Cost to paint??? MAACO?

[elks]

So I am looking to repaint my blazer. No real rust anywhere and will not need to worry about the interior or engine bay, etc. My paint is all chipped and cracked and need to be taken off and repainted.

It is a 72 blazer and is a darker metallic green.

I use the blazer for wheeling and hunting. It spends a good amount of time in the brush so I am not looking for show quality, just a fresh look that wont get all chipped out. Who has experience with MAACO. Everyone I have talked too liked the job for the price. Off course they were all getting hunting vehicle painted or little cars etc. and not real picky.

 

[chulisohombre]

I Spray painted mine and it looks decent. If it Gets scratched I just sand the scratch a lil bit and re spray over it. Macco is cheap enough and should last a few years. Not sure on quality but I had a car that the owner said was a macco job and it wasn't bad and had been a couple Years since done and Was still shiny. For under five hundred for it you really can't go Wrong I'd say. At least they will tape it and hopefully get decent coverage on it to look good for
Awhile.

 

[TerryD]

They do very little to any prep work. Mainly they just sand it and paint. If you want a quality job, you have to pay for it. I've seen those "spray and pray" place jobs flake off where there was still wax/buildup on the original paint. They don't do door jambs or under hood so if the color is a little different, you will tell when you open the door/hood.

If I was going to do it, I would remove all the trim, badges, lights, handles, lenses, and anything else I didn't want painted or want painted around good and then haul it there. You might even want to hit it with a cup wheel on a grinder and some solvent to get any wax or other contaminants off before they get it, just to make it stick a little better. This way you don't have over spray on any badges or the paint behind things are not where you can get infiltration behind the new paint because of a bad tape line. This way they don't have to spend as much time taping and you might even save a little money as they have less work to do to actually start spraying.

After I got it back, I would personally go into the wheel wells and under the body with semi-gloss black rustoleum to get rid of all the over spray where it wasn't taped off as well. Just makes it look a little better. The devil is in the details after all.

 

[paratrooper307]

You can definitely help ensure a better job by doing a lot of the prep work yourself. I talked to them about mine, and while they recommended sanding down to the metal (surface rust, chipping paint and heavy oxidation) it does cost extra for that. With any paint job, prep is the most labor-intensive and time-consuming part, hence the reason they do minimal prep to keep their prices low. I think their techs are only allowed an hour to tape/mask the vehicle. I'm considering doing as much prep work as I can before taking it over there. When you start looking at the equipment/supplies you have to buy or rent to do a decent paint job yourself, their economics of scale advantage becomes appealing.

Many people do the Rust-Oleum thing, which is cheap and works well, but it won't hold up. Depends on how you use your truck and what you want to spend.

 

[Gunnar1971]

They do very little to any prep work. Mainly they just sand it and paint. If you want a quality job, you have to pay for it. I've seen those "spray and pray" place jobs flake off where there was still wax/buildup on the original paint. They don't do door jambs or under hood so if the color is a little different, you will tell when you open the door/hood.

If I was going to do it, I would remove all the trim, badges, lights, handles, lenses, and anything else I didn't want painted or want painted around good and then haul it there. You might even want to hit it with a cup wheel on a grinder and some solvent to get any wax or other contaminants off before they get it, just to make it stick a little better. This way you don't have over spray on any badges or the paint behind things are not where you can get infiltration behind the new paint because of a bad tape line. This way they don't have to spend as much time taping and you might even save a little money as they have less work to do to actually start spraying.

After I got it back, I would personally go into the wheel wells and under the body with semi-gloss black rustoleum to get rid of all the over spray where it wasn't taped off as well. Just makes it look a little better. The devil is in the details after all.

Ditto.

The prep is where you want to focus. Not saying any monkey can shoot, but if the prep work is top notch, it will make even the most basic paint job look that much better.

 

[Jpb707]

Depends on how much you want to spend I've seen 300$ work with the emblems an handles everything painted over an I've seen a 900$ job an it looks great

 

[TerryD]

Many people do the Rust-Oleum thing, which is cheap and works well, but it won't hold up. Depends on how you use your truck and what you want to spend.

I pressure wash under my vehicles randomly and repaint it so it works ok for me.

 

[454Sub]

Correctly done Rust-oleum will hold up just fine. Thats how I did mine, granted I did alot of prep work, and took my time with a paint gun, but its been nice and looks better than any Macco job around here. I did clear mine though with matte finish so it doesnt shop imperfections as bad.

Painting isnt the hard part if its basic non sparkly colors. Its the prep, any mistake in paintwork can simply be sanded down and resprayed. You can not sand down bondo after you have painted the whole truck.

 

[Chief Brody]

MAACO has a "Paint Menu"...

$300 - single stage standard
$600 - Single stage premium
$1300 - Base Coat Clear Coat Economy
$2500 - Base Coat Clear Coat Premium + cut and buff