$1000 MIATA MAACO PAINT JOB (WE GOT SCREWED) 

The other insane part is how a lot of these comments are somewhat bashing Sal saying you get what you paid for..... when in reality Sal is being a complete champ along with being super positive towards this situation..... I seriously feel like a lot of these people are working with MAACO...… and its wild because all of the comments are like this on almost EVERY MAACO paint job review video..... You did an amazing job with the video review along with how you presented it. You didn't bash them or tear into them but you also didn't lie or sugar coat any of it!

that paint job is amazing lol ...all the extras like rust proofing the exhaust with paint and tinting the windows blue at no extra cost .. man what a good deal :)

Nah dude, that exhaust overspray is unacceptable even for a cheap paint job.

The reason why Maaco "misses" things like this, is because when customers are paying $500/$1000/$1500 for a paintjob, the company can only afford minimum wage employees. Also, Maaco is production [volume] oriented (quantity over quality) so thats why the masking is often shortcut'd.

I had Maaco paint a car about 30 years ago. Same results as yours; looked great from 10 feet away(maybe 20), the exhaust pipe and other under chassis parts, grill innards, all got their free rust proofing. Also got the free window tint too! lol! I remember that it took one day, in that morning and out by 3pm! Back then I think I paid around $150.

We've had family and "work" cars painted by Maaco. In those days a Deluxe paint job was $349 (in the mid to late 70's). The key to the best possible outcome was to prep any body work and paint yourself and remove as much of the trim and such as possible. Kind of like mixing all your own flour, eggs, and other ingredients and just having the baker put it in the oven.

LOL I kept coming back everyday to see if y’all released a new video . Thank you!

Maaco has a one-hour-per-car policy for their painters. You'll have to do the tricky masking and part removal and save the big/easy stuff for them. Opt for extra paint because they only allow two quarts per car. That's the only way to get a decent job and should give you enough mils to cut and buff.

I got my car painted for $676, for that price I didn't complain about anything just asked for a little bottle of touch up paint. It's been 2yrs still looks good.

I live in the valley, trying to get my old dodge dakota painted...this video was so helpful! Thank you

Thank you for your very informative videos. I own a 2001 BRG miata and even though I'm not very mechanically inclined, your videos arm me with the info I need to make sure I get my money's worth when someone else works on my car. This Maaco paint video will be really helpful for when I get my car repainted. Thank you

I paid over $2500.00 just for the materials to paint my car never mind the labor . Overall 1100.00 for a decent paintjob seems pretty good .

A long time ago, a friend of mine, and I, prepped a Pontiac 6000 wagon (go ahead laugh). We did minor bodywork, took off trim, did a good job of taping then towed it to a Maaco-type shop to get repainted in the same color (so door jambs did not need to be painted). I don't recall the price, but it was cheap. Turned out looking pretty good, especially considering the price point.

Honestly, best color on a Miata, looks great man, keep it up :)

0:49 - I'd be stunned if you found someone who could paint the car cheaper and better. They did a good job for the price.

Van Nuys is hood af, nor surprised they did a bad job. That being said 1000 for a paint job is dirt cheap. I painted my car myself as a project maybe 7 years ago and just paint and clear was 650.

Surprised they pump out something that decent for that price and open door Seems solid all things considered, most overspray could be rectified easily imo.

Some Maaco are direct repair for major insurance companies to they will have quality output. Every Maaco are different. As mentioned, $800 would be the cost just for materials alone for a quality base/clear coat. Budget paint jobs use the least expensive paint they could get their hands on--paint not going to last long. I have been to some Maaco where they are sanding the cars in the same room they are painting--dust flying all over.

Previous owner did the 600 paint job here in Vegas for my Miata, some original paint is still showing under the door. Let’s just say he got what he paid for. Definitely changing my Miata color this year else where

At 4:40, I heard you say you sanded it all perfect, a good paint job is 95% prep!!! I have painted high-end trucks and cars that customers "preped"for me, and all I did was get it in the booth and spray it, some preppers know what they're doing and some do not.

About to say, that $1000 could of gone towards a nice turbo setup. Then I saw the California plates... LOL nevermind.

Yea man I had a similar experience. They painted my tail pipes, plastic molding it was pretty bad. That was in the late 90’s. I see not much has changed.

