geting a maaco quote this week from the closest one to me in bloomington, mn, 56 miles away...

i have heard all the horror stories about the terrible jobs then can do, but i have heard equal amounts of positive stories... and of course there are good review on there website ssuperchargedei'* gf had her sunfire painted there and it turned out awesome...

there have 4 basic "levels" of paintjob processes..
ambassador
presidential
supreme
signature

http://www.maaco.com/pages/Paint.htm

im sure most of the horror stories of painting over badges, and runs, have to be from the ambassador level...

basically i am looking for a good looking paint, that doesnt have to last forever... i DO NO plan on having this car for more than 2 more years...i do still want it to look as good as it does in the pictures, in PERSON....

body work is needed on almost EVERY panel... dings and dents...

i hope to get quoted in the 700-1000 range... as the quotes i have gotten so far from shops around my area are anywere from 1500-5000!!!!

what ya think

i herd that Maaco'* body work is non existant....they just paint over the dents, and dings.. People have said that if you do your own body work and them have them paint it, it looks really good....

Hey you live in mankato? I'm in richfield myself. If you want decent work go to Lamettre'* (not sure of the spelling) on 77th and Lyndale. They do GREAT work and are very curteous. We took our van there and they took care of it, pinstriping and all, and it looks fantastic. Never knew there was an accident. Try them and see what they can give you for an estimate. I'd stay away from maaco though, i've seen them do really trashy jobs. Especially if you have to drive 56 miles. Might as well get the good job done once.

how much was the van then...

my girlfriends car has had a maaco paint job for two years now and it still looks perfect...

I know a few friends that have had paint and bodywork done @ Macco...... they will NEVER go back there.... garbage.... they might as well have done it in their driveway with spray paint.... one guys job did look good... for about 6 months.... within a year.... all the rust was back... they just painted over the rust and never removed it. :P

Yea... if it requires body work, you are better off paying a little extra and going to a quality shop. If you either 1) do the body work yourself 2) have it done somwhere else first, or 3) don't care, then I would suggest them. They also don't remove panels before painting, so you'* have to remove stuff before you went if you wanted a decent job (door panels, trim, headlight and tails, etc) Not sure if you are willing to remove those since you have to go 56 miles. If you have access to a trailer, it would not be bad at all. I was going to do this for my lumina since I planned on doing the body work myself, could remove the trim pieces, and had access to a trailer to get it there and back.

I had my black fender painted there. They did a suprisingly well job at color matching it. They were very nice, but didn't re aligned the fender like I asked them too. Even though I paid for it. I wouldn't get a whole vehicle painted there unless it was just to make it look good for a bit, but not for long term purposes. I had a buddy get a top of the line paint job on his El Camino, it started peeling and loosing it'* lusted after 6 months.

I think the paint is good, but there isn't enough prep. done on the car beforehand.

Bottom line Andy, if you ain't keeping the car eff it and go with maaco

Wtf is eff?
I got my car painted ( actually the parts I bought after the reck, black fender, black door and another black door) and it all looks like crap like they put more water than actual color in there ill upload some pics some time but o my god awful we paid good money to have it match and it just looks milky and it is cracking already going to go back as soon as tranny is fixed and tell the bastards what paint should look like.... and show them the different colors, and tell them they are all special in Gods eyes and even though they are screw ups there is still a chance of purgatory....