[64speed]

Well I just went down to the Maaco and toured the shop and spoke to the manager for about half an hour. He had a 77 blazer that the customer hadn’t picked up yet that looked fine to me. The devil is in the details. I will be bringing him the car with no trim or door handles or anything like that. The problem he said most people have is they want something for nothing and don’t want to pay the extra money to remove trim etc. hence the old belief that everything gets painted when you take it there. I am gonna tow dolly the car down there in the next couple of days and show him the flaws and tell him what I expect and see if we can reach an understanding

[Tomslemans67]

Just make it easy. Sounds like no high expectations here! Tell them primer it and spray. No filler. Leave the dings and all. Don't know how you can tell a bodyman and paint guy That you expect it to be sub par. When I do a job I do it thru and correct. Never heard of a person going to a place to have work done and say Please can you do just a half ass job for me.

[64speed]

I want the car to look good but I don’t need a 200 hour cut and buff on a driver

[Tomslemans67]

If I remember. When I had couple cars done. Cut and buff was some time involved. But the real hours and labor are in tall the body work before the paint. You can Base coat a car and just spray clear and be done. But like I said it's the work envolved before the paint

[64speed]

I didnt mean come to an understanding that I wanted him to do it half ass. I meant that his estimate would be substantially lower than the 12000 estimate I got from the leader so far. He explained to me that you have over 700 Maacos buying PPG products directly from PPG and not from retailers allows them to get their base/clear cheaper than anyone else. Makes sense to me. Like I said his scrapbook looks good and the blazer I saw with my own eyes looks like a factory paint job which is all I am going for. I asked about rust repair just to make sure that they werent just gonna fiberglass over stuff and he said he would cut and weld where rust was present. He said he could take it off the frame and detail the frame if I wanted him too which I have already done. Believe it or not my main concern is paint jail. I dont have but one true hot rod shop here in my neck of the woods and they are the ones that told me 30 grand. If I go to just a collision shop like people have said on here I run into the risk of them keeping it for years and me having to go with my former colleagues at the sheriffs office to get it. The idea of the whole deal being done in 6 weeks appeals to me.

[Tomslemans67]

Don't get me wrong. Yes paint jail does suck. That being said Maco is a collision shop doing multiple projects. So when fender bender come in. And insurance companies are paying the bill. Money guaranteed. I bet those are the cars they do first. Just thinking logical. I hope it does all come out good for ya. But seeing and hearing things I am always skeptical.. Fwiw. Tom

[JSPONT]

I love my car not painted. I take it everywhere, park it in supermarkets, big cruise nights I walk away with out a care. My prior car I had drove in primer for a while. Then I spent months of body and paint time, black straight as an arrow. It was like a piece of china to me after that. I sold it.
When I do paint my Pontiac, it will be nice but I will leave the orange peel like all the new factory cars have. Sanding it flat and polishing it will not be a concern.
A driver is different than a show queen to me. I have no use for a show queen.
It's your car, do what makes you happy!

[MUSLCAH]

Originally Posted by Tomslemans67

Just make it easy. Sounds like no high expectations here! Tell them primer it and spray. No filler. Leave the dings and all. Don't know how you can tell a bodyman and paint guy That you expect it to be sub par. When I do a job I do it thru and correct. Never heard of a person going to a place to have work done and say Please can you do just a half ass job for me.

I get that all the time....I don't need it to be perfect. .....Then the next door neighbor sees the car ,and asks you who did it. Us body guys and painters are only as good as our last job. Word of mouth has been my business for many years. A good job ain't cheap..and a cheap job ain't good. If I were you....I would bring that car of yours to the Tech school and let them have at it.

[brad900]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

I would bring that car of yours to the Tech school and let them have at it.

That is what my brother did. $400 later is looks really good. Its not perfect but a great driver

[mgarblik]

Our original race team partner, Wayne Martin, RIP, was the manager of a MAACO franchise. Like any bodyshop or repair shop for that matter, the work is as good as the poorest employee who touches your car. At his MAACO, they had about 15 employees. The high school kid working part time to an experienced bodyman who had his own shop for restorations but did collision work at the MAACO for quick cash and free access to their frame rack when needed. Their $199.00 paint jobs never saw any product from PPG, period. Everything was from Sherwin Williams and the cheapest, lowest quality paint you can imagine. So how do you get a good paint job out of a MAACO? 1. Make it clear you don't want their "regular paint". You have done that. 2. Strip off everything you don't want painted. You have that done. 3. Make sure they understand after they run their hands over the body and give it a good look, you are willing to have the body properly prepped and willing to pay for it. 4. Talk to the guy who is actually going to spray the car. Slip him about 5% cash in tip form a day or two or the day he is going to spray it and let him know there is another 10% cash if he does his best work on the car. I have seen some quality paint work out of a MAACO shop. After all, MAACO is not the problem, it's the $199.00 they paint cars for. That's where the bad reputation comes from. And people expecting a $10,000.00 restoration quality paint job for $1000.00. Paint jail is one thing you won't have to worry about at MAACO. I never saw a car in Wayne's store stay over 60 days.

