MAACO Presidential Paint for $249...is it any good?
 

I don't know if this is the right section to post but would this paint job be any good on my 99 tl with 270,000 miles on it..?
Car still looks good except for the hood (rock chips), lower of front lip, and trunk fading...any thoughts?

Amazing. Almost 300,000 miles. (More than a quarter of a million miles)

Beast.

P.S - '99 FTW

Be careful with cheap paintjobs...
I did this to my 97 Accord and when it was all said and done I realized I wish I would have just kept the rock chips.
Is the oxidation something a good detailing might be able to fix?

I wouldn't do it. That is most likely a single stage paint job

I wouldnt either. Find a quality paint shop to do the work. It will cost a little more but be a lot better and last more than half a year

Its awful, I would rather have faded paint. It will be very obvious that is only costs 249.

My question to you is...are you going to keep your car...if so..maybe you should look into a better paint job, maybe little more money...but well worth it for you and your car in the long run

the least amount of money I've spent on a paint job was $800. Using PPG white base coat and clear two stage on a sport compact car. Don't go that cheap on a paint job.

what do u think?

Thanks for the input, the commercials have been all over tv so I was curious, but I guess I'll pass.

About keeping the car, I was thinking of selling it and getting a 2nd Gen Lexus GS with my tax refund but lately I am thinking about keeping it and just putting a fraction of my tax refund towards 'renewing' my car. That way I would still have cash at hand than just dumping it all on a new (used) car. Biggest pet peeve with the TL is just the wind noise, and sometimes road noise. Is there a way to 'insulate' more..? I am driving on Michelin MXV4 so I don't think it's tire related.

Also, I know I need to replace suspension components, I have owned the car for about 112,000 miles and I'm sure it's time. Most people seem to recommend the KYB GR2s so I have my eyes set on that. Do I need to replace the springs too..? I am just looking for a similar to stock ride. I will be replacing the upper control arms too, and the lower ball joints are already 'clunking' on potholes and bumps. What else should I keep in mind..? Belts were done in June, acura transmission 40k miles ago. Also, when do I need new motor mounts?

Maaco paint is shit! My brother's '90 SHO had a Maaco paint job done by the previous owner and now it is primer gray because all of the paint faded off.

Think of that paint job as a 2 dollar hooker, yeah its cheap and probably feels good at the time (mainly cause most teeth are missing and she can gum the shit out of it) but in the long run you end up with every STD known to mankind. Now, if you would have gotten that 200 dollar hooker, it would be more expensive but at least she's clean and in 10 years you'll know you did right.

i'd rather paint it myself like my hood


:tomato:

get some polishing compounds of different strengths to remove oxidation and scratches and swirls- wax on wax off, then a good carnuba/synthetic blend wax- buff well and it will come back pretty good on most TLs-
Certainly worth a try

Paint is 90 percent prep and the rest a good shooter and good booth
On the cheap franchised quickie paint places they pour an acid across the car and call it prepped!- no sanding or other surface cleanup
mask off the lights and everything fairly well but always miss edges and get overspray

You can DIY chips with bondo and presand the whole car - then its ok to do the quick prep and paint, as long as the painter is good
Do your own masking

Look for a small private shop that doesnt have quotas on upgrading body repairs and prep cost like the franchises have

At least the govt is forcing everyone to use a water based paint now- old stuff was oil based
Changes how its applied and worked with, opposite of the way everyone knew for decades so you have to see several examples of their work

I think the first suggestion 014tl made is the way...get a good detailing and see if you can get the lustre back. About wind noise...look into ordering some shin etsu grease from handaaccessories(dot)com to bring the seal back to your door seals. I found this helped a lot with killing the wind noise from highway driving. Also, you can take off your door panels and put on some 50 to 80 mil sound deadener (also will make the music sound better). That should help too.

Good luck!

lube all rubber seals with silicone spray on a rag, moonroof seals too
Clean and wax the painted metal sills where the doors rubber seal meets the cars frame/sill
Those two cut down a lot of noise and prevent freezing shut of the car~
dont forget the truck and hood seals! Clear the drain channels while you are at it
Winter is harsh on the car

actually ive seen maaco do decent jobs true it will fade fast but it comes with 1 yr warranty ? if i remember correctly from what i know is that if you mask the car your self so paint doesnt go any where that you woultnt want it to go every year you can just repaint the car over n over an over for 250 bucks lol a good detail at a detail shop is like 100-200 here so why clean what you can cover...
btw i dont really suggest it just giving differrent out looks

well the price will e a lot more....

$249 is only for the paint....

there is a $99 for the paint prep
and there is another $130 for the clear coat.....
and then additional (think it was $30) if you want the inside of the gas tank lid and other openings !!!

my friend got his accord done from silver to black (after an accident) and he ended up getting the cheapest one with no clear coat and his paint is still pretty good after 2 years....there are some chips in the paint on the hood....but not anywhere else....

old friend got his done there and it had rock chips pretty soon after.. plus it was just a single stage..

another friend of mine also went to them and paid a bit more.. he did all the sanding, body work and priming himself, then took the car to maaco and got their "better" multi stage paintjob.. the car turned out great and is still looking good after many years.. its all about the prep work and making sure its NOT a single stage paint job..

