Maaco is a franchise and they don't have their own brand of paint. They use whatever paint system that the owner chooses. My local Maaco, whom I have used uses Sherwin Williams paint. The next closest one uses Dupont. Both are usually the budget line.

The difference between the $299 deal and the $999 deal is that the $299 deal is an enamel paint job and the $999 deal is a base coat clear coat system.

The biggest concern with Maaco is prep. They usually don't spend more then 3 hours on prep unless you pay them to. Three hours is just about enough time to scuff the car all over and shoot it. If you have dings or want bumpers and lights removed, you need to either do it yourself or pay them.

Prep is going to decide if the paint holds up or starts peeling. In order to keep it shiny, wax it as it ads a protective UV layer, but wait at least 2 months for the paint to cure before applying any wax or pressure washing it.

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With best regards

Al

Since I really don't know how much time they spent on the Prep can someone tell me what is involved in a good prep job. BTW: Before I took the car to Maaco I washed the car with Comet to get all of the wax and grit off.

You need to be able to scratch the paint enough to be able to have a tooth for the new paint to adhere to. The general rule is that if there is any shine on the old paint, then the new paint wont stick in that area.

Maaco will usually hit it with a scotch brite pad as you can sand a car pretty quickly this way. Other shops will use a DA. I've painted a couple of cars and I have no idea how they prep a car in 3 hours. It usually takes me days to sand a car.

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With best regards

Al

I think its a year, so for me, i have peeling issues past the warranty date

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About 12 years ago I owned an 83 300SD

Paid less than $4k for the car, so I wasn't interested in any paint job that cost $1000 or more.

Ended up with a great Maaco paint job for $9xx.00. Original quote was $750 but they found a bunch of previous Bondo repairs on a few panels and asked me to come look at it. I decided to spend the extra $$ to fix it properly before painting the car. So the price ended up just over 900.

That includes taxes and everything. Out the door price.

Car was burgundy and they did a complete colour change. All of the door jambs and door edges were painted. Underside of the trunklid was already grey. The ONLY burgundy you saw after the car was painted was on the front shock towers under the hood (only visible with hood open)

Here's what I did:
-Loosened 2 taillights and 2 headlights. Removed them when I got to the shop and stuck them in the back seat.
-Removed all 4 door panels. Not hard to do
-Debadged the trunk lid
-Removed all of the lower body cladding (easy to do)
-Unbolted the grille (all one piece)
-Removed the chrome window trim (base of side windows, around back window, around windshield, etc.)

So basically I drove it to the shop, removed the 2 headlights + 2 taillights and put them in the back seat, and handed them the keys.

Car had no door panels (so they could paint the door edges and jambs without getting paint on the panels). No trim to mask around, nothing "extra" that would get painted.

They just had to mask 2 bumpers, glass, and four tires/rims. No chance for screwups on their part.

I'd say this took me 4-5 hours total. Putting it back together was even easier later, because I knew how it all came apart.

I painted the plastic cladding dark grey while the car was in the bodyshop, and painted the bumpers with rattle cans when I got it back. It looked AWESOME!

Yes, it probably didn't look perfect but you had to be 5-7ft away to notice. And most people didn't notice a thing.. only someone who was either a mechanic or body repair person who saw lots and lots of cars every day.

Still looked absolutely perfect 3 years later when I sold it. All I did was apply a few coats of Liquid Glass polish/protectant about 3 times a year. I believe the LG kept the paint protected from sun/fading/chipping and protected the cheap paint.

Oh, I also left a case of beer in the trunk and when I dropped off the car I said "There's a small gift in the trunk for the guy who sprays the car".

I believe fully that the case of beer might have helped. I know they mumbled something about 'we threw a few extra coats of paint on while were were at it' so I know they did a slightly 'better' job. Probably helps that I made their life easy by dropping off a car that was so easy to paint.

Totally worth the 5hrs to strip + 2-3 hrs to reinstall... the car looked brand new from 10ft away.

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'83 300SD 335,000km (207k) mi SOLD
'87 560SL 163,000km (101k mi) SOLD
'86 300SDL 356,000km (220k mi) SOLD
'92 500SEL 250,000km (155k mi) SOLD
'90 300SL 140,000km (87k mi) SOLD
'01 S430 260,000km (161k mi) SOLD
'03 SL500 167,000km (104k mi) SOLD
'07 S550 4MATIC 235,000km (146k mi) SOLD
'07 GL320 CDI 4MATIC 348,000km (215k mi)
'13 GL350 BlueTec 4MATIC 170,000km (105k mi)
'14 SL550 72,000km (43k mi)