I know the feeling. I'll never forget when the MAACO I worked for burned down to the ground one night after everyone had gone home. The following morning, people drove by cheering and clapping thier hands. That's got to tell you something. There were 35 cars in the building at the time including one 4 door Maverick or Comet and all were either burned to a crisp or smoke and water damaged. I lost all my tools in the fire and the rotten bast*ard who owned the place would not give one penny to replace my tools or anyone elses. He even tried to blame the employees for the fire even after it was deterimed that the fire was caused by spontanious combustion. The fire had started in the paint booth because the painter was not allowed the time to clean it for a couple of weeks. That's over 100 cars painted between cleanings. It was more important to get the cars painted than it was to do nessesary maintenance. The paint dust builds up and POOF! It catches fire all by it'self. I still have the pictures of it that the newspaper published.
i see alot of people have had trouble with maaco but i am here to say my experience was just the opposite. i did most of the prep work myself and had everything i could get off already removed. i went down and talked to the owner of this shop and explained to him what i wanted. he explaned that his shop did not do "custom/show" paint. i told him i was not expecting perfection just a good job. when i went to pick it up there were a few places i was not happy with and i pointed them out to him. he immediately took the car back and fixed the problem areas. my car is dark green so every flaw shows. while my car is not a perfect 1000 point show car itis still very pretty. the key is do as much prep as you can and talk to the owner and painter at whatever shop you chose. i get compliments at every show on the paint job and noone believes me when i say it is maaco.my paint turned out so well i agreed to let the shop use my car for any commercials they want to make. my out the door cost was around $1400 including filling some small dings that showed up after the shiny paint was applied. if you want to see my car goto http://groups.msn.com/71mav/shoebox.msnw . there are two folders there. one has the silver springs show and the other one just has my car. good luck
Another thing you should consider since you said you & friends are willing to work on it yourselves, go to KC paints on Sprague, it's pretty far out towards the valley where Sprague is one way going west. they have all sorts of painting supplies and the staff there is very knowledgable and helpful, just tell them you don't know what you are doing if you don't and they'll point you in the right direction. they have single stage paints that are good & cheap all the way up to top-of-the-line tri-coat systems that cost more than my whole car. again, good luck.
That's great, I'm out in the valley so I may stop in there. Can anyone tell me how hard on a scale of 1-10 it would be for me to paint the car myself and get a decent paintjob out of it? I am more than willing to do it myself as long as I think I can get a decent job out of it.
As Jean can tell you from experience, painting is a learned art. There's a bit involved such as mixing, sprayer adjustments, etc. It's not just something that you can just buy the paint and reducer, a spray gun, and go lay down a good coat. It's a knowledge base and lots of practice before you can get it exactly right, unless you are very lucky. There's a lot that can go wrong when you aren't sure what you are doing.
Check the local high schools or trade schools. I got mine painted for $100.00 bucks + materials. They did a pretty decent job.
Like everybody else said.......prepwork is THE key. The smoother the metal, the cleaner the car, the better the paint job. You can paint over dent and scratches and you end up with a crappy looking car or you can take the time to do the bodywork properly and end up with a great looking car, its up to you to decide what you want. Bodywork is not that hard to learn, but it is time consuming to learn how to do it Right. There are many books that can give you a good overview on how to do it, but the only way to really learn is to do it hands on. I'd pick up a old hood and fender or two to practice on first before I tackled the car. Read the books and get yourself a cheap set of body hammers and dollys to practice knocking out dents onthe old stuff first, then when you feel confident enough, start on your car. I'd get one of the small air compressors, about a 5 gallon tank, 110 volts, and one of the cheap $40 spray guns to start with, they will give you pretty good results to learn how to paint without runs,splotches, etc. Remember, none of us were born knowing how to do this stuff, we all had to learn somehow. And never be afraid to ask questions, there are many folks on here that know way more than I do, and are happy to help out. just my .
