So here's my story, I had purchased my 99 max about a year ago and I noticed the previous owner TRIED to fix some paint blemishes himself. He had failed miserably and just made the matter worse. Now im thinking about getting the car painted when i thought to myself, if i could just get a buffer, put a sander attachment to it, and sand down the whole car, I could most probably get it painted at maaco or some reasonably priced place. Knowing maaco only would paint over the existing paint, leaving the chips still visible, I think this would be a good idea...any opinions?...any advice as to how I should go about this process if its feasable?...

 

If you were to do all the prep work, I would think you could get a decent maaco paint job. Some cars with Maaco paint jobs look amazing, others arent as great. Doing the prep work would ensure you that they arent just painting over your original paint.

 

Cheap places like Maatco do **** poor jobs at best. Save yourself time, money and grief! Step up and have a reputible place do the work. I guarantee you'll be happier and enjoy the Max much more. I have a gorgeous pearl white Max but the only thing I notice about it is the scratch and ding my wife put on the drivers door with her stupid Civic. Don't screw up your ride.

 

I have had a maxima painted at Maaco and it wasn't that bad. Just make sure you get the supreme or higher service.

The supreme is a high solid acrylic enamel. It's one step. The paint services higher than the supreme are urethane. These are usually base coat/clear coat.

I got black paint in the supreme service. It lasted 4 years. Then began to fade. I paid $250 for the paint job and like 70 bucks for some body work. I took all the lights, molding, and trim off my self. I took the rear spoiler and grille off and asked them to paint it separately. All in all they did a pretty good job. There was no major over spray.

All the shops including Maaco buy paint from local suppliers. They just buy different qualities and Maaco keeps prices low by being more efficient and not as detailed as body shops. For a 10 year old car (in my case) I couldnt care less.

 

ive done some work in a body shop and i think the cheapest way out for you is to do the work yourself execpt the paint. Sand the hell out of your car and use body filler on and deeps marks or small dings. if you use body fill then you have to sand the car down again to get the filler to even out with the car, so you done have any high spots and you wont be able to tell were you put the body filler, next you can do one of two things. buy a crap load of primer in cans and spray about 3 coats on the car sanding inbetween each coat, or go buy a cheap 40 dollar spray gun and borrows someones air comspressor and then spray the car about three times. The final time you sand the car for best results wet sand it until its soft as a babys butt. Take it up to macco and tell them to paint it but you need to pay for extra coats of clear. It good to get about 4 coats of clear and it even better if you ask them if you can bring them the clear you want them to use, im not sure what company they use, but you would be good with PPG, Keystone< or house of colors