Paint Shops

[Schlanseay]

I need some painting done on my 1 mo old Wrx due to elderly drivers. Now looking for paint shops:

1. What to look for in good paint shops?
2. How are the dealers for body work repair?
3. Any other tips?

[Mikie13]

Usually dealers are best for matching paint and just fine for body work...but don't be afraid to just google local places. Read reviews from other people. That's all I can really say about it...

[rexxx0486]

1.Best way is to pop by unannounced and check out some cars they just finished
2. Most dealers sub out body work to a local shop and mark up the job a bit, but some do in house body work, the quality will vary, so again check out some work of theirs.
3. Whatever you do, dont go to maaco, you get what you pay for with body work.

[Schlanseay]

Usually dealers are best for matching paint and just fine for body work...but don't be afraid to just google local places. Read reviews from other people. That's all I can really say about it...

Good idea, I'm going to do that, unfortunately I live in a small city so not a lot to choose from. I just called the dealer though and they do all of their painting in house.

[Mikie13]

1.Best way is to pop by unannounced and check out some cars they just finished
2. Most dealers sub out body work to a local shop and mark up the job a bit, but some do in house body work, the quality will vary, so again check out some work of theirs.
3. Whatever you do, dont go to maaco, you get what you pay for with body work.

ugh so much truf. Please heed this warning!

[SUBhuman]

If you get a Maaco paintjob, every time you stop at a red light, babies will cry and grown men will hide their daughters from view and give you the filthiest of dirty looks. Also DSM and ratty 240SX kids will try to goad you into drag races. Cops will probably be present.

Fair warning.

[wrxtreme06]

If you do ALL the prep work, maaco paint jobs aren't too awful


I'd never let them touch my car though :P

[Schlanseay]

If you get a Maaco paintjob, every time you stop at a red light, babies will cry and grown men will hide their daughters from view and give you the filthiest of dirty looks. Also DSM and ratty 240SX kids will try to goad you into drag races. Cops will probably be present.

Fair warning.

hahaha NO MAACO, been there done that before!

Thank you all for the advice. I'm going to go and pop into some shops and see what current work looks like. This would be a great time to get those my headlights painted black inside along with some red paint on the tail lights! Maybe even black mirrors? Any other suggestions? I have been also contemplating a front lip.



Came out this afternoon from the post office to see this lady have her license plate up against my bumper (13 WRX with 2000k miles on it) and while we were talking and exchanging info another guy comes barreling along and pulls into the spot in front of me and swipes my front bumper. What that crap?

[SUBhuman]

Maybe you should just have them Line-X your bumpers haha. And I thought people were terrible drivers here...

[11blackSTi]

Wow, you are having some bad luck! Put steal bumpers on that beast

[rexxx0486]

If you do ALL the prep work, maaco paint jobs aren't too awful


I'd never let them touch my car though :P

Eh, Back in college I had a EG with a built b18 that I built and used to race with a little bit. I didn't want to pay for an expensive paint job for such a cheap car, so I figured if I did all the prep work Macao would be fine. I even paid extra for a better job than they normally do supposedly. Although the paint did stick to the car at least, the job had lots of runs, drips, overspray, orange peel etc. they also cracked my windshield and said it was due to the paint curing process so they wouldn't pay for it. I felt like a sucker for doing such a meticulous job on the prep work only to get the car back looking like a 4th grader painted it. I think the best way to get a good paint job for a cheap price is to find a body shop guy who will do side jobs for cash.