you can go with maaco but DO NOT expect the paint to last more than a month or 3 and then you have to pay double to a REAL body/paint shop to have them redo it trust me i do it all the time. write a quote they go to maaco and when they come back to have me fix it i go ahead and double the price. maaco is good for one thing and one thing only. paint to sell. if you are gonna keep it bite the bullet and get it done right.

Edit: i "redo" about 7 maaaco jobs a month nuff said

 

I'll 2nd everything negative already said. And if you are going to change the color, you must go to someone who will prep it right and paint it right. Maaco ain't going to paint the door jams, edges of the hood, and all the detail stuff. Plus, if you are changing color, if they don't mask it tight around all the trim, you will get edges of the undercolor showing through.

 

A good friend of mine has had 2 paint jobs from Maaco with good results. The first was a ranger, in black, with a pinstripe. The paint came out really nice, no overspray whatsoever. The paint was still very nice 2 years after when he sold the truck. He also just recently had a ram 1500 done which came out very nice as well. They did a pinstripe and it looks great. On the ranger there were a few dings to repair and they did a good job. The pinstripes on both of the trucks were straight as an arrow. These were also the premium packages that maaco had to offer.

I believe its more about finding the RIGHT maaco. The outcome is more dependant on the guys doing the work. I have seen crappy work also, so it'll probably be hit or miss.

 

Here is a man with some sense.

Maaco is the same as every other company, hit and miss. You can go to the Chevy dealership and have your truck painted for 1000 bucks and looks like crap and go the the one next door and have it painted for 850 and look awesome. Same tools, same certifications, different painters.

 

MAACO is good for squeezing a few $ out of your re-sale value. Beyond that it's not worth the risk-to-value for a cheap paint job.

That being said, the Ambassador Package, with the value prep can be had for 249 bones. Hell I doubt you could buy the sprayable material for that much these days... Prep + Masking + Primer + BC/CC = more than that before you even figure in your time and if you have a gun, a paint booth, etc.

Maaco to sell.

 

QFT. I had my 84 Sierra painted by the one around here in Spring of 06, 3+ years later it still looks great. Granted my sister's bf owns it now and I doubt he's washed it in the time he's owned it, but the paint job itself looks to be holding up.

The one around here actually does all of the body work for the Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Chevy, and GMC dealerships less than 2 miles away from it.

 

The most important part of a paint job is the prep work. Macco can do good work, but not for cheap. As said you get what you pay for. If you do all the prep your self and get them to spray it you might be fine, but I wouldnt recomend them.

 

I've finished getting the car painted. Here are some pictures of the paint, and the car (unfortunately, it was raining so the paint doesn't stand out as well as it does in the first 2 pictures (when its not so wet outside.)

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7318/blaze4.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/463/blaze3k.jpg
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5324/blaze1q.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7623/blaze2.jpg