Hi! I'm plotting to repaint my 1990 colony park wagon come late December. I'll have the time to do the prep work, sorta/kinda have the money... mostly I just don't know when else in the year I'll have the time I've been told by too many people to even consider not considering it, that I must remove all the trim to get a good paint job if I'm going to cut costs by going with maaco. Makes sense to me-- no overspray, no concerns over a quick taping job, and, the paint will be overlapped by the trim so it should be less likely to peel. What's your advice on how to remove it without kinking it? What sensitive techniques and tools do you advise? I think almost all the trim is annodized aluminum, though it sure looks shiny as chrome on the outside.
I now cringe when I hear people say Maaco. If you are going to take all the time to remove the trim and prep it DO NOT waste your time and money taking it to Maaco as you will just be very unsatisfied when you will have to get it painted again in 3 years. They can spray pretty good leaving no orange peel, but that is the one and only good thing that I have to say about them. They are terrible at prep work, and will not even touch your car with sandpaper if you don't ask and pay them to. Heck if you give them an extra $50, they might even roll up your windows before they spray it. Uh oh, I got Maaco'ed. I had my wagon painted at Maaco 4 years ago. I went through all the work to take the trim off, and fix the dents my self, and I had them spray it. I sanded down the whole car myself, but it appears that they did not even wipe the car down before spraying. Heck, they will just paint right over what ever was on it when you brought it in including dirt. It looked alright when I picked it up, but there were imperfections in it if you were looking for them. Then came the fading big time. The shine lasted maybe 2 years and then started to go quick even with regular waxing. 4 years later from the day they painted it and the paint had no shine left on it at all. The color was still ok, so I sprayed it with a clearcoat this august myself, and it looks nice and shiny again. Overall it was a temporary paint job, and by me spraying it with clear it will limp it along a little longer until I get some permanent garage space to park it and then I will get a base/clear sprayed on it by a professional painter.
I agree, Maaco is for used car dealers who want to flip old inventory. It's not a decent, 'make-me-proud' finish. I and a few others here have Roller Painted our wagons, with rustpaint. If you have a paint budget under $5,000, then you'll love spending less than $300. Here's the trim tool I used: http://www.steckmfg.com/21510_10-in-One_Tool.html Here's their list of other trim tools. The tool I used handled all of Ford's trim fasteners, except the ones that are held with fasteners at the corner and door edge moldings. They usually have acorn hex nuts, to give you a chance to raise up the trim and get the tool behind for the next one, and so on. http://www.steckmfg.com/Specialtytools.htm Maaco won't take your roofrack off either, so you'd have to do that too, or live with the results. Tbird did his Ranger, and I think he's going to do his 1992 Tbird Super Coupe too. I went extreme, and did 8 coats, but most guys are thrilled at 6 coats. After the prep work, figure on about 1 day per coat, apply, dry, wetsand and apply, dry, wetsand. Final sanding might be one whole day, starting from 600 grit to 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit wetsand. Leave it for a week and then use buffing compound, then wax. This is my roller-painting thread. http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711 The original thread comes from the Moparts.org forum, and I made word documents of the full 55 pages of intructions, pictures, mixing, sanding and buffing, from the 15,000 posts in that thread. My Page 5 has the documents: http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711&page=5 Some pics putting trim back on in November 2007 It was 20F degrees that day. http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711&page=20 Here's my actual cost of materials: http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711&page=18 Here's everything you need to know about basic bodywork, from HotRod Magazine: http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4763&postcount=227 And their own Roller Painting job (not well done, either) http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/body/hrdp_0707_1962_ford_falcon_budget_paint_job/index.html Very good Autobody instructions here: http://www.autobody101.com/content/autobody-articles/ Good article on aligning the doors and fenders, if you took them off to paint. Its part 5 of that first series from HotRod mag. http://www.hotrod.com/howto/hdrp_0609_panel_alignment/index.html Now if that doesn't nail it for you, maybe this will: http://rolledon.forummotion.com/index.htm Maaco is a cheap job. Roller Painting is a Frugal job.
I was confoosed. This one is gone! The Domain name is up for sale. http://rollyourcar.com/default.aspx
Anybody remember from years ago, Earl Sheib? It was a car painting franchise, at least here in the northeast. I remember my Dad's friend got his 54 Buick painted there and not only did they not tape the bumpers, they painted them the same color as the car. Even as a kid, I could see it was about the crappiest paint job I had ever seen!
"I'm Earl Scheib, I'll paint any car for $99.95. Haha, Earl Scheib! They are still synonymous with shoddy work around here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjdHaMeiiQ&feature=related