[chiphead]

Keep us posted on how it turns out, and exactly what they do for you. I'll need a painter at some point, and I'm close enough to trailer my car to whoever you use.

[cabhop]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Our original race team partner, Wayne Martin, RIP, was the manager of a MAACO franchise. Like any bodyshop or repair shop for that matter, the work is as good as the poorest employee who touches your car. At his MAACO, they had about 15 employees. The high school kid working part time to an experienced bodyman who had his own shop for restorations but did collision work at the MAACO for quick cash and free access to their frame rack when needed. Their $199.00 paint jobs never saw any product from PPG, period. Everything was from Sherwin Williams and the cheapest, lowest quality paint you can imagine. So how do you get a good paint job out of a MAACO? 1. Make it clear you don't want their "regular paint". You have done that. 2. Strip off everything you don't want painted. You have that done. 3. Make sure they understand after they run their hands over the body and give it a good look, you are willing to have the body properly prepped and willing to pay for it. 4. Talk to the guy who is actually going to spray the car. Slip him about 5% cash in tip form a day or two or the day he is going to spray it and let him know there is another 10% cash if he does his best work on the car. I have seen some quality paint work out of a MAACO shop. After all, MAACO is not the problem, it's the $199.00 they paint cars for. That's where the bad reputation comes from. And people expecting a $10,000.00 restoration quality paint job for $1000.00. Paint jail is one thing you won't have to worry about at MAACO. I never saw a car in Wayne's store stay over 60 days.

Sage advice and the tipping the painter will pay dividends...

[cabhop]

Originally Posted by brad900

That is what my brother did. $400 later is looks really good. Its not perfect but a great driver

I took a semesters worth of tech school auto body and If it is like where I went I would pass. I went so I could learn to do my own body and paint and I was in my 40's. Most of the kids in there were for high school completion and had no desire to work in the industry or work at all for that mater. Others were on government programs that paid their tuition. Only 1 out of the group had the passion for body and paint and was picked up by a body shop for work credit and lasted. The others couldn't pass a drug test or quit/fired after a week or 2. Most students were given unsupervised tasks and at the end of the day the instructor had to fix all of the mess ups. He was a professional since he knew how to hide the mistakes the students made! LOL

[Formulajones]

Boy that sure is a bleak outlook on what our future holds with todays society, lol.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by cabhop

I took a semesters worth of tech school auto body and If it is like where I went I would pass. I went so I could learn to do my own body and paint and I was in my 40's. Most of the kids in there were for high school completion and had no desire to work in the industry or work at all for that mater. Others were on government programs that paid their tuition. Only 1 out of the group had the passion for body and paint and was picked up by a body shop for work credit and lasted. The others couldn't pass a drug test or quit/fired after a week or 2. Most students were given unsupervised tasks and at the end of the day the instructor had to fix all of the mess ups. He was a professional since he knew how to hide the mistakes the students made! LOL

After 35 years teaching in the mechanical field, I can certainly relate. My work was at the college level, but although the percentages change, the basic idea is sound. Take a class of 18 college level automotive students. 1 or 2 of them you would let work on your car unsupervised. They care about work, care about your car and can pass a drug test. 5 or 6 are at the extreme other end. Their tuition is paid by some sort of diversion program, they are on parole, have so many points on their license they won't be able to get one for 10 years. It's a place to hand out between jail stints. Most of their time is spent playing on their phones. They could never pass a drug test or actually work in a shop. One last year one died of a heroin overdose in the parking lot. The other 10 students are just in a state of limbo. Don't really know what they want to do, live at home, their parents said either go to college or get out of the house, so they go to college. Attention span of 2-5 minutes. Sort of like cars, Honda's and Toyota's with cold air intake and a can out the back. Like talking about cars and watching car youtube video's on their phones. Those 10 are my target students. I bust my butt to turn several of them around into productive people. I see some of those lost souls years later and many are successful, some still in the automotive field. Many are doing something entirely different. That IS our society. Probably our parents said the same stuff about us many years ago.

[NeighborsComplaint]

*-*9+*7410

Originally Posted by tinindian68

If you really plan to daily drive it, have Maaco paint it. No sense in having a $18000 paint job on a car you’re afraid to enjoy.

