------ ----- Parts & tax $ 1355.21
Grand total: $ 4,931.21
Except for one small chip, the paint looks new and there is no visible evidence that it was ever any other color, except for the dark brown interior. Every external molding, seal and part was removed before the painting was done.
Your results may vary. Labor may be more per hour but less work required.
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