So wrong but yet so right, funny guy. Maaco is single stage, so you get clear/paint mixed together while they spray, so you can already assume it wont be as glossy as a good paint job. They dont do any prepping as well, so they will just spray it over the current setup. Thats why you see some people have a good turn out when they sand/primer the car themselves. I Maaco-ed a car before, I did all the prep work, even taped around the edges and it came out pretty nice. I sold the car a few weeks later so i'm not sure how it held out.

also if he is mainly just concerned with the rocks chip on the front end (and they are too bad to be detailed out), then why not just get the front end painted, not the whole car (and the rear just detailed)(and the paint be blended at the front edge/rear of the fender, so you can not tell it has even been painted)

I've had cars painted by Maaco and it came out OK.

How they do it for that price I don't know, since the materials for a good quality paint job
cost about $1K. I would think you would be better off to prepare the car for paint and have a shop shoot the paint for you.

Ok, guess I'll my .02 since I worked @ a local Maaco around here.. but was layed off (..which is another story for another time). Anyways, each Maaco is individually owned, so whoever the owner is.. it depends on him/her on what materials they use. Most Maacos, if not all use Sherman Williams paint line, which isn't bad.. but isn't all that good either. It doesn't offer a lot of toners to color-match.. and the paint material in general isn't all that up-to-par, to lets say.. some of the more expensive and reliable paint like PPG or DuPont. It says on their sight that they use all three.. but again, like any business minded person.. they try to get the best bang for the buck.. so thats why they chose the lower Sherman Williams paint line.

In all honesty, if you take pride and joy in your TL... stay away from Maaco. If your TL is your daily beater, then by all means.. you can't beat the prices Maaco offers compared to other bodyshops. But then again.. you pay for what you get. ;)

where else does that not apply :rolleyes: (like pretty much every where, there are exceptions though)

:careface: :rolleyes:

That's interesting inside information. Thank you for that. In the past I've opted for cheap workarounds for paint on my older cars...they served the purpose but after numerous sleepless nights and hours and hours trying every type of wax to bring some sort of shine back...I just can't condone cheap paint either. Leave it factory paint, and have the area sprayed by a good place.

Dont Do MAACO They fuckin suck butt nuggets literally they charged me $2100 beans to repaint my 2000 TL White Diamond Pearl again so if they're charging you $250 gotta be a scam......gotta be a scam dont do it keep looking if your car is meant to be painted it will get painted

PS I didnt get it painted obviously

Material does not cost 1k.

Paint $150
Clearcoat $120
Primer $120

Tape/Cups/Film etc

The gun will cost a lot of money depending on which one you use, as well as compressor.

Personally I use the cheap $150 guns and just throw them away after a while.

spray pattern on the more expensive guns will give a better job in the end :2cents:, so you can do what you want

I have to agree, but my pockets arn't that deep.

toss away multiple guns, OR buy one good and keep it clean :shrug:


i go for the latter, with running paint thinner/solvent through it right after you are done painting, keeps it nice and clean internally, then outside a scrub brush with some more thinner/solvent will do the outside just fine (the gun should be anodized and not painted anyways)

also for the compressor, gotta buy the right filters, and dryers for it too, to keep moisture out of the compressed air, otherwise that moisture can go stiaght though the air line to the paint gun, which then mixes it with the paint, and you got moisture problems with paint itself, so a bad paint job then :2cents:

Don't forget a decent compressor with enough scfm to match the spray gun. I have a devilbiss flg-3, it's a decent gun for it's price... I either use 2 compressors attached to a tank or the 5hp compressor at the warehouse.

I just can't justify spending $400+ for a spraygun when the only car I paint is my own.

as said enough CFM is also mandatory, to be able to keep on spraying, and not waiting for the air pressure to rebuild, as the paint is drying in the gun itself



your car, your paintjob, your problem :2cents: (not trying to be an ass, but just saying)

^ beats going to maaco

can't deny that

So that's $390 so way more than what Maaco charges.

The only good quality paint job I ever had done was on a classic car I was restoring, and in that case the materials ran about $1K, but that was a show car quality paint job.

there are differences in the quality of the paint itself too, so prices on that can vary widely too


^^ and as said yours was more for a showcar then a DD, so reason for better paint and such (also depends on how many coats of paint they give the car also, for how much paint is actually used)

I gotta agree Maaco is not good but not bad either.

I go to them with cars I buy to sell, what I do is get the paint job called "commercial service" add a coat of primer and a extra coat of clear-coat, which ends up being about an extra $100-$150, and the total usually runs around $600, it turns out great, ive owned a car with that paint-job before for more then a year, and it still shined like the day i picked it up.

I was told they don't tell anyone about this paint service unless you ask, someone should try it and let me know if it worked out for you like it worked out for you.

i dont know if id feel too presidential driving around with a $249 paint job.