macco paint job?

[akavinn1]

I am so glad someone actualy got there car painted there now I am a little more confident in roiling the car in ! The only only problem now is I bought a paid of rear fenders and the don't fit right. Now I have to find a pair of 71 super rear fenders .

[Heath Welch]

Good job, your happy thats all that matters. Good choice , did you look at their work before you hired them ?? That is the key . What job and where did you have it done? How much was the job ? This will give other folks an idea of what to expect. Did you prep ? Or in your case sand ? I did a total restore on an Empi Imp 1969 model about 2 years ago and it was a job but well rewarding. I will post some pics in my gallery if you are interested. I did everything but the wiring. Heath

[EMPIImp69]

Came out pretty nice. Very happy.
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1963 Ragtop Bug
1966 Vert Bug

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[akavinn1]

How did it come ? Were you happy with it ?

[EMPIImp69]

Had the buggy painted there this week.

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1963 Ragtop Bug
1966 Vert Bug

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[akavinn1]

macco does sound lke the best bet for me . i just really need to prep the car well after looking closer it looks like it was only one after market paint job on it . it still has a few rust spots that need to be repaired but i am thinking the rust repair is prob better left to the pros . i think it is prob a good idea for me to prep the rest of the car i want to try to get the hard to get areas to be safe just unsure how to prep i am thinking it might be better to leave the old paint insted of going down to bare sheet metal.

[DogN8tor]

Instead of going to the Maaco here on Grant Rd. I went to a local "production" paint shop. Big mistake - cost me $500+ to find out
just how bad a careless and slow painter can be. I took the car back and they fixed the problems but it still isn't up to my standards.

Maaco quoted me lower on the job and as it turns out they do a lot better work than the so-called pro shop - all for less.

Local paint suppliers, private owners and a used car lot all gave Maaco the thumbs up when asked. I should-a listened better.

Next time they're getting my business.
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I went down 'The Road Less Traveled' ... somehow I arrived here.

[swhitcomb]

My Ghia was painted at the maaco in West Covina Ca in 1990. They did a good job, and a fairly good job on the body work. They didn't sand it down very well though, and it chips to blue. The car is white. It was blue when they painted it.

I can't say if the paint still looks good, because in 93 it was rear ended and the whole car was repainted by someone else.
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My 71 Ghia Been in my family since 1980
My Patina 66
My 74 Ghia
07 Boxster

[akavinn1]

anyone use the macco in east brunswick nj

[64sandscorcher]

I just had my baja bug painted at Maaco recently, and I think it turned out great. There was one minor masking error, but it's something that I can fix when I pinstripe and add my decals.

But I can't recommend them to anyone because they broke my shifter and denied it when I brought it to their attention. Somebody there forced it into reverse without using the reverse lockout feature, then said nothing when I picked it up. I'm convinced it was probably someone not familiar with VW shift patterns. I had to replace the brand new shifter with my old stock one to get home that day. I'm really dissappointed with their policy stating that they're not responsible with mechanical errors, when really this was a human error on thier part.

Anyways, just giving everyone a heads up about how they treat their customers after you pay them.

[x2bj]

how much does a regular body shop charge to just paint a car a

[rlutterb]

Since the Macco I used hadn't seen a beetle before, they were all very intrigued by it. I walked them through all the tough spots specific to the beetle.....and they spent quit a bit of time on it. I never thought about tipping the paint guy......
I love the paint job, but even after expaining everything to them, they failed to get the full door pillar on the inside...they assumed the carpet came all the way out. Oh Well, I still am very pleased.
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1973 Super Beetle project
1978 VW convertable
1987 El Camino
1995 Miata M
2015 Chevy Silverado

[akavinn1]

So far people seem pretty happy with the results at macco I hope the find a good shop for a good price I just really would love to get this car onthe road for the summer !

[bushaus]

That's and AWESOME informative post....I might be going the Maaco route sometime soon...and I'll bring a little extra cash in my pocket...
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1967 13 window walkthru bus
1965 Karmann Kabriolett beetle

[vpogv]

[Heath Welch]

First off I do not do this for a living anymore and I do not post often but I have been into VWs since 1981 my first car.
I do own 9 VWs all road worthy except 3. I have done paint and body work for a living some years ago. So with that said I do sub paint jobs to my local High Point NC Maaco from time to time. And I never tell the client any different.

