Tommycourt

Prepping yourself can take a lot of time and devotion however 90% of a paint job is how well you prep it. It means sanding down the whole car and removing any chrome or other things you don't want painted. It's the sanding and using the proper grit that makes a difference. You will use probably 2-3 different grits, starting from a rough grit to a fine one in the end. Have someone who has done some paint work show you HOW to sand because you don't sand in just one direction. You do it in an X pattern with all the different grits. Take your time, don't hurry because what you may think is a small blemish in sanding will turn out 10x more noticeable when you are done with the paint. Good luck!
Tommy

SnAkeDr

So should I install the new interior first before having the car sprayed? A friend of mine, who does body work for a living, suggested I should. Stated I could scratch the paint installing the new carpet.

zr1fred

Six of one, half a dozen the other. As far as prepping, use 400-600 grit and wet sand, but make it clear to MAACO (or whomever you use) that they need to be responsible for the prep. That way they can't blame your prep if problems arise.

fredd1

[QUOTE=SnAkeDr;1587414225]I got a question for you guys. Should I put in my new interior first or get it painted with it out of the car? I'm going to have it painted the exact OEM color on a Admiiral Blue 1994 LT1

I'd wait on the interior resto. Even if they do a good job masking and sealing the fine dust will find a way in. BTW, since I see you're in the area, I had my '84 done at Coleman Buick/Cadilac body shop down at Quakerbridge and they did a pretty decent job for ~5.3k$. Doors, Hood, front & rear bumpers, door panels, and mirrors came off. I supplied new weather stripping, mirrors, door handles, a new hood, new power antenna, and replacement tail light bulbs all of which they installed. The original paint was in terrible shape with clear coat peeling and oxidation and the original hood had some significant damage. They had to remove all of it including paint down to the jell coat, re-prime, sand, wet sand, etc. It took them several months (they get in a lot of insurance work) but it came out looking pretty good and they give a full warrantee on the work they do. The estimate I got from Maaco down in Trenton was 5k$.

Whiteonrice

Stay with the original color so they don't have to paint the jambs etc. Do as much prep as you can and mask or remove as much as you can. The guys who spray do it all day and should be pretty good painters. With a little work it could turn out pretty good.

Rick

kanvasman

My Maaco paint on the Z was their SIGNATURE service ( can't remember what it was except there was clear coat put down on top of the color) and it ran, including their VALUE PREP $1,000. This was also a color change from white, but I didn't have them do the door jams etc. I pulled the lights off etc, and when I picked up the car, only found noe run, no big deal for what I paid, and I had to clean the black undercoating off the chrome exhaust tips. I was and am very saticfied. Good luck

C4orce2

I had them repaint my top half of the rear bumper almost a year ago. The clear coat had faded badly on top and looked bad at the car shows. All the "good" shops said they would have to repaint the entire car at a price of $9-12,000. I finally decided to try Maaco just to see how it would turn out. Total cost, $360 and the results were great. Here is a thread on ACE that has pics and some discussion:
http://www.arizonacorvetteenthusiast...rk-on-c4orce2/

N227GB

SATAs are great pieces of equipment. The RPS cups are a time saver, but I've found whatever time I've saved was spent on cleaning and lubing the gun at the end of the job. I spent the afternoon with the distributor in MN and that was one of the key things they nailed home - good maintenance is crucial.

Looks great! How has it been holding up?

C4orce2

It looks the same today as it did 11 months ago!

SnAkeDr

Did you do any of the preparation work yourself? Looks nice. I'm going to take a trip to my local Maaco. See what they say.

C4orce2

All I did was drive it to the shop. Not sure if all Maaco shops would have done this well, but this one did. Good luck!

Corvettewaldon

If you are going to go through the trouble to do all the prep, and buy the paint, you could prob have any local shop shoot it.
If you don't mind a wafer thin paint job with fish eyes, you will be fine, just don't even think about wet sanding and rubbing it out, you will burn right through the one coat they spray on. Good luck.

bar20

Is Earl Scheib still around or Miracle Auto Painting? They make Maaco look like Picasso.

Pres712

I got quotes all over the place from $6/k to $4/k. Didn't want to put that much into an "old" car. I've had my '86 since it was new but it was retired from the show circuit so opted to try Maaco. The manager was an old Vette nut and told me that he would oversee the job personally. When I picked it up on a Monday morning I couldn't believe my eyes. My old "yellow" looked brand new. They backed it out into the sun and I looked but couldn't find any flaws. After I got it home my wife said why don't you clean up the engine and lets take it to a local show on Saturday? Got second place!!! Did not do any prep only took off the emblems. Price $800!!! It's been 3 years and still looks good.

corvette Stu

Not all MACOO sux. The one in my area is owned by a guy who is a real car guy with some very nice cars and can give you a great job for a little more and he can spray with the best of them. You do only get what you pay for but to say that they "sux" that's not very

ch@0s

I'm going by my experience. I painted cars for a living and also worked at a used car dealer that sent A LOT of cars to get painted at MACOO. I'm glad you found one that does a good job.

SnAkeDr

Really don't have the time to prep the car myself. Don't mind spending the extra couple of bucks to get the results I want. I'm going to drive the car to work tomorrow and stop by at least one or two shops.

playsdixie

just got an estimate for my 85....only one little crack to repair, but the paint is "checkered"...still shiney, but you can see all the little lines...paint guy says lots of prep to give it a "show car" paint job....which I requested....he had quite a few snappy cars around he did, so I believe he will do a bang up jog...price...4300 bucks......had another estimate from an old guy who only paints corvettes for 3500...apparently knows what he's doing but he was living in the storage unit he was working out of...too much "good ol boy" environment for me....going with the higher bid.

C4orce2

That sounds about right. The Maaco shop that did the minor work I described above told me they would paint the whole car to the factory color and give it a good prep and paint job for $4500. That is $2000 higher than their normal "best" paint job, but they would do extra prep and do a show quality paint. I may do that in a couple of years. Good luck!

PcolaPaul

A cheap paint job can be made a really good paint job by wet sanding and buffing! Wet sand the car, 3M compound and a good buffer with a wool pad on it will bring it back slick as a baby's butt. Follow with a good quality wax. If the car is Black, you will play hell getting the swirl marks out, but there is stuff to use to do so. Go talk to a paint supply store and they will help you .