They are offering a special for their ambassador paint job, so that its like 200 excluding the prep-work. Right now Ive done all the prep-work to my 92DB1 and its currently in the primer stage. I was wondering if i took it to them and had them do a black paint-job it wouldn’t look like a 15 yr old did it.:squint:
Prep work is one of the most important keys to having a long lasting paintjob… that being said, so is being able to shoot paint well.
For the most part they do ok work… but their tape-lines suck. They’ll paint all over your door/window trim and stuff… but if you do ALL of the prep work, like you seem to have done, then you have more than a fighting chance.
The other issue with Macco and, well, any place that paints cars… Orangepeel. There aren’t many painters that can lay down the clear-coat smooth enough that it won’t have the orangepeel texture in it.
An expensive paintshop will sand and buff the final coat to ensure a flawless finish. For $200 they obviously aren’t going to go those extra lengths. So I near guarantee that there will be orangepeel. Which if you know how to sand and buff, you may not think its a huge problem… but another part of that $200-theory… they don’t put a whole bunch of color or clear, so you have very little working room to sand down the car.
I’ll post a picture from my car in a few, and it will show what theirs looked like compared to my sand and buff.
edit
Here’s the link to my thread… their orangepeel finish on the right, after a sand and buff on the left. But when sanding, I went through the paint and clear on two places on the fender. So, its best to leave the Macco finish as-is, or risk needing a re-spray.
http://forums.g2ic.com/showthread.php?203377-Long-build-in-process.&p=2149426&viewfull=1#post2149426
thanks for the input man! I read up on your build, and i have to say very nice work.:drool: I’ve painted the trim on my car flat black to match oem and it looks real good. Ive taped off all the trim and have removed the tails, headlight assembly, and bumper lights. I have all my window glass covered with plastic, and taped off to assure no over-spray. My windshield is cracked and is getting replaced after I get this painted so no extreme worry’s about that one. Can i get specific and will they spray a base coat then follow with clear coat, because i heard they mix it all into one spray. Should I remove bumpers, fenders, and hood for them to paint separate or do they spray while your car is assembled in one. BTW I’ve already sprayed my trunk and door jams.
I’m not sure whether they spray Single Stage (one mix) or Basecoat-Clearcoat method on that sale, to be honest, but you could ask them. And they paint the whole car as one piece. With most colors you want to paint the whole car at once to assure it matches well. Different air temps and paint-gun psi, paint/reducer ratios etc etc can all change how a color looks… spraying it all at ones is a sure way that it will all match.
alright man thanks I’ll be taking it in to get painted black, so let’s hope for the best. I’ll post before and after pics definitely, hopefully they do a good job so i can recommend them!
Sounds like a plan… Black DAs are very sleek lookin.
black DB1’s are even better! hah :dance:
D’oh, didn’t even notice your ride was a DB1 lol.
But true that… there’s a DB here locally that’s black, JDM 1-Pieces, Window Visors and sitting on some gold Gram Lights… yeah, its sex on wheels.
if this helps at all
http://forums.g2ic.com/showthread.php?203856-maaco-body-work-lt-lots-of-pics-gt
thanks! great reading…I’ve been taking time lately to paint my moldings satin black and do a bit more body work. Then I’ll be taking the DB1 in to get painted Black 
should i leave my car in the primer stage? I used rust-oleum primer gray and re did the whole car. I sanded until the whole car was level and smooth. NO RUST:) Should i strip the primer before i take it into macco or leave it as is in the primer stage.
I recommend u don’t go.
Rustoleum primer will wipe right off when they use the wax and grease remover. It did for me at least, which means all your hard work is for nothing. What are u sanding the car with? Black is very unforgiving when it comes to your body work so be very carful on how u sand (320+) grit.
I would only recommend taking it to maaco if u detrim everything and have it prepped and taped. They sometimes just do a very light mist coat which orange peals like hell and will not sand out. Get your own paint and have them paint it for 200.
I’ve seen not so bad maaco jobs and I’ve seen jacked up maaco jobs. I recommend talking to your painter and seeing his work first.
thanks for the input man :pupeyes: looks like I’ll powerwash her and fine sand to get some paint off. Then prollyy go to pep boys and get that paint removal stufff. I have no idea about paint so if someone knows of a brand better than what Macco uses. LMK in the meantime I’ll research 
ppg or matrix systems are the good stuff. maaco…ah…yea. real paint and body work is done with sand paper and hands, maaco is ajax and scotch brite or a DA. it is much better to do the body work yourself, if you are good enough, and have your local mom and pop shop spray it. $300, you supply paint and materials…way way better off. half the sanding and buffing…if any is needed. find a body shop with a spray booth if you can. also, orielly has some decent nason shit (just use single stage) and it is plenty good. your prob not going to build this car for a show?
If u do want to rattle can primer use SEM primer. Found at your local paint supply store. It will not just wipe off with wax/grease remover.
