This summer I wanted to make the bonneville look nice on the outside again. Apparently the peeling paint is a big problem with these cars, but anyway...how much can I expect to pay for a basic return to original color paintjob on a car that looks like this. The sides are alright, limited amount of rust. The hood roof and trunk are rough.

I don't want anything fancy, just the basics.

just seen an tv ad for maaco. having a sale right now for like $250.00 US Dollars
I know some people dont care for maaco but if you just want the basics you cant
go wrong.

there is a new paint that is coming out that hasn't hit the streets from Albert Banoun of ALSA Corporation. the name of the paint is Mirrachrome. instead of trying to chrome each and every piece of the body you can pain't your car with this and have a 95% to 98% chrome look. it ranges from $1200 to $7900 a gallon. that there isn't much difference from any other kind of paint so it shouldn't be much difference at a body shop. i dunno if you can hold out much longer on your ride but if you can there you go.

$1200 to $7900 a gallon? I think that may be a little out of my price range.

This is what I don't understand. I see all those cheapie Maaco deals on TV all the time. But most people who get thier car done end up paying thousands for a paint job, how does Maaco do it for $250? What does the cheap Maaco deal include?

I think this will be my plan - I will fix all the rust myself (no spots have gone through). I don't need my trim done either, any scratches I will fix myself. So basically I will just have the body done. Hopefully it won't end up costing much at all, but I'm not too sure how this stuff works.

Maaco does it cheap because of no body work.
so any little dings will still be there just shiney
other shops will pull the dents or fill with bondo.
then sand and paint so on so on

Maaco will do this as well but with the price.

I've heard horry stories of Maaco paint jobs with terrible overspray, runs, etc.... but I've got no first hand experience, so don't take my word for it.

If you do prep work (sanding, removing some things etc, you can get good results from Maaco. Don't get the cheapest paint job from Maaco though...

Had mine done by Maaco last summer for $600.00. They did good job, not perfect, but for the money I am very satisfied with the results. My mom saw how mine came out and wants to have hers done this summer.

For $600 what did they do/what did that include? Did you need to do any prep work?

Thanks.

That just included the paint job. No body work except for having to take some areas where the paint had faded and had to be stripped down to the bare metal. I had a couple dings but nothing that I couldn't live with, so I did not have them taken out. So far the car looks good. I just make sure I keep a good coat of wax on it because of the Florida sun. For 600 bucks I would do it again.