Nice bumpers...............Ah, what are we talking about? Oh yea, paint! I paint my own cars in my garage because I'm the only guy I can afford. If you decide to do this, make sure all flame bearing equipment is off. Furnances, hot water heaters, etc. Keep the compressor outside, motors spark. I do not use a vent fan because if you blow air out of your garage, you suck in make up air, and usually make up air is full of trash. Yes it gets extremely foggy in there by the end of the paint job but its never been too big of a problem and I have very little to no trash to worry about. Against the opinions of the experts, I say use single stage paint for non metallics. It will sand and buff just like a clearcoat, and you wont have to worry about cutting through the clear when buffing. Its easier on the novice. As far as durability, I only use PPG and have never had a problem. As long as you stick to quality paint, you should'nt either.
I painted my car myself. After the engine rebuild, I had no money left. Rather than drive it around all summer looking like crap...I spent 200 bucks on some bc/cc and gave it a whirl. Not perfect but looks better than primer and faded paint! Next time though....will be professionally done. I made the mistake of turning on the fans...sucked in crap. D.Ray
I guess I'm glad I don't live where any of you all live, My painter is one of the best in the state for painting and airbrushing and if I prep it and do the body work and buy the paint he sprays it for $300.00, That is show Quality, that is the only way he will paint a car is show quality.
I'm guessing that is labor only to shoot the car a single color? No materials, no taping, or no sanding and buffing afterwards?
That is taping it, then base coat and clear coat. If he has to jam it then its another $50.00. But I buff My own. I run a auto/semi Detailing business.
Dang! Where you from DEL? It would be worth it to travel there for a weekend just to get a spray job! But.....I'm too lazy.
Cool...your painter doesn't value his time very much :confused: but I guess that's good for you. Personally I'm not in the habit of working my butt off painting somebody's car for $7 or $8 an hour. Hmmm, wondering if I could hire him to come work for me! Oh well...just a thought.
I'm still wondering...if a paint job is all in the prep work, what's the difference if Maaco paints it or some quality body shop? I could understand a difference if there was any masking to do and there was prep work to do, but I figure most of the extra expense of a good body shop would be in the prep work. Is there that much difference in the painting part of it?
Well, thats mostly correct. It means a poor body work and prep work will show through a great paint job. You can also have your body and prep perfect and have a poor paint job. Its really an entire package to get quality results. Usually quality paint will be more durable than cheap paint. As far as MACCO painters, I have seen some that put out excellent looking jobs while others roll out crap that dont look any better than a 10 year old taxi cab. Its all in the attitude of the painter. Best bet is to check out the place you want to paint your car and examine the cars they are rolling out the door.
Having been a former MAACO employee myself, ( No, I am not proud of that fact), I can give you a pretty good insight as to why I would avoid having a car painted by them. MAACO operates much like an assembly line. Thier goal is to paint 1 car an hour no matter what. At one time we where pushing out 54 paint jobs a week. That's 6 days a week, mind you. In order to do that, quaility is sacrificed for quanity. Short cuts are bound to be taken. ( Who needs to wash the car down with de-greaser? It looks clean to me.) Every paint job is a rush job, so a stressed out painter will take short cuts too, like just putting enough paint on the car to cover the too thinned down primer. MAACO sells paint jobs cheap because they buy lower quality paint in bulk. They have to do that to keep the cost down. I'm sure some MAACO's are better than others. I know the one I worked for was a royal rip-off. Do as Mavoholic suggested and check out some cars that a shop has painted and talk to the cars owners. BTW, do you know what you get when you rearrange the letters in MAACO? You get AAMCO, as in AAMCO Transmissions.
The $300.00 that my painter does it for does not include the materials. I can pick up enough to do a full size pickup . Thats paint, primer, sealer, and clear. For $425.00. And that was even red. You say my painter doesn't value his time but to mask it and then base/clear it took him 3hours.
Wow, that means he's making $100 an hour. He must be pulling in 4 grand a week. :confused: Now I KNOW I'd like to have him working for me...or maybe he needs to be working for MAACO?