Just tape the car, fix dents, prime it in good coats, then wet sand with a sanding block and hand for the big curves with 320+ and u will be fine. Just make sure NOT to sand in one spot, just go with the body of the car. I usually sand at a angle like ( \ ) and move up and down the car. I recommend u look at a how to body work article just to give u a good idea.
to be honest i’ve never seen a good macco job, i knew a kid that worked at macco that was an amazing painter on his own time, and even his paint jobs sucked when he did them at work cause the materials are junk.
not to get too far off subject theres a few things i disagree with on this thread, sanding and buffing are ALWAYS required if you want it to look good, especially with black, any sanding lines will show through if you don’t lay a good coat of primer with some form of high build primer to fill in the majority of the fine scratches you didn’t get out.
for sanding even in primer stage start with 320 but move up to at least a 600, for wetsanding after paint most great painters will take the steps and go all the way to 1800-2000 if needed. this may be over kill for some but others would agree completely.
basically it comes down to preference, i’ve put a fair amount of money into bolt on parts for my car and don’t personally give a shit that its covered in rust in alot of places, its just temporary till i find a clean shell. where as my friend spent roughly 20 hours before paint prepping his s2000 (which was like 2 years old at the time and nearly perfect) and after 3 coats of paint and 7 coats of clear, he spent another 40-50 hours wetsanding it to the point where it was like glass, some would say 10 coats is too much but after that much sanding there was probably only about 6 left lol. all i can say is for just a one color paint job it was probably one of the cleanest paint jobs i’ve ever seen.
the choice is yours but i’d recommend buying quality materials and having someone with a spray booth and real knowledge paint it, and if your not confident to do the finishing work maybe pay them a bit extra to get the finishing touches done as well.
Yup… No matter how good a painter is, 90% of the time they cant get it laid down perfectly. A wet-sand and buff is the way to get it looking like a mirror. I was happy with the macco job that my car came with, save for two things. Their masking job sucked, had tape-lines on the moldings and mudflaps… And the finish of the paint was icky. Full of ‘orange peel’ meaning that the surface mimic’d the texture of an orange.
Here is their texture, compared to me sanding and buffing it:
And its not so much the products they use that makes them a bad place to go to… alot has to do with the amount they spray on there. They put JUST enough to cover the car in whatever color, and enough clear to seal the paint. Thats it. Not 10 coats of clear like your buddy did (Which is prettymuch what you should do so you can sand it and not go through, as you said).
Here is a shot of the S2000 that my brother just finished painting a month or so back… Color-sanded and buffed to perfection. Its ok, dont feel bad if you drool. 
Here’s where I stand on Maaco…
Who in their right mind is gonna take their G2 Integra to a bodyshop and pay thousands of dollars on a paint job when people on here don’t even want to pay retail price on parts?
Honestly, Maaco is THE place to go for everyone on here. So it’ll get scratched, big deal every friggin car that’s raced or daily driven gets scratched. Orange peel? Buff and wet sand it like you’re supposed to 4 weeks after the paint job.
Unless you have a $20k+ Teggy I wouldn’t take a car to a bodyshop for paint. And let’s face it, the majority of users on here, myself included, don’t have a $20k+ Teggy. Go with Maaco since the value of the car is not worth having it done at a bodyshop for $3-4K when the car would MAYBE be worth 5k?
Unless you know how to do body work and paint, or have a connection at a body shop, it’s not worth having a G2 Teggy painted at any body shop, unless you’re rolling in money and are just dying to spend it or like I said you have a connection or know how to do it yourself. Not everyone on this forum knows how to do it themselves, probably the majority don’t, so Maaco is the perfect place to go to get a new paint job on a 17+ yr old car.
I got my car done at Maaco, and it’s not perfect but it’s easily 10x better than what it looked like. I got the Supreme package and an extra coat of clear. Yes it has some orange peel on the lower part of some panels, but it’s shinny, looks new and isn’t fading or dull anymore.
Coz
Completely agree with you man. Nicely said:bowthank:
I to will be taking my car to Maaco as soon as i have the cash and would never spend 2k+ on a paint job that’s just going to end up getting fucked up again.
I’m glad I know how to paint and don’t have to rely on Maaco to spray mine.
Though as I said their work can be fine as long as you don’t get the cheapest $199 special they have going on that day. As with anything else, when it comes to a paintjob, you really get what you pay for. Feel like spending $200 for a paintjob? Well, go ahead… But you have no room to bitch and nit-pick problems when paying such a small amount.
Argueing that the car is only worth MAYBE 5k has nothing to do with it… what about that new motor setup you want? Or those new rims/tires? Things like that can very easily add up to as much, if not more than you paid for the car in the first place… that should not be the reason why you chose to get a cheap spray job.
I’ve done more than one $2,000 paintjob on various Hondas this past year… and I’ve done my share of cheap spot-repairs and pannel repairs, and I can say that the cars that had the best outcome and looked the best were the ones where the owners weren’t cheap and had the ability to shell out the money that it takes to have a quality paintjob.
As I said, Maaco can do decent jobs, as long as you either a) do the prep yourself, or b) pay a decent amount and don’t go to the cheapest service they have.
My 2 cents.