Carmine
Old Man with a Hat
Well I thought I was giving you advice. If you think it's attitude, by all means, feel free to ignore it. Take the car to Maaco, or one of the (professional) painters you've met who get paid top dollar to block primer.
Phoenix area painter recommendation
- Thread starter 70Tom
- Start date
Well I thought I was giving you advice. If you think it's attitude, by all means, feel free to ignore it. Take the car to Maaco, or one of the (professional) painters you've met who get paid top dollar to block primer.
About painters for my 1974 Dart Custom 4d .
At -90 my painter was rly reputed guy. Painted many Porsche, Ferraris, Fiats etc exotic EU cars. So he was from my local rly rly rly small town, less than 1500ppl.
Price was reasonable. And he did sanding etc... and everything failed...
Not his fault.
First time belts of his compressor failed.... Car was all over small depris and overspray.... he sand it back to primer.
Second time, he was tired and forgot to turn heat on intake air, and it was late spring at Finland... -C and paint didnt dry... paint was like waterfall at winter.
This time he called me and my father to help to sand it. He didnt have skin on his fingers anymore.
We sand it, me and father only got flat surfaces and he sand corners etc. Got nice discount on price and beautiful paint.
Tho he sayd, he never ever want to see that car again.
Cost him way more that we agreed. Like triple. But **** can happen even best of us. Its just who can admit it and eat it.
At -90 my painter was rly reputed guy. Painted many Porsche, Ferraris, Fiats etc exotic EU cars. So he was from my local rly rly rly small town, less than 1500ppl.
Price was reasonable. And he did sanding etc... and everything failed...
Not his fault.
First time belts of his compressor failed.... Car was all over small depris and overspray.... he sand it back to primer.
Second time, he was tired and forgot to turn heat on intake air, and it was late spring at Finland... -C and paint didnt dry... paint was like waterfall at winter.
This time he called me and my father to help to sand it. He didnt have skin on his fingers anymore.
We sand it, me and father only got flat surfaces and he sand corners etc. Got nice discount on price and beautiful paint.
Tho he sayd, he never ever want to see that car again.
Cost him way more that we agreed. Like triple. But **** can happen even best of us. Its just who can admit it and eat it.
I didn't think Carmine was giving you attitude, at least from where I stand. I think what he was trying to say is that even a pretty good paint job depends mostly on the prep - that is really where the quality of the paint job is revealed. If you were considering Chris in the beginning, then my assumption too was that you were seeking a pretty good paint job. Guys that can do or are willing to do really good work are increasingly rare, as there is simply little money to be made doing this at say $45 an hour when insurance repairs can bring in $90 per hour work and most of that is replacing metal panels rather than working the bent but fixable panels already on the car. And insurance companies always pay promptly, which is rarely the case with individual customers who just want "a nice paint job" - you are probably the exception given my impression of you based on what I have read of your posts.
For my cars, I want them as perfect as they can be, and that is why I pay my body/paint guy the money it takes to get there. He will spend literally weeks getting every detail fixed to perfection not only because I will pay him to do that, but because he wants his work to make a statement about him - i.e. he takes great pride in what he does. And I appreciate it. And he is on site for me and I provide him with the building and pay the utilities on top of it all needed to get the work done for me, which he does 2 days/week for me consistently.
But he occasionally will take on a job where the owner wants a good job but is willing to accept not perfect as a result, but even his worst work is pretty damn good. But on those jobs he ends up losing money usually because guys won't pay to get the result he likes to have leave his shop and he puts in more hours than he charged them for, and even then they often don't