So with the weather getting better, and my interior starting to look top notch, I am starting to get irritated by the ugliness of my Cutlass's exterior. Attached you will see the wonderful orange (now fading to a disgusting peach) spray bomb job that a previous owner subjected it to. They even painted right over some vinyl flames on the fenders and a large Grateful Dead sticker on the center of the deck lid. Its horrible. It needs a good deal of body work, which I am starting to correct to the best of my ability, but overall the body is going to be FAR from perfect. I do not have the time or money to get pro body work and a showroom quality paint job, I just want to fix whatever I can in my driveway and have someone paint it all one color....that's not burnt peach. Has anyone had experience with these cheapo places like Macco or Earl Scheib? I am partial to Earl Scheib due to the fact I am Eric Scheib, and get asked all the time if I am related (family discount??) which I am not as far as I know. Anyway I know you get what you pay for, and they will do a crappy job of masking trim/emblems, and probably get overspray all over it, but it will be a driver, so I don't expect perfection or want it, I just want a coat of paint that I do not have to worry about scratching or scuffing, because I love to do the Dukes of Hazard hood slide if I don't have time to walk around the car.

 

You can get an OK looking car if you strip all the trim and get the body straight before you drop it off. If you are not willing to do at least then don't waste you time doing anything because they will make it worse.

 

I remember well that Earl Scheib paint job.....let see if I remember correctly here.....if you left the windows down they did the interior for free, if you left your lil brother in there they would do him for free too. The most impressive thing I remember was the wheels. If you wanted the wheels painted the same color as the car you would be able to get the tires done in the same color, now that back in the 70's was what we called cutom paint work, why waste good masking tape on those silly lil tires they look just as good painted really.....wonder if they still charge $49.95...was a pretty good deal in those days, if ya really had a hankering for some really nice oranges. That peel could be seen from a 100 feet away for sure. ahhhhh....enamel.....woderful stuff back in the day. okay enough of the time machine. back to rea;ity. Oldsdroptop

 

Ha! Yeah I hear stories all the time from people who used to use Earl's back in the day. Their prices have gone up quite a bit since then.... I saw a commercial earlier this week for something like $499.99 for their primer/color coat/2 clear coats something like that. That's for their top of the line, you can still get a "close your eyes and spray" special for around $200.00. But I would do as much detailing and prep before I took it down there. Hell I would even start masking crap off if I could. But I would definetly assume that anything I don't want painted has to be masked or removed before I went. But hey for $200 bucks, I can't expect much more!

 

i had a friend that had his truck done by one of those places. he took off the trim and wet sanded it good and to tell you the truth the truck don't look bad at all. that was 3 or 4 years ago and still looks good for a driver. but you are right, you get what you pay for.

 

The 70 Cutlass S Holiday Coupe that I bought (signature pic) had a MAACO paint job done before I purchased it. I was actually pleasantly surprised how well they did. There are some imperfections, but I get compliments on the car all the time.
BTW, body work and rust spots were addressed before taking to MAACO. Trim pieces were removed, etc. There was no overspray and you would be hardpressed to find any shortcuts.

d1

 

I had a 68 Cutlass convertible painted by Earl Shieb back in 85. To make a long story short, The paint would fly right off at the car wash with the high pressure hose. It was a $99 joke. I suppose things are different at every shop. My Dads friend had his 64 Corvette painted at Maaco in the 80's and it looked pretty good. You can do some things to save money and have a better job. If it were me I would try to prep the car the best I could...oil and grease remover, sanding every little nook and cranny with some 400, Take off trim, tail lights, door handles, rubber fuzzy window trim, pull out grill, bumpers etc. I would pay extra to have the door dings removed.
Good luck

 

X2 on removing and masking all trim, fenderwells, wheels, etc. The trim and parts for these cars are hard to get, so it would be best for them not to touch them and damage them. You know paint will stick good on parts you do not want painted.Try to wash the car real good with a strong detergent also, cause they will paint right over dirt and bird crap. Any residual wax or oils will cause paint lift. Roll up the windows and remove the cranks. I have heard of a few cheap places painting cars with the windows open!

 

Definitely remove the trim and bumpers. Use a strong solution of Simple Green to wash the car to strip all of the old wax and oils off of the paint. I think you will be satisfied with the result if you take the time to prep the car before having it painted.

 

A cheap paint job or "cheap" in price paint job?
75 bucks and these really don't look bad , better than burnt peach.

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-...-paint-your-c/

Decent paint costs more than those cheap paint jobs.

 

Bluevista.....you are awesome! I have never heard of doing this but it seems right up my DYI alley! Like you said, much better than the burnt peach spray bomb job on there now. At least it would be all one color, fairly glossy, protect the body panels, and be very easy to either buff out or recoat all together. All for less than $75 bucks? Awesome! I am so excited about this. Seems like the perfect answer to getting a quick cheap paintjob without being a spaz about scratches and scuffs. Now just to pick a color...black, white, brown, black or white?? Hmmm....

 

You can also paint the car with a foam roller. I think this would give you a better result than a foam brush. It would be a bit more expensive though.

http://rollyourcar.com/default.aspx

 

You guys, crack me up! I spent 15 grand on body and paint work for my car and you think a Maaco or Earl Schieb paint job is going to be acceptable. My standards must be too high! LOL!

