Maaco quote

So my 2012 has clear coat peeling. I want to get a nice repaint but I can’t spend a lot of money. Went to maaco and they quoted me 1923 to paint the whole truck with two coats of clear coat. I want to do it but I’ve read mix results. Some love it some say the paint is already chipping. And I know I’ll get hate for this but I take my truck through a drive car wash. Any thoughts would be great.

 

I had my 2009 painted by Maaco in 2019, still looks like new today and it stays outside 24/7. Lots of people badmouth Maaco but almost all those people have no personal experience with Maaco. They know people, a friend of a friend, a cousins brother etc etc who they say had a bad experience. If Maaco was as bad as they try to make it would have gone out of business lon* ago.

I also have my truck washed at a car wash almost every week (I go to Quick Quack wash, they are great), still looks great. No chips, fade, scratches etc. Maaco did my truck and matching shell and 5 years later still looks fabulous. Many places want $6000+ to paint a vehicle. It just doesn’t make sense to spend that much $$$ on an older truck like ours.
I’ve posted about this several times and always get shit from the same group. But that’s ok cause what I say here is the truth. If I had to do it again I’d go Maaco. Here’s a couple pics. If you have questions ask or personal message me.

 

Did you get a price at an Indy body shop? Always good to shop around. They’re often happy to show you their paint booth. Generally Indy over corporate in most things but it really comes down to the person behind the spray gun…

 

Never used them but I know of someone who has with good results.

 

The fact they painted right over the black fender molding is all I needed to see.

 

First of all nobody notices other than a couple of Maaco haters. Second the fender mold is about 1/8 inch wide. It just doesn’t matter if it’s painted over or not. But yeh I guess I could have spent a few thousand more so that the fender molding wouldn’t be painted over. Yep that makes sense. I’ve had dozens and dozens of compliments on the paint job and not one person has ever said, OMG they painted over the skinny little fender molding, your truck looks like shit cause they painted over the fender molding.
Every time I post the truth about my Maaco paint job the haters always come out.

 

first thing I noticed too, other than that though it looks perfect.

theres a CAV blue gen 2 in Reno with the flare trim painted like that. starting to chip off the flares though and showing the red underneath

 

Nope. My expectations of quality and yours are just different. But if you ever have to replace that molding that’s now sealed under paint and clear you’ll be painting a flare and a fender. But like I said if people want to use Maaco than can it just not where I’d go.

 

That's typical of Maaco, I got a quote and the service writer told me if the customer wants to pull the flares and reinstall them afterwards they'd be cool with that but they will charge accordingly if the customer wants it done by them, he said they often run into issues with broken clip stays on the plastic flares on older vehicles and its can be a time consuming to fix.

Paint jobs are labor intensive, a decent job from reputable places can easily run $8K+ if you can find a shop that wants to do it. Many don't and make their bread and butter swapping parts and painting fenders for insurance jobs. Hard to justify the typical $8K cost just for paint on an older 2nd gen. tacoma.

 

I've had two cars painted by Maaco. First was a quick color change of my first car because my parents didn't like the black color and wanted something more visible with a 16 year old driving it. They paid for the car and paint so I had no say in it. It was the usual spray everything the same color regardless if it was rubber, plastic or metal. At least they didn't spray the chrome. It was fine for an old car driven by a 16 year old.

Second one I had done was a different location and years later. I had them mix up a custom metallic green with blue pearl sprayed over a black base. I made sure to disassemble every bit of trim and molding from that car before bringing it to them. And know what, they did a great job with it. The color came out looking great and was cleanly done. Obviously this is comparing two different location and a major difference in prep work.

Any more I have my paint work done at somewhat expensive paint shop, but I trade work with the owner so it costs me nothing but time when I'm doing stereo work for him. Just traded him spraying my new to me hard tonneau and a custom front grill and the hood on my younger daughter's car for me building a sound system for the custom 64 Lincoln Continental convertible he's building.

 

My understanding is that Maaco is fine if all you need is a shop to affordably lay down the paint and clearcoat. YOU will need to do all of the hard prep work of getting panels ready, disassembling moldings/clips/etc.

90% of painting work is in the prep and if you are willing to do that then you should get a good result.