Advice on painting car

[Johnboy]

I have an 89 mustang GT that I have been prepping for paint. I'm on the fence on whether to do it myself or bring it to maaco . I have all the equipment to do it myself and have done it before many years ago. My hesitation is trying to keep dust/dirt/runs out of the paint and the safety aspect of painting with two stage paint(lead and isocynates). It would be painted in my garage with filtered fans and a make shift spray booth. The car is a daily driver and I have no intentions of a show finish, in fact will most likely sell it come spring.

Thanx

 

[jetmech]

I was in the same boat as you when my cousin asked me to paint he 67 fastback mustang. I found this website(he's the trucks host now) paintucation.com . i bought the 2 tapes painting and buffing and did his mustang turn out beautiful. We sprayed it acapoco blue w/ 3 coats of clear. We had a couple bugs land in it but was able to get them out either before the next coat of clear or on the wet sanding process. We even had an aircompressor go bad and i had his cell phone number and called him on a sunday and he said dont worry you have 24 hours on the base coat so just go out and buy a new compressor. He has a message board just like this one. My cousin even recieved best paint at a small car show one time.

 

[PsYcHo GN]

You have to weigh the pros and cons. Would it be cheaper in supplies and labor for you to paint your own vehicle? Would you be able to do a better job than Maaco? You can use better materials, but it will cost you more. If it is just going to be a driver, then either route you choose would be good. Painting it yourself is much more labor intensive and so messy. I've painted a few cars at a vocational school when I was in high school and I've painted a few cars afterwards in my parents garage. Rather than dealing with all the labor that is involved to do it right, I just take my vehicles to reputable paint shops now.

 

[ChavoLC2]

Maaco

Friend of my wife's owns a Maaco here in town . If you do all the prep and bodywork to your standards. They usually can throw down a good flow of paint over your bodywork. Took our old GN and as a favor he gave us their Ambassador paint job for 1/2 off it came out nice. Just make sure you take off all window, windshield , trunk, fenderwell trim as well as headlights, license plate holder, tailights,if you have a spoiler take it off and have then shoot seperately that way the trunk lid gets good coverage, and if you decide not to take those parts off make sure you show them what to mask off or they will spray everything.

 

[georgewe4]

Memories......

I have painted one car in my own garage. It was a 1981 regal. Nice car. Stripped it down to metal..worked and worked and worked on that car to get the body perfect to paint. I painted it dark blue.....but for some reason that evening when I finished it looked purple..I thought it was because of the lighting in my garage. Next morining I got up, opened the garage door pushed the car out and boy was it purple. I still had to confirm, so I got my wife out of bed and when she looked at it...sure enough it was purple.
Paint store had no idea what went wrong with the mixing of the paint they sold me, so I got more paint at half price. I painted the car again and finally got my dark blue regal. Put all the chrome on and it looked really nice.
I can actually say I had a lot of blood (fingers bleeding from prep work and sanding) sweat and tears (purple!) in that car.
I told myself I would never paint another car again. That was 9 years ago. I am now rethinking that. I have bought two S-10 blazers. Repaired the body, took all trim, windows, lights, bumpers etc and Macco has painted them and done a great job. I can't say that the thought hasn't crossed my mind to do the same with my WE4. But....I will be SUPER picky about the paint job on that car. I don't know if I would personally trust Macco on my car. I could get a great, or good job. It would depend on the painter that got picked to do my car.
Since I have a problem with trust and I'm so anal..my car still sits. I know once I dig into it by removing body parts and fixing problem areas I am in it for the long haul and I will want to get it done.
I'm kinda in the same boat as you are. I have concerns about the quality that I can provide by doing it myself due to dirt dust etc. Macco? Ive been down both roads. I may check out the video tapes suggested by jetmech.
Good luck in whatever you do...I for one would be interested in knowing what you decide to do!
Also I didn't mean to ramble!
Again...Good Luck!

 

[Johnboy]

Well I decided to go with Maaco. It came out decent overall, there are a few flaws, but they really are do to my prep work. The Maaco I went to has been owned by the same guy for over twenty years. Overall I'm happy about it, my intention was never to have a prestine job done on it as it'll be a driver and most likely sold within the next year.:smile:

 

[PsYcHo GN]

Looks good! :biggrin: