A quick vid of a $2k paint job by Maaco on my ‘95 Dodge Ram 1500. Urethane with I/C (integrated clear) and extensive sanding. This is Maaco’s second tier paint job.
I worked at a maaco twenty years ago, that’s the quality you can expect at that price point. A “real” body shop would remove all the trim lights mirror’s etc. before painting. That’s part of why it costs twice as much or more at the real shop. They generally will also use higher quality paints and primer etc.
I'm on the fence, I need my truck painted, it has some body work to handle, after talking to a couple shops that only do collision repairs and I understand that looks like Maaco will be the one, I'm probably going to use the one in Douglasville, my truck is 25 years old now, and I certainly won't pay for a restoration job, nor do I need it, thanks for the video.
Considering what it looked like before and after for only 2k I'd also have to say you got your monies worth. Body work of any sort will easily cost what you paid for everything. 👍💯
All in all I think it looks good, a little paint thinner and razor blade, my thing would how long it last, how well it holds up. Main stream paint shops, like the other guy said, 8 grand, which is insane. And I think white is pretty for giving color. Look good, nice looking truck 👍
You just confirmed what I was planning to do because your paint job looks good, but the taping off is a failure. I have a 97 Ram in the same PW7 white and the peeling clearcoat. I went to Maaco for an estimate for a complete paint job and also chose their Urethane I/C paint. As we walked around the truck I pointed out that I will remove all the badging and emblems, the body side moulding, the grill, the antenna, the taillights, the bed rail caps, the cargo light, and the rear sliding window. And now, after seeing your video I may remove the side mirrors and loosen the door handles and tailgate handle also. My bed will not get painted as I did this last year andinstalled a bedliner. My concerns are they will still get overspray on the weatherstripping, my new inner fender wells, the tires, bumper covers, engine compartment, etc. I may have to ask to inspect the truck before it rolls into the booth. It's been a year, how is the paint job holding up????
I like the "muddy white" appearance of the truck. It looks sleek but different. I don't know why brands won't offer this kind of color. I'd love to have my car in "muddy white."
Best way to get a vehicle painted at Maaco, remove all lights, tail lights, trim, grill, mirrors, door handles. And sand it down yourself. Then take it to them on a trailer. The paint will come our way better.
their paint will gum up a buffer. i have ssen cars painted there that were still printing 5 days later. if you can't skimp on hardener what can you skimp on
You got a bargain for two grand ! I do my own paint work and it’s a huge amount of prep work. I would never do it for a living! I just painted a truck and have almost 2 grand in supplies.
Better than typical Maaco job actually. Maaco does ZERO disassembly or removal of parts. NONE. If you want that done, do it yourself. ALL they do is MASK. That's what you keep referring to. Crappy masking. Not PREP. Prep is surface prep, in preparation for the paint. Rust removal or repair, sanding, chip repair, ding repair. The biggest issue with Maaco is their paint and the quantity of it. They use lousy paint and not much of it. I would love to know what that paint looks like in 2 or 3 years. By the way, white is the easiest color to spray or hide surface defects. That's a lot for a Maaco job, but I usually paint my own vehicles. Maaco is a production shop. They do 6-8 cars a day. Usually 8. That's 1 an hour which is their goal. Not a lot of time for attention to details. When you look at it like that, that's a very strong price they charge. BTW, thats BS what they call 'integrated clear'. Just another Maaco marketing term. Just cross linked or polymerized enamel.
i called them once had a van at my shop they had just painted couldn't figure out the color they used. it matched no alt chips freaked out my scanner talked to the manager he laughed said they couldn't match it either paint came in a 55 gallon drum. 2 hrs for tinting plus materials.
Why is this guy crying over a 30 year old truck with slight paint imperfections? Looks fine, and even with prep being so-so it’s so old the truck will probably get totaled or scrapped before it all fades off again
You're exactly right. Shops don't want to do overall paint jobs because they can't charge enough or they are busy with insurance work. Customers generally have no idea what it takes to do a first class paint job. 2000.00 would barely cover the cost of the materials.
I am a body shop repair for over 20 years now I normally charge $3500 for the same job but thats why I tell people if your looking for a perfect job pay me more . So in the end you get what you pay for
A: its NOT a $2000 paint job... You needed alot of body prep.... People like you drive me NUTS.....So if you would have done what YOU knew you should have done the truck would look amazing,,, The paint looks like factory finish... That is nice.... Id be mad at myself not them!
