Date:         Thu, 6 Mar 2003 08:23:13 -0800
Reply-To:     Tracy Bonin <icculus22420@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tracy Bonin <icculus22420@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Painting Carat: Maaco OK??
In-Reply-To:  <JBEHILDOENOMAEMBAHMGMENLDGAA.kenwilfy@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi, I had the local Maaco (closest to Bristol was the New Britain one) do my bus last summer (cosmic green metallic), needed some body work done too. The body work came out awsome, and the paint job came out really good too. The only thing is that they didn't really pay attention around the door handles and stuff like that, and the paint is on them too. But all in all it came out good. Nice gloss. Charged me like $500 for the paintjob (going from silver to green) and I got their best package too! Charged me another $700 for all the bodywork ( I had a pretty big dent in the sliding door and rear fender)
have fun,
Tracy
85' GL "Ripple"
 Kenneth Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET> wrote:Maaco is a chain. And as such you will run across links that are better or
worse. I would insist on seeing some of the cars they have recently done
(usually you can snoop around back where a bunch of freshly painted vehicles
still lurk). If the job looks good then go for it. If it has a lot of runs
or orange peel then go up to the shop manager and say, "You are the weakest
link, goodbye!" and try to find another one in your vicinity.

I have a '90 GL that was painted by one Maaco down in Pleasantville, NJ.
The paint job looks terrible. I think it must have looked better before
they painted it. Runs, orange peel, no prep work. There is another place
up in Turnersville. They did my parents '86 Dodge van (16 pass). We told
them not to fix the dents, etc. It looked great and they painted it for
around $1200.

Have fun!

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
http://www.vanagain.com
http://www.strictlyvwauctions.com
Phone: (856)-327-4936
Fax: (856)-327-2242
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of SD Kraning
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:22 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Painting Carat: Maaco OK??


Hi All -

I am nearing the point of repainting my 90 Carat. I want to do this right
and have it look very close to the original (Orly Blue and Graphite)
*however* I'm not planing to show it or anything, so it would be a waste
of $$ (IMHO) to spend $3K on the job. I know Maaco is not the best by any
means, but they will do a "premium" or two stage process for around
$900.00 - and that is actuall AFFORDABLE for me. Has anyone had any
experience with this?

The perfection is so often in the details here - that's why I would probably
do all the taping and prep (not sanding or body work) myself, just to make
sure it was done right. I mean...they're spraying on color then
clearcoat...how much better can it look for an extra $2K? If it really would
look that much better, I would just wait and save up, but just don't know
what to do!


thanks,

Scott

PS: my Westy is for sale - please check out www.optikascenic.com/bus