Thank you bro I live in the same area really appreciate this video🙏 new subscriber

I got the black enamel $599 paint job from maaco and it honestly came out pretty good. I’m convinced that of your going to go with maaco, go with black. My car was already black so I didn’t have them do door jams or anything.

The one in ORANGE CA does a nice job. but plan on paying some more than the base price. for about 1500 you get a pretty good job. they even fixed some extra dents.

You got a good deal. I used to paint cars for a living. Last car I had painted I subbed out to Maaco in 2005. They came in $75 under what I would have charged myself in straight time off from my yacht engineer job. Amatures have no idea how low the margins are on repaints. To wake that up even more, cut it with wetsand down to 4000 micron cut and buff it, then get a straight razor and you can use the paint job as a mirror. That is the true test of surface polish!

This video is really helpful thank you for making it really simple and straight forward 🙏🏻 I might just go to a local auto paint place to get mine painted since I care about my little project Miata lmao

I think the over spray is a bit unacceptable. However.. If any shop did all of the things you stated to perfection you would spend $6000. There's a lot of good and bad about Maaco. Customer expectations vs reality is often the biggest issue. For the money they did a good job. Not withstanding the over spray.

I think with Maaco you really want to do all the masking yourself. and remove any weather stripping you don't want painted. (like you guys did) You don't want to leave any prep work up to them.

Still looks pretty good though. Maaco was probably just butthurt because they couldnt charge you extra for bodywork🤣

We had a guy from Maaco come in when I was taking autobody classes. He told us that people were fired for working at a pace that was too slow for them. I feel like a lot of people start at Maaco as a first job because they don't really require any experience unless you're paining. It's definitely not a place you should go if you're looking for good quality. 3 days is insane for a full paint job where I work. Like other people said, you get what you pay for. It could be great for an old an old beater or if you find a good location with good experienced workers.

Thanks for the heads up on the van nuys shop i was planning on taking my m3 for a respray there

Wow.. funny I was about to go to this very Maaco. You just saved me a hassle !

Well in a world that's ever changing it's nice to know that Maaco still does a medoicre paint job for $1000. At least you got the urethane so it won't start peeling in 6 weeks. I know you needed to experience this for yourself, but compared to some Maaco jobs this looks really nice.

This confirms it, when painting my project, I'm breaking down all the trim and pulling the bumpers/lights.

First off......Did you ask the store manager for any customer's you can call for references? Second.....Did you ask the manager who was going to be spraying your car? Yes, $1k is a lot of money to some people....to a lot of people. I'd want to know who my painter was going to be. I'd want to speak with him. You know what? $100 cash is also a lot of money to some painters. Like the one getting ready to work on YOUR car. So the total goes to $1100....maybe even $1200. You'd be AMAZED at what the finished product will look like when you tell the painter, "And there's another bill waiting and depending of the final outcome." I promise you.....this really works. When I was a mobile detailer, I flipped a few used cars every month or so. I built up a great relationship with my MAACO and painters. Also remember, a gallon of high quality basecoat then say 2 coats of a 2k clear coat coming out of a quality gun, plus other supplies, will cost $1k alone.

There's been a misalignment between customer expectations and paint shop's output for years. The customer is right to expect the job to be done correctly. My brother did car show quality work for people years ago for regular paint shop rates. He did a lot of cool stuff, but stopped when a guy stiffed him.

LMAO. Hey it's MAACO. I hope you didn't have a high expectation. But Miata looks good from far.

Thank you for the Oxnard recommendation 🙏🏻

I worked at 2 different MAACOs in the early 90s, you guys probably got screwed worse than you think. First off, you probably didn't get a urethane paint job, you probably got acrylic enamel with an additive put into it. They used to call it "integrated clear coat", but it was really just an additive. As far as paying for a higher tier of prep work; all customers got the same amount of prep work no matter what they paid; and that's 7.5 minutes of sanding and 7.5 minutes of masking, for a total of 15 minutes of prep. Guys that work at MAACO are actually quite skilled at prepping and painting; you get good when you paint 20 to 40 cars a day. A lot of those guys go on to work on painting trucks or aircraft and they're great at it. Also, MAACO and AAMCO are the same company, and they specialize in doing cheap, sloppy work. If you can't afford a proper paint job, an alternative is to find out if any of the MAACO guys are doing side work and make a deal with them on the sly. They can do much better work when they aren't pressured to paint your car and 30 others by the end of the day. There's also community colleges and high schools with paint & body classes, sometimes you can get a deal by letting students do your paint and body, it's definitely worth asking. You'd also do better to buy your own paint from a local distributor. You can get low or middle tier PPG or DuPont urethane base/clear kits for a reasonable price and pass the material along to your paint guys, at least you know you're getting a urethane base clear that way.

Maaco, to my understanding, is completely franchisee. It makes sense that there would be variability in quality from one location to the next. Van Nuys? Wow...

the maaco “we don’t give a fuck” special hah

It’s really is a nice color. Looks good 👍

That reminds me of the earl scheib paint jobs you could get in nyc. They’d spray anything you didn’t tape up. Lol

Hey man I highly reccomend siggys auto body in Compton CA he did my Miata single stage paint for 800 without doing any prep myself and it came out really good and he pays a lot more attention to the little things

Urethane and integrated clear coat is the option you chose right? Does it also have sparkles/glitter within the paint? I have a silver metallic e36 and I hope they can repaint it correctly

This a rlly underrated Chanel jus seen like 5 of ur vids

For the money, not bad at all. At least most items are correctable. You definitely got what you paid for. Thanks for sharing.. I'd definitely go this route for a beater or a track car..

Very decent paint job for only a grand….just decent paint job gonna cost $4-5K….thanks for sharing your videos, it’s of primary benefit to folks thinking their gonna get a classy paint job for a measly grand, keep the expectations in line with the money spent and all will be well…

"if you have a shitbox, go to Maaco". 😆

You can get a great paint job at MAACO. Take them a car that is properly prepped. Remove all trim, handles, mirrors, etc. Wash car 4 or 5 times with IVORY dish detegent. Removes all trace of waxes. Wipe it down with PreSol. If you show some car they will show you some extra car also. Had several cars painted by MAACO over the years. Ya got to prep it yourself.

i'm glad u called them people out.

Nice touch, even the cobwebs were blue.

As a former painter at maaco.....you get what you pay for.a good paintjob done right,using urethane paint,start around $5000.going to maaco and expecting a good job is like going to mcdonalds and expecting a steak diner.you want a good paintjob,pry open your wallet.

MAACO painter our 1995 GMC truck in 2017. It still looks new after 6 years.

I had got a $300 macco job a few years back and it wasnt factory finish but i was impressed with what they did for the price

Ok now you got a $1100 paint job. Overall the color isn’t bad. How much are you going to spend to remove all the over spray? Can you use thinner or acetone for a diy? Thanks

I mean... For 1100 bucks this seems pretty legit honestly

I literally live in Van Nuys and I will drive to Oxnard. Thanks bro

Luv the Blue brother!!!

This is an example for me that if you want something to be good do it by yourself

Whatever you do, do NOT take your car to The Santa Rosa, CA. Maaco. You have been warned.

Ayeee I’m about to start some bodywork for my 300zx and I’m prob gonna send it to maaco too lol

i will never forget the first maaco paint job i saw when he picked it up windows where rolled down when he rolled them up they where the same green as his car

Looks smurfin’ good from 20 feet away! Sorry they smurfed up your exhaust.

You got Maaco-ed bro. My personal experience, I won’t do it again or recommend them. Went thru same, manager laughed at us, it lasted a little over the warranty. Now it has rust splotches where there was paint. We thought it was going to enhance the cars appearance. Now we don’t worry about break in, we worry that it will be towed.

Looks like a pretty good paint job to me compared to paint shops want to charge here in northern Nevada. I was was quoted from 12k to 20k to paint my 85 GMC Sierra.

So random this video was recommended to me plus you mentioned Oxnard my home town :,)

I had my van painted by Maaco of Bremerton. It started rusting within a year and what I discovered is they did not use any primer under the paint. So where ever they grinded down to bare metal there was no body filler and no primer. They only warranty the paint itself and not the prep work. I paid them too dollars , I wasn't a cheap customer asking them to skip steps.

Seems like if a person is willing to mask/remove parts from the car themselves, this can be a great deal. Then take it to a professional detail shop for cut and buff.

My dad took his Chevy truck to earl scheib in the 70s they painted over the dirt on the tail gate 🤪

I think for 1100 it's great! I work at a body shop and we charge 3 times as much. It would be a 10 times better finish. I will say the over spray on that is ridiculous

I would love to find a shop doing paint for 1k that is much better. I guess I get what macco is and I keep my expectations low. You did all the hard stuff yourself to make sure it was done right so the things you pointed out really shouldn't have come out

When I looked into Maaco once, I was told that the car can't have any major issues (rust, body damage, etc) or they won't pain the car. I mean it's logical, but basically it's probably how they can gaurantee their work. Either way, it's probably not worth doing. I mean to do it right, everything needs to be sanded, all rust needs to be removed and repaired, it needs to be primed and then painted and cured properly, which could take up to a week depending on the vehicle and the amount of work involved. If I ever needed to repaint a car so it looked reasonable, I'd almost just paint it matte black with spray paint, but usually I get rid of cars before they need serious paint work.

Oh boy ! 👊🏽

there's no reason in the world why a paint shop that does absolutely nothing but paint vehicles should f**k up a paint job...anything less than on point is unacceptable in my opinion,especially for the high tiered options

I’m glad I watched this, I was thinking about going to Macco too. Bogus as hell!

Great video

I think I saw this car around Canoga Park. I've got a white NB!

Any less money and you’re shaking cans to paint.

that overspray is not ok, what a joke.

Back in 1985 my grandmother took her yellow with black vinyl top 1969 Chevrolet Caprice to Earl Sheib for a repaint and she didn't specify to mask anything off and they literally painted the whole damn thing including emblems, top and bumpers.

No matter where you go, for that price your going to get what you got. They used to always paint the tires. Consider yourself lucky!!

Maaco advertises a $499 paint job, but they’re crooks and liars. You can’t get a paint job there for $499 because they tack on all these fees and try to up sell you. $850 was the cheapest I could get there. I hate crooks and liars.

I'll never understand why anyone would stance a Miata---it's like saying "I want to fuck up my handling, AND look dorky doing it"

MACCO in Oxnard, got it. Thank you, I wanna get that exact color for my future NA Miata when I own it, I plan on keeping my NA Miata 99% stock with quality of life improvements, so very minor cosmetic mods, otherwise its gonna look like a brand new stock Miata on the outside. That's my goal. I live in Glendale and I consider Van Nuys to have a lot of sketchy businesses. I mean so does Glendale with the Armenians over pricing you but most of them at least take care of your car, they just screw you over in price.

I paid $1400 for rust repair and paint at Maaco . I got over spray too. The rust came back less than year later. Mine is the same color too.

Bro, how can you be so calm? I would be F***** pissed. This is a very bad paint job... thanks for the heads up about the maaco.

Well done, truthful without degrading them. Sorta get what you pay for with them.

My uncle had his town car painted in the early 90’s same results in Saint Louis

Great reviews I wanted to paint my car too but different maaco does differently 😩😩

All maacos are different when it comes to quality work. I got my car painted by a maaco and it came out beautiful. Sure I can pick out miniscule flaws but nothing I was unhappy with. This is pretty disrespectful.

Damn dude! Were they drunk when they painted it? 🙈 Look the interior, the exhaust and the windows 😱 Despite all, that blue is so cool man 😍

Do what I did when I did the body on my 73 MGB, painted it myself. I bought a Nason single stage paint for around 300 Canadian. Buffed afterward, there was no overspray and done to my satisfaction, not a show car job but, it is a car I just drive.

Getting ready to do my truck and after watching a few of these vids, it just seem like a crap shoot for how it will turn out from Maaco i.e., one guy paid $1200, orange peel everywhere, another guy paid $600 and his was like glass. But I'm going into it knowing there will probably be orange peel, but even with that, the price is to good for what you get and I'm not looking for showroom, maybe I'll get lucky and get the glass, lol. Thanks for the vid and breakdown of everything!

This made me so happy to see this happened to your cheap ass. This helps us with real body shop justify our work.

Rattle can or two (one flat+ one satin/ NO GLOSS)along with decent tape lines will hide alot of this

It was nice of them to dye some of your interior blue.

I've got eighteen years in auto paint, Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, did Corvettes for a Chevy dealership, I had a manager of a maico offer me a job, while I was doing custom work, and folks it doesn't matter what shop you go to, good paint work is going to cost you money, if you got a paint job for a thousand bucks that looks good for more than a year you won!!! Any shop maico, Earl scheib, doesn't matter the name on the building, they are capable of doing show quality paint work, good paint work does not come cheap.

Nice car i like it