Cheap but good repaint?

[xyeLz]

My car is getting herpes all over it and I'm not sure what to do about it anymore. I don't care about detailing it like I used to since there's no point as there are multiple disgusting brown rust spots in multiple areas. This includes both rear quarterpanels, the front of the hood, etc.

The only thing I can think of is to have the entire thing repainted. My car has 150k miles so I'm not even sure if it's worth it anymore but I still really do enjoy driving it. I would repaint it myself but I live in a condo and don't have the garage or the necessary skills to do this.

Any thoughts?

[Jfridge92]

While I've never personally done a repaint, my dad had a cheap repaint done on his old Neon at Maaco a few years back. When he got it back, there were so many runs and imperfections in the paint that he actually had them partially refund it and completely media blast the car for no cost, then he took it to a reputable body shop in our area and had it done right. I know each shop is different, but from what I've heard with paint, you get what you pay for. Might not be bad to pay the extra money to know it will be done right.

[nos4blood70]

You get what you pay for is exactly how it goes with paint and body work.

[xxdabroxx]

Don't go cheap on paint. I'd try plasti-dip or something like that before I would do a cheap paint job. Should make the outside look clean and uniform but it is definitely not permanent.

[ga93sle]

There is no such thing as a good, cheap repaint.

[mike2fix]

My daughter recently totaled her 2000 SSEi, I rebuilt it, mostly front end damage, replaced hood, fenders, etc. and had a quarter replaced. I was trying to keep it within the budget of what the insurance company gave her. The paint was the hardest part, shops wanted a fortune($3-4000.00) and to make matters worse, it's black. Given the budget and the fact that she is a regular crash participant, that didn't make sense. Did some research on Maaco and the quality of their work is very hit and miss depending on the shop. They are franchise shops, so it's up to the individual owner on how they run their shop. Online reviews, I looked at lots, nothing but complaints about the local shop but one a little further away in another town had almost nothing but rave reviews. I ended up going there and quite frankly they scared me with the price they quoted, $700.00 out the door which included some body work to repair where the quarter was replaced and some work on the doors, minor dents. Took them a week and I was shocked, the car turned out great and they fixed a few minor things at no charge. I'll see how it holds up but given what I paid, for what they did, no complaints what so ever. I have no connection or affiliation with Maaco and am quite familiar with their general reputation but they did a great job for me. I have owned a car with a high dollar black paint job, so I know what that looks like, this wasn't it but looks pretty darn good for a factory type black paint job.

[1oldman]

That's good to know. Let us know how the paint holds up. Thanks - BC

[rustyroger]

There are three kinds of job, Good, Cheap, and Quick.
You can combine any two of these, but you will never get a Quick Good job Cheap.

Well..... Mike2fix seems to have managed it, but He got lucky.

Roger.

[mike2fix]

I don't know that it was luck, I did a lot of research. I talked with the guy at Maaco about the general bad reputation that Maaco has and he was quite aware of it. He said the guy that owned the shop I went to, owned a few other Maaco shops in the Seattle metro area and that he was pretty anal about turning out quality work. Again, I'm not trying to say this job was/is a $3000.00 paint job, but given the price, they did a nice job. I can look close and see where they didn't get 100% of the sanding marks out but I have to look pretty close in obscure places. Nothing was painted that shouldn't have been, moldings, wheels, glass, that sort of thing. Back in the mid 80's, I had a 68 Roadrunner that was factory yellow and I decided it needed to be black. I paid a friend that owned a body shop, $2000.00 to paint it and that was with me doing most of the grunt work, I stripped ALL of the yellow paint, down to bare metal. My point is simply that I know what an expensive paint job looks like and the SSEi is not that. But I would bet most people that saw this car would not know it was not factory paint or that it was a total.