Hello fellow Britters,
In regards Wade's excellent do-it-yourself $400 paint article, I just wanted
to suggest a viable alternative to those who would lack the confidence of
spraying a paint gun himself. It is... Maaco! Yes, that's right, the
sometimes-maligned national franchise...
[Standard disclaimer: I am in no way associated to this franchise, and don't
even know what MAACO stands for :-). Just a pleased customer]
My experience with them was very positive, and two friends who have used
them
were happy too. In fact it was their newly Maaco-painted cars that made me
comfortable enough to try them. And even today, 2 years later, the paint is
still generating comments ranging from "beautiful paint job" to "that's the
nicest looking B I have seen in years..."
The paint job I paid for was one of Maaco's "higher-end" specials which
included surface prep, primer, a 2-year warrantee, and some sort of
sunscreen. However, as with any paint job, *preparation* is the key to good
results. Maaco's policy here is to merely mask off parts instead of
removing them. This might seem like a drawback, but this spares the
customer a lot of $$$, while allowing the faithful Brit car owner to get
involved in the process. You see, the Brit car owner simply strips off the
parts himself!
The procedure for me was as follows:
Sunday: Remove bumpers, luggage rack, chrome trim, reflectors, etc.
For me, this took ~4 hours.
Monday morning: Drove over to Maaco. Removed all lamps (~1 hour). Then I
left
Goldie (my B) in the parking lot to await her new paint job. A really
exhuberant
owner would have removed the windshield too.
Friday morning, 4 days later: She's done! I reinstall lamps (~1 hour) and
drive
her home. All the chrome trim, bumpers, etc. are reattached (~10
hours... I was
REALLY being careful, and this included having to tap a hole in the boot
because
I broke a bolt for the bootlid.)
Following weekend: I removed some overspray on the exhaust pipe, and use a
brush and a can of semi-flat black enamel to paint the inside of the
wheelwells.
This made such a difference. Time: ~2 hours.
Total cost: a little over $500, including spraying the entire inside of the
boot ($75) and some surface rust repair on the front right wing (~$100).
Pics of the results can be seen in the Picture Gallery of my web page
(www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1547). Take a look!
As a final note, I probably wouldn't recommend Maaco for repairing accident
damage if you don't like bondo (they'd use lots). Use Dent-Pro, etc. Maaco
also doesn't match paint and should only used to paint entire vehicles.
That said, I'd wholeheartedly recommend them!
__________________________________________________________________
__ Felix Wong Northern California, USA
|,\_O (650)528-9768 My web page is now at:
( )/ LL http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1547
( ) '69 B, '92 C'dale 3.0 R (stiff, light, and FAST)
Fw = mg "Safety fast!"
|