Originally Posted by Cue-Ball
I have not had Maaco paint a vehicle, but I've seen their paint jobs. They look, frankly, like total ****. In general they are single stage paint jobs (no clear) that are rushed through as quickly as possible. You can get two-stage jobs, but they cost extra. Their prep is poor, and even when the owner does the prep it's still not done right. No offense to hotrod_80's paint job, but it doesn't look like it was done correctly to me. The side molding wasn't removed, the molding around the windshield wasn't removed, etc. And he even went to the trouble to do ALL of the prep himself (lights, grille, bumpers, etc. are removed, bodywork is done, sanding and priming was done, etc). If he hadn't, the guys at Maaco simply would have masked everything instead of removing it. This gives you harsh paint lines at all the edges and ends up looking bad.
Seriously, think about what you can possibly get from a $200 paint job. I just had my '70 Camaro painted and I think I spent more than that on paint and sealer alone! The paint itself was over $50/gallon. Hell, I probably spent over a hundred bucks just on sandpaper! The price of a Maaco paint job wouldn't even pay for the materials to do a GOOD job painting a car. Factor in that most body shops charge $85/hour for labor and you can see there's just no way you can get a good job done cheaply.
If you just want your truck to look better than it does now for the lowest possible cost, then a cheap paint job might work for you. Do all of the prep yourself, remove everything from the truck, perform all of the masking and trailer it down there. You're still going to have to spend more than their advertised deals though, because otherwise you'll get a single stage paint job that won't hold up well and won't retain its shine. If you want a truck that you can enter at the local car show and be proud of, you're not likely to get that without spending some serious money.
It IS possible to get a good paint job without spending a fortune, but only if you're willing to do a whole lot of work (basically, ALL of the work other than perhaps the actual painting itself). Most shops won't let you do that because they don't want their name associated with a job that was prepped by someone else. If the paint starts falling off in 6 months because of your poor prep, they don't want to be saddled with the blame. So, the only way you can usually do this is if you're friends with a body shop or you know a guy with a large enough garage and the equipment to do a decent garage paint job (big box fans, decent spray gun, big-ass compressor with water filters and a pressure tank, etc).
In short - There's a level of diminishing returns, but you generally get what you pay for. You don't need to spend five grand to get a decent paint job, but you're sure not gonna get one for $99.95.
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