Thank you. Yes, whole car was dealer painted in 1983 so the lacquer was started to show its age - mostly cracking, but some flaking off. I'm hoping most of the paint comes off when I rip off the wrap in a few years.Originally Posted by Helirich
Location: Champaign, IL
Posts: 142
My VIN: 10722
Thank you. Yes, whole car was dealer painted in 1983 so the lacquer was started to show its age - mostly cracking, but some flaking off. I'm hoping most of the paint comes off when I rip off the wrap in a few years.
Location: lincoln ca
Posts: 218
My VIN: nov 81
reviving this thread.
I have cracking and peeling in corner of facia around headlight. mine has the typical warping along the top. I made the spider cracking worse trying to align the lights when i got the car. since the screws are near impossible to get to without a bit of flexing. Ive called 3 of the more trusted body shops in area and nobody wants to touch it. two of them tried to send me to maaco. I want to do the light conversion that timeless has/ get everything aligned and then have repainted without being removed from car. Anyone used maaco? anyone near sacramento area that knows a decent paint shop that will even look at it without charging me a fortune?
Thanks in advance.
Dave
Location: Northern NJ
Posts: 8,581
My VIN: 10757 1st place Concourse 1998
If you go to a chain shop like MAACO do not expect a high quality job. They do volume OK work on daily drivers and their focus is to get as many cars done as quickly as possible. You want a shop that does high end cars and/or restoration work but expect it to be expensive. One way to get a referral is to go to a high end dealer like BMW or Mercedes, or Cadillac and ask the service manager where they send their cars. As for getting turned away for 3 shops, better they turn you away then to do a cr-ppy job, at least they are being honest and telling you they aren't qualified to to do it! Make sure the shop you find understands that they must use a flexible additive in the paint. That may be the hardest thing, finding a shop that can use the right type of painting system. Most shops can only do clearcoat/basecoat water based type paints now.
David Teitelbaum
Location: SW FL
Posts: 744
Club(s): (DCF) (DCO) (DCUK)
When I repaired my eyebrows & replaced headlight buckets in February, I laid down blue painters tape to protect the original fascia paint. The paint peeled around the headlights when I removed the tape. I'm lucky to have a great body shop locally that specializes in classics and has worked my other classics.
My plan is to have them repaint both fasicas later this year.
~LXA~
Dunmurry | Stuttgart | Leipzig | Munich | Tochigi | Fremont | Bratislava | Sindelfingen | Kansas City | Oakville | Coventry
Posts: 1,250
I would not recommend Maaco. If you do use them, you need to sand the area they are painting. They are not completely inept when it comes to spraying and their equipment is good, but they dont do addiquite prep work. (Won?t last) You also might want to supply the paint.
Posts: 4,779
My VIN: Banged your VIN'S mom
Maaco will screw it up. Period. They mostly use single stage and base/clear cost extra and it isn't applied with the most skilled techs to put it diplomatically. To be truthful, if someone knows what he is doing, he is not working at Maaco. There will be plenty of body shops that will do a fine job, but if they are like they are around here, you will need to book an appointment and expect a month or so, or more wait.
There is one truth in paint...you get what you pay for, sometimes. To be more precise, you MIGHT get a nice job for a big price, but you will NEVER get a good job for a cheap price...unless you find someone who is willing to do it in his spare time. Imagine a triangle, at each corner a word appears: CHEAP : QUICK : RIGHT You can have two, but not all three.
To disagree with David T, (and I do so quite often) there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with waterbased technology. Most all cutting edge bodyshops are now using it these days as well as most car manufacturers. There is nothing wrong with it. It is what broadband was to dial up.
Last edited by Michael; 03-14-2023 at 10:18 PM.
Location: lincoln ca
Posts: 218
My VIN: nov 81
I will keep searching around my area for a paint shop that will do it. Im not in that big of a hurry. two of the big name body shops i talked to are only writing tickets for collision repair. Apparently they are so busy that they are not doing just paint. the third shop i talked to told me the same thing and then another lady behind desk overheard and acted as if she was going to make an exception and squeeze me in for and estimate in 2 weeks. So they started taking my info and as soon as i said 1981 they stopped me and said they wont work on anything that old. LOL
Location: Stevens Point,WI
Posts: 2,470
My VIN: 6125
If you're looking for long lasting results paint is probably going to be the better choice over a wrap.
For what it's worth, I recently had a set of bumpers painted for my BMW wagon and got a handful of quotes from local body shops. No masking was required since they are all one color, and there was minimal prep required since they are new parts from the dealership already in primer.
Prices for getting the two bumpers painted started $850 at a smaller independent shop but they had a 3 month wait. The highest quote I got was $2,300 at a larger dealership that was also booked out a few months. The guy I dealt with seemed annoyed about trying to fit it into his already busy schedule of larger collision repair jobs. So it was basically a F*** off quote.
The shop I went with was an independent body shop that mostly does collision repair, but also has a backlog of classic restoration projects. They had a few cool old cars in process in the shop when I stopped by for a quote. They were able to squeeze me in about a week later, and did a great job for 1k.
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