I had my 79 c20 pickup painted my maaco in San Bernardino, CA. I stripped everything I could from the truck:mirrors, lights, bumpers, trim, interior guages, weatherstripping, etc. I wanted base/clear but they said they would only do single stage on older vehicles. It would have been $3k + for single stage. I settled on single stage urethane two tone for around $1000. It had a lot of surface rust, but the body was pretty good. I did the welding repairs (just small stuff) and some of the bigger dents with bondo. They skimmed a number of small dents. The hood was a new steel cowl-induction style. I asked them to carefully mask the fender emblems and to not got paint on the new engine or tires/wheel. I wanted the newer bright white GM paint. Mine was originally frost white (not quite bright white) and medium to dark blue stripe. I thought about metallic blue for the stripe this time. They said they would shoot the white and I could get back to them about which blue to use. The ended up shooting the original blue, but then put a yellowish off white on the rest of the truck.
When I went to pick it up, the tweeters for my stereo were missing. The wires were cut. I had put the tweeters in plastic bags and stuffed them in the rear corners of the cab. Everything else was stripped from the truck by me (other than the seat). They claimed they got broken into and parts were stolen. BS. My truck looked like a POS compared to the other cars there. Why would they even bother with mine when it looked stripped. I'm sure it was the wetbacks doing the prep work.
I looked over the truck and found probably 60+ flaws in the paint. From runs, to bad prep, to overspray on the engine, tires, and the emblems. I told them I could have masked the emblems if necessary. I am a professional building painter. The guy that ran the shop wanted me to leave. I was yelling at him and he was probably worried that I would kick his ass for the crap work.
They paid for a new set of speakers and I made them repaint the whole truck. They also had issues with buffing through the paint and also loosing their spray guy. They shot factory colors the second time. It looked much better, but was still a maaco paint job. They gave me a quart or so of the white paint so I could shoot the interior myself. I had them do the jambs, but didn't trust them to do the inside, even before I saw their work.
I sprayed the interior on 4th of july weekend. The temp got up to over 100 degrees that day. The paint went on nice, but an hour or two later it started to run down the bottom of the dash. I mixed the paint as they said with the chemicals they supplied me. Their formula or paint was bad. It should have never taken that long to tack up. The interior paint still looks great.
That all took place in 2003. The paint is quite hard and brittle. When the truck has gotten hit with different things, it chips the paint and leaves a dent. The paint should bend with the metal. I hate waxing vehicles, so it only got washed, never waxed. It has always been outside in the SoCal weather. It has some tiny spots of possible rust forming on the paint. Clay bar might clean it up. It has held up pretty well for such a crap job, but I also baby my paint.
My k5 was painted by the PO's friend. It is base/clear. The base is red with white over it. It looks white until the sun hits it, then you can see the red glow through. It is probably 7+ years old. It wasn't done by maaco, but it is also brittle. Now it is starting to separate from the sealer coat. I wish I knew why auto paint ends up brittle and without adhesion.
It all depends on who does the work.
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