If they are going for a decent paint job and not a show car I sub the job. I cant buy the materials for what they charge, not to mention they have a better paint booth and a bake oven. (Although my jobs are slicker and cleaner by far)
I worked for them in 1987 and learned the craft and had to learn it fast as well. They were doing 10 all over paint jobs per day then and I can tell you a guy that can paint 10 cars a day decent is a good painter . He knows the deal and can do whatever you request ( If you get him off to the side)

Dont expect show quaility jobs from Maaco though but nice ones are common. If you want pics of some email me and I will show you my prep work with Maaco paint jobs and the client was always happy. ($2500 was the average charged for the total job and these are useually rougher cars and folks wanting out on the cheap , Rust etc)

If you do quality prep work yourself you can get a nice job for a driver. If you have never done any body work you are better off to pay them , pay them, pay them,to do it. Then if you have an issue you have an argument and a leg to stand on.
If you try to do the body work yourself and the paint is decent but the prep sucks and everything shows you loose.they will not fix your prep work for free , so just pay them to do it. If your new at it I say again just pay them and get some practice on something you dont care about . Your obviously on a budget or you wouldnt consider Maaco.

But still realize these guys are going to fix your dents fast no different than any other average body shop.

Macco is and has always been a production paint shop.

Even if your prep work is perfect they will miss a spot on a door jamb or some little detail keeping you from having the perfect outcome but good enough for a driver and ask them upfront for a bit of touch up paint with no hardner added and you can touch up what they miss usually with a fine brush or paper match stick end and it wont look too bad.

But well worth the money just sand your car yourself and get all the hard to reach and pain in the butt hand sand areas next to the windows and and tight spaces or they will skip it and a few years down the road your paint will flake from those skipped areas. I hope this helps your choice in body shops good luck..

The Maaco I worked at in 1987 could match any modern color paint by code and used Western paint or Dupont Nason brand , huge drums mixed in house. Keep in mind they painted 10 or so cars per day and this was all single stage paint. No base clear at the time. No rubbing or buffing just out the door average paint jobs.

Also the whole price list was a scam and was something and still is close to this, I dont remember the exact names even though they are goofy and I just used them 2 months ago but you will get the picture read on.

$ 129.00 basic paint
$ 199.00 impearial
$299.00 Executive
$499.00 President
$699.00 Who da hell knows what its called. But this one I did one recently and it is base clear and turned out good for the money but not worth the upgrade in my opinion from the level 2 paint job. Read on.

I know because I worked there and was the painter and all of the add on stuff they try to charge you for such as upgrades and extras were already pre mixed in the drums of paint we mixed from anyway.

So if you paid 40.00 extra for ultraviolent protection, and ozone safe this and that you did get it . But so did everyone else except the cheapest paint job, it was mixed out of the Western stuff and suprisingly almost everyone went for the $299.00 or higher job and got the works even if they didnt realize it.
When I painted there all paint jobs were the same except for the cheapest one which did not include a sealer coat or any of the premixed additives to the mixing paints. They would paint right over your previous paint job after sanding it.

If you use Maaco look at the jobs in the lot and see if they hit molding ,glass ,etc when sanding and look at their masking or tape job. Tell whoever writes your estimate you want a neat job and you want to meet the painter (assuming you did your prep and its great give the estimator and the painter $50.00 bucks each cash and a little more time is taken in the booth with your car). Common for production paint shops even if the tips get you 15 more minutes in the paint booth think of all the small areas a painter can cover in that time. (Edges of fenders, edge of aprons, door edges etc.)

Sorry to be so long winded but I see these post on Maaco brought up all the time with no real at length explanation to what you will recieve.

Like I say look in the lot at painted cars , if the paint job looks good to you then go for it. It is affordable for sure so look , look ,look, Every Maaco is a franchise and owned by individuals so results will be different from one to another. Good luck and hope this helps someone.

[EMPIImp69]

All 3 were painted at Maaco in Manville, NJ..I did the bodywork

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1963 Ragtop Bug
1966 Vert Bug

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[akavinn1]

Was it a macco ? Or just a paint shop?

[djkeev]

The shop the PO used on the car I ended up with is on 35 by the Bridge, just north of the 35/36/Parkway intersection in Keyport.
it was a crap job, it wasn't the correct color, it had runs and sags, It had adhesion issues and it lost its gloss in less than 2 years. It was also red which is a tough color for color fastness.
(it was also a Miata, not a VW but that makes no difference.)

Dave
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Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[bushaus]

My neighbor here in N Orange Co, Ca just had a Maaco job done on his s-10 p/u. I was actually quite impressed with it, including the masking! The masking was better than the job the PO had done on my bus

It will be interesting to see how that paint holds up on his truck, as it sits outside all the time. It's my own private science experiment!
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1967 13 window walkthru bus
1965 Karmann Kabriolett beetle