Ahhh ... The dulcet tones of the voice of reason.

[ho428]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

After 35 years teaching in the mechanical field, I can certainly relate. My work was at the college level, but although the percentages change, the basic idea is sound. Take a class of 18 college level automotive students. 1 or 2 of them you would let work on your car unsupervised. They care about work, care about your car and can pass a drug test. 5 or 6 are at the extreme other end. Their tuition is paid by some sort of diversion program, they are on parole, have so many points on their license they won't be able to get one for 10 years. It's a place to hand out between jail stints. Most of their time is spent playing on their phones. They could never pass a drug test or actually work in a shop. One last year one died of a heroin overdose in the parking lot. The other 10 students are just in a state of limbo. Don't really know what they want to do, live at home, their parents said either go to college or get out of the house, so they go to college. Attention span of 2-5 minutes. Sort of like cars, Honda's and Toyota's with cold air intake and a can out the back. Like talking about cars and watching car youtube video's on their phones. Those 10 are my target students. I bust my butt to turn several of them around into productive people. I see some of those lost souls years later and many are successful, some still in the automotive field. Many are doing something entirely different. That IS our society. Probably our parents said the same stuff about us many years ago.

I took 2 years Auto Mechanics in HS, then another year at Tech. HS was fun learning about cars, fixing teachers cars, rebuilding engines, learning to deal with auto supply and machine shops while modifying and hot rodding our own cars. Building engines and visiting machine shops was my favorite thing to do, talking to the "old timers" there and asking questions.

Tech was where they taught us to be Auto Technicians. That's where I learned that while I enjoyed working on "MY" cars I didn't want to work on other peoples cars. I'd say about half the class realized that toward the end. Had they offered a better engine building and machining class I might have done that, general Auto repair wasn't my thing.

Over in the body shop I saw some decent work come out, nothing show worthy though. Usually it was a students or their parents car that others helped out on. Most went in thinking they'd go to work building and painting custom cars right out of class, not banging out dents at Collisions R Us.

So from what I saw the graduation rate was good on both, but going into the fields was probably less than 25%

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by ho428

I took 2 years Auto Mechanics in HS, then another year at Tech. HS was fun learning about cars, fixing teachers cars, rebuilding engines, learning to deal with auto supply and machine shops while modifying and hot rodding our own cars. Building engines and visiting machine shops was my favorite thing to do, talking to the "old timers" there and asking questions.

Tech was where they taught us to be Auto Technicians. That's where I learned that while I enjoyed working on "MY" cars I didn't want to work on other peoples cars. I'd say about half the class realized that toward the end. Had they offered a better engine building and machining class I might have done that, general Auto repair wasn't my thing.

Over in the body shop I saw some decent work come out, nothing show worthy though. Usually it was a students or their parents car that others helped out on. Most went in thinking they'd go to work building and painting custom cars right out of class, not banging out dents at Collisions R Us.

So from what I saw the graduation rate was good on both, but going into the fields was probably less than 25%

That's a very accurate assessment from my experience. But you gained life skills you still use today, which is great. Most young people will change "careers" 7 times in their work life. It's not like the old days where you learned some skills and did that job for 30 years. Learning some skills and just how to get along in the world is the major mission of HS and Community College now days. I think most good vocational programs can produce "good Driver Quality" body and paint work. It's takes some effort to get a car in though. Most good schools are backed-up.

[Mr Anonymous]

My brother owned a MAACO for a time. I ran every project car and driver I had thru there. Slipping the painter some extra dough, as mentioned, made the difference. And a 12-pack. Usual fare, can't paint worth a damn sober, but get him halfway in the bag and it was ready for the Detroit auto show.

Other than that, I was the usual paying customer. They all came out great except for one, and I didn't care one way or the other on it anyway.

The cheap clearcoat can go to hell if the car isn't garaged, but even that takes a number of years.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by JSPONT

I love my car not painted. I take it everywhere, park it in supermarkets, big cruise nights I walk away with out a care. My prior car I had drove in primer for a while. Then I spent months of body and paint time, black straight as an arrow. It was like a piece of china to me after that. I sold it.
When I do paint my Pontiac, it will be nice but I will leave the orange peel like all the new factory cars have. Sanding it flat and polishing it will not be a concern.
A driver is different than a show queen to me. I have no use for a show queen.
It's your car, do what makes you happy!

I got a show quality paint job on my daily driver about five years ago, and you know what? It's still my daily driver. You just have to take a little care in how you use it and where you park it (and no, I'm not that guy in the far corner of the parking lot parked sideways across two stalls.) The only real damage to the paint is a quarter sized chip in the rear bumper that i did myself. The rest of the car still looks great.