MAACO

A place for professionals to network and discuss the business and technology inside the shop.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:43 pm
I see this name crop up quite regularly in a derogatory context.
A quick google search tells me they are a franchise bodyshop.So what's the deal,nearly 500 shops,they can't all be bad can they ?

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Fully Engaged
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Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:38 am
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:50 pm
it's one of those "get what you pay for" situations

if you pay for a $300 paint job, and you next to no prep, sloppy overspray, poor quality paint

If you pay for their top of the line paint job, and do a LOT of prep yourself, you can get a good good paint job, if the person with the gun is halfway experienced

Big if



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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:59 pm
Being a floater Maaco can be a very good income for a high production painter. Maaco does garbage prep,body, etc... Does this mean avoid them ? Hell no !!! Wanna sell a Car fast ? Being I can prep a car to paint in less then 1 hr for a Maaco paint job this can save you on money. If you go there ask to see a car just before it goes into the booth is the paper clean ? Does it still have primer etc berries on the paper ? Last step there is the cleaning and this is done some time before it actually goes into the paint booth. Painters at Maaco are not required to do the last cleaning of a vehicle only the tack and spray. If you plan on having a good job go to the painter and ask him to please clean the car once again as it is brought into the booth. If you dont mind bring him a bottle of prepsol Alcohol and ask him to please spary this into the air/himself and the all the paper right before he starts painting spot him some lunch money and ask the shop foreman to put your car thru the booth last run of the day. If you can have all these inline you can have a top notch paint job from Maaco.

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Location: Poughkeepsie, New York
PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 10:30 am
lol, you can prep a car for paint in an hour?!?!?

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PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2011 9:30 am
Daz_England wrote:I see this name crop up quite regularly in a derogatory context.
A quick google search tells me they are a franchise bodyshop.So what's the deal,nearly 500 shops,they can't all be bad can they ?


I have seen maaco paint jobs where they didn't spray portions of the car, where the paint does not have full coverage, where some of the trim had overspray on it, etc. When I have someone asking me to paint their car for $500 I tell them if they want that quality of work take it to Maaco.

A lot of tote-the-note dealers use them to doll up the cars on their lots and people who just want the old beater vehicle painted and really don't care about quality.
1968 Coronet R/T


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PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2011 2:49 pm
Also depends on the franchise. My brother had a car done in 2003, came out great, just needed buffing, which he did a few days later. That franchise went out, so he went to another about a year ago. The difference was night and day.
The first time, the car was chemically stripped, sanded, primed, and painted. This time, it was just sanded and painted. Lots of dry spots, overspray on moldings, and even a few drips.

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PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2011 5:14 pm
We have at least a half dozen MAACOs in our metro area. Some are crappy, others decent, and one in particular that does great work. That shop, in fact does a lot of custom work and high end collision work. They'll let you do as little or as much prep. work as want and give you advice up front about what you can do to save some bucks and get a better paint job. The management team there is organized and puts everything down in detail on their quotes. I guess it's up to the individual to do some research and get some referrals if you're going to go with one of the big chain shops.
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PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2011 7:43 pm
Ill tell you one thing,,There is no such thing as a " top notch paint job from Maaco" here in the Charleston,SC area!

I filled in for a painter that went on vacation for a while and the crap they had me doing made me walk right out the door the second day I was there.............

Nothing but VERY low quality work...............
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:55 pm
I agree I think it varies on location. My brother got his mustang painted in 2001(nj) and it came out nice(blue with white stripes), but I have also seen people get crappy paintjobs here in nc. I guess it depends on who the painter is and how much work he actually wants to do, or what the owner tells them to do. The paint wore out in about 1-2 years though, so its definitely not a long term solution



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:27 am
I worked at a Maaco in Ann Arbor, Michigan back in the late 1970's first in the body shop for a couple years and then as a painter for about a year. I was an experienced bodyman at that time and always focused on quality work which was no different at Maaco than it was at any dealership bodyshop I had worked at. The quality of the paint was the same as all the other paint shops were using ( it was acrylic enamel with hardener ). We had our own paint mixing machine and the toners came from a Maaco warehouse but it was the same quality toners as the paint stores that sold Dupont or R&M. The paint jobs I turned out as a painter at Maaco were just as good as any paintjob coming out of any dealerships. I did nothing but mix paint and spray paint as a painter. I never sanded and prepped cars for paint. That was the job of the sanders and tapers. The cheapest paintjobs had the old paint scuffed with a scuff pad which worked well. Keep in mind that Maaco gave a full guarantee against peeling or flaking paint so their paint prep couldn't be shoddy. The mid priced and the expensive paint jobs were prepped with a DA sander just like every other paint shop. The masking tapers taped everything that should be taped. The bottom line is we turned out some decent work at a very reasonable price. As a bodyman and as a painter I made good money at Maaco, it would be comparable to around $70,000 a year now. But like I said, I was experienced and I did quality work and I was fast.

But as previously discussed -- Not all Maaco's put out quality work. The work is no better than the people doing the work. If they are sloppy and don't care about quality then they won't put out good work.

The following is very important if you're thinking about having Maaco paint your car, truck or van. You have to have REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS when you bring a car to them. You are not going to get a $10,000 custom car show winning paintjob for $350. I firmly believe Maaco provides a needed service in the automotive paint business. IF you have an older high mileage car that runs great but looks bad then Maaco is an excellent choice to spiffy up that car. For the last decade or so my paint jobs started at $3,000 and the price went up quickly from there. That included no dents, no dings, no rust, no bodywork -- just a sand and paint. The last full paints I've done was a Mercedes 450 SL, a special edition '87 Buick Grand National, a 1925 Dodge Bros 2 seater convertible, 1968 Dodge Charger and those paint jobs were double and tripple the $3,000 starting price.
What I'm getting at is those cars were worth putting some money into a top notch paint job but people who own a high mileage vehicle can't afford to pay more for a paint job than the car is worth. So yes, Maaco does provide a needed service in the automotive paint business. But again -- the customer has to have realistic expectations of what he/she is going to get for their money.
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