Wow this looks like shit 💩 I noticed earlier today at one of Maacos shops the same things on their urethane single stage paint job. they quoted me $1400 for an older model Corolla which I thought was a decent deal. no body Work included.
I think it looks pretty damn good compared to before! I wouldn't nit-pick, or should've went somewhere else and shelled out more money for your specifications.
For the price, I rate this an easy 8 out of 10. I'm surprised by the quality for $2K. I thought it would look like a disaster before he even got within inches of the truck. I do like the "dark" appearance of the white and wish car brand would offer it more. I've seen a MINI painted in a similar shade and it looked gorgeous in low light/cloudy days.
That's damn good for $2k. I'm sure it's just a driver and the things you pointed out, someone would have to go over it with a fine tooth comb to see. The prep work I wouldn't say was bad, just the masking could've been a little better. Overall, I'd be happy with that.
I used to be the office manager of a very high quality local body shop. I can tell you that a complete paint job runs upwards of 8-10k. The entire vehicle would be disassembled. All trim removed. Glass removed. Moldings removed, lights, bumpers etc. For 2k I’d say Maaco did a fantastic job given the overall condition of the truck when you dropped it off.
You are exactly right sir every single part he was pointing out i was thinking if the owner of the white truck had taken those parts off he would have had really very nice paint job it seems to me that all those areas he pointed out that he didnt like are his fault he should have taken those trim parts off and then put them all back on himself then it would be nice.
So glad to see similar comments to what I was about to post - this is a fantastic paint job for $2k. I think you'd likely get similar, if not (hopefully) slightly better results at over twice the price - around $5k+ from another shop. I'd call this a win. After all, you went to MAACO - you knew what you were dealing with :) I have a 1967 c10 that I had painted a completely different color through MAACO for $1500. Other shops wanted to charge me closer to $8k! Does it have orange peel and overspray? Yes. Would I have paid 5x that amount for the same color to not have that? Honestly, no. I wouldn't. MAACO is a 'good from far, far from good' company and you honestly did very well with it. I have a lower grade than you, and it still shines great after 2 years as long as you take care of it and regularly wax. Enjoy it!
It's macco. There tape and prep work is just as budget as there paint. They give the painter just enough supplies for coverage and the prep guys are paid to pull nothing. Best way to way to get decent results is to pull every thing, no lights, trim moldings or glass, do the prep work to the point they just need to back tape the jams and tip the guy spraying it otherwise they all come out like that.
For what you paid, it's not bad at all. In fact I would say it's pretty good, I'm wondering if you could take off all the lights and trim to improve the workmanship. Obviously you would remove the lights when you got to the shop. But not too shabby.
What I can see about Maaco is that you shouldn't pay them anymore than for a basic paint job, because they don't look any more different than the $2,000 paint jobs. For that kind of money you can take it to a smaller paint shop where they will put a little more work in to it and prep it better since they have a lot less cars to work on
Each Maaco is independently owned, so the quality of the work will be determined by how good each location is. I just had my Tundra painted by Maaco and it came out fantastic. I paid for the most expensive package. My total was about $2300 including removing one small dent and remove/reattach my tailgate handle. All the little things this guy is complaining about was not a problem for me. All Maacos are not the same. Review your local shops individually.
@@matthewgibbs6886 Maybe it was a lot cheaper than I remember? it probably was $99 bucks from my old high school days. There was an interesting article I googled, he started out in 1937 it cost $29.95 by 1975 he expanded into Europe which I never knew, his initial goal was to do five or six cars a day one person would strip the paint, one would sand, one would mask, and 1 man would paint. All Operations ceased July 16th 2010.✌️
@@yukonjack. My sister had her VW bug painted by Earl in the 70's for $99.95, she counted 367 runs in the paint. Even painted door handles and bumpers!
Come on guy for two grand that thing looks great sure you could have taken up all the moldings and everything and taillights out if you wanted those results but overall that's refreshed that whole truck I would be absolutely satisfied with the work and price
If I went there I’d take everything off, sand it and tape it myself. The prep work YOU are willing to do is what makes MAACO a good option. If you don’t to the prep, manage your expectations.
I think Maaco's pure profit margin is heavily influenced by how many cars they do in a week. They have to repaint the cars/trucks in a reasonable amount of time otherwise they lose money. This reminds me of guy who runs a VERY high end paint shop in southern California was interviewed by Car & Driver. He said the biggest nightmare of running a boutique paint shop is the working hours. He said "I can talk about $30K (yes he charged a Ferrari owner $30K for his finest paint job) paint jobs all day but in the end, if the hours pile up too high, I start LOSING money." He works with 2-3 other guys and one reason he charges so much because he has a Mexican buddy who is VERY experienced with fixing body parts. The Mexican claims that part of the appeal of a good paint job is in the hours done with body work before even touching the spray gun and I believe him 100%. He once spent a few WEEKS fixing up a a Ferrari convertible before they painted it. (Note: they did talk to the owner and he approved all the bodywork). When they finished painting it, it looked jaw-droppingly beautiful. They showed a "low-end" job (the cheapest they offer) where they just fix up small removable parts and spray the body with just 1-2 coats. The difference was night and day although I was still shocked that the "low-end" paint job still looked incredible. The Mexican revealed one of his secrets: for the "cheap" paint option, they will METICULOUSLY sand and polish each coat one square inch at a time before the clearcoat is applied. The pictures spoke for themselves: saw two guys furiously "scrubbing" down the car an inch at a time with a shop towel dipped in polishing compound from a massive tube. Their boss doesn't buy the notion that an electric polisher is better because they can't control the amount of pressure over a square inch. The electric polisher is too large to get into small areas like air ducts and around mirror arms, etc. One final thing: the article said that the Ferrari with the $30k paint job was confiscated by the IRS! The owner was busted for money laundering and for stealing profits from his employees! The shop owner lamented "I guess I won't be doing touchup work on that car any time soon." LMFAO!
i mean its a 2k paint job they did a great job for how cheap it was you get what you pay for if you didnt want those imperfections you would have to spend double the money at another shop
I do a more careful job taping if I'm not removing items. But it's just me and I have to safeguard my own reputation. At 2000 I would have pulled the tail lights and the wheel well trim.
they have to do 10 15 a day and all the detrimming isnt on the work order it isn't coming off. they used to get 2 scuff pads and a sheet of sandpaper thats it for prep
I have a body shop, I would’ve taken off the tail lights and wheel opening chrome just because its easier, I would have had some mess ups if I painted it to, paint on tire etc
The basic paint job looks great; but the devil is in the details; and the masking they did is terrible; this is why i decided not to have them paint my classic car; better safe than sorry; and i would expect this kind of work and regret it !!! THANKS for this heads up video;
I'd call that a win. I have a White 2003 GMC Yukon Denali that the roof and hood is starting to peel off similar to your truck's before photo. Not to that extent but it's starting. I took it in to a local body shop and they quoted me $4,000 to do JUST the hood and another $5200 to do the roof. With the complaint that it's a lot of prep work sanding the hood and the roof down. And for an extra $1200 I could get the rear rocker panels replaced as they are starting to rust. And that's painting ONLY the hood and roof, total quote with rocker panels $10,400 before taxes. Yeah, I'm taking this thing to Maaco. All things considering for 2 grand they did a great job. Could they have did better prep sure but it's Maaco. For what it is that looks great and I'll be doing the same before long with this Yukon. 2 to 3 grand for a full body SUV paint job that would look about as good as your truck compared to 10 grand for just the hood and roof only. Yeah not bad at all
Looks alot better by the video. You have to remove trim yourself. Real paint jobs where I live start at 4k. and go up from there. But like you said beats truck payment
Prep work!!!!? Maaco doesn't prep nothing. You get what you pay for. That's why I have customers after customers. 2 grand, you got exactly what you paid for.
On just about every RU-vid video about people getting paint jobs from Maaco almost everyone if not every one of the people complaining about every little minor thing that they can find wrong with their paint jobs but they only paid maybe two thousand dollars for their paint jobs. So they want a $10,000 paint job for two thousand dollars if not less and they want it done to perfection.
I dont understand how they get away with this.....? I mean I understand the price and how people say you get what you pay for but that is bullshit.....
You saved about $3,000, my Ram is same year and same condition as yours was and May will be 24 years since I bought it so I obviously don't care about it's paint much and it's paid for😂