 

I hear you 442garage! Trust me, if I had $15 grand to spend on a black paintjob you could swim in, I would! But desperate times!! I got this car about 3 years ago, and have worked on it enough to get it into a decent daily driver, but that's all it is, and that's all I want at this point in time. Back in the end of November I finally got out of a 4 year lease on a Pontiac that I was paying almost $600 a month for, not including insurance! Stupidest mistake I ever made for sure. So it feels good, freeing, to be able to think" hey I am going to paint my car in my driveway with a roller and can of paint!" I don't drink, smoke, do drugs, skydive.... so this is my idea of livin' on the edge! I am such a rebel!!

 

I am sure you will be happy with whatever route you go Silverriff. Just make sure you take your time. Your time is free for your own project, so take as much time as you can prepping and doing the work. FWIW, I think any of the above methods will be acceptable. It would be better than the paint that is on there now.

 

Just spent about an hour reading all the Rustoleum paint job stuff. Interesting. I took my Cutlass to Maaco and they wanted just under 1k for a single stage paint. ( not including jambs, under hood and trunk) . The gal told me since I had done most of my own prep work that their regular guarantee would not apply. What could they do that I had not already done? ( sand car down, fix rust spots and dings, etc., etc.) Left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't know if that's Maaco's policy nationwide or what, since they are all franchised. I'll either wait for a place to become available for my painter friend to shoot it, or look more into the Roll on method. Anybody know about using metallic auto paints with this method? Chumley

 

Yeah I have been going back and forth about this all weekend. I actually got a little can of gloss black RUST STOP, Ace hardwares house brand, and I have been painting on a test piece of steel I had laying around. So far so good. I decided to try glossy black because I figured if I can ge that to look halfway decent, any other lighter color would be a cakewalk. I believe that IF IF IF I do decide to go ahead with this I am going to go for the Safety Yellow. Nice and bright and in your face. I say if just because I have been reading a ton of forums where some people are saying that you would virtually destroy your car if you did this roll on rustoleum method. I think that that is alittle over dramatic. I understand that if I do this that if I ever wanted to ge a "real" paintjob it would have to be all stripped off, but I have a multi-layered spray bomb job on there now (previous owner) and I am sure that any pro body shop would want to strip that off before they did anything, so I say what the hell?? Being laid off, one thing I have is time, one thing I don't is $3,000+ to get this thing painted. So what if I have to wetsand and buff every 6 months to keep it from fading or chaulking up. The only other option I was thinking of was taking it to Maaco, as apparently all of the Earl Schiebs in the Maryland area have shut down. Big suprise! But as Chumley stated 1: if you do ANY prepwork on your own, that voids their warrenty. Which is really funny because I have read from ex-employees that for the lower end job, they don't even do any prep work besides MAYBE scuffing the old paint lightly. 2: as Chumley stated, even if you have a $250 coupon for your Maaco paintjob, the end cost is always significantly higher because apparently that price does not include prepwork and supplies which is funny because (see above!) 3: even after all of the time to prep yourself, and the extra time and money they take, each individual paintjob is very hit and miss. Unless you spend close to $2,000 optioning out your paintjob, but in that case, you are better off taking it somewhere else. Bottom line is there is just too much risk in the price of a Maaco job. Some areas of the US I'm sure have a super duper Maaco that does top notch work, but acording to all the research I have done about the one and only Maaco in my area, sounds like I would be better off letting my 5 year old sister throw paint at my car. At least if I do it myself, I can fiddle with it until I am happy with my results. Oh and Chumley, I have tested the metallic silver Rustoleum type paints before, and they look fine if you don't sand them at all. But as soon as you break the surface of the paint, it just looks like grey primer.As for real automotive paints, I have not been able to find any testimonials on that. In theory I don't know why a single stage auto paint couldn't be rolled, sanded, and buffed. But I also don't want to spend $100 bucks on some to find out. I was up at Autozone earlier tonight and almost bought a can of the Duplicolor paintshop paint and clear, but I don't really think that would work out too well, rolling it on in 2 stages. One of the reasons why the rustoleum method works well is that it just one layer of paint that you have to worry about. But hey, if you've got the dough, buy some and try it and let me know!

 

If you have the place to spray it or know somebody who does you could go with one of the all-in-one kits for inexpensive and fairly good. Kirker has some decent products and has deals at Smartshoppers.
Smartshoppers is a good place to get all your paint and body stuff BTW.


http://www.smartshoppersinc.com/index.html

 

There was a guy on here who did a "roll on " paint job, and it looked pretty good! I think on a Toronado....he did a step by step thing! If I can find it, I'll post the link!

 

Why not try the local Vocational / Tech High School or local collage?
The ones in my area do it for free, you just pay for materials and have to wait in line. They do a great job, they are being taught the correct way, not the fast/make a buck way.
Just a thought on someplace else to look.

Dave

 

That is a good idea Dave. I've considered taking an Auto Body course at the local Vo-Tech. Unfortunately, I haven't signed up for one yet since I travel with my work.

 

I'd be shocked if any reputable painter would warranty someone else's prep work.

They don't have x-ray vision. There's no way to tell what you've done: what materials you used, how well will your prep hold paint, did you get grease or other contaminants anywhere, and so on.

That doesn't mean you did bad work; it just means they have no way of knowing. It also doesn't mean the paint they put on will turn out bad - they just won't back up their work on top of someone else's, since generally the prep matters more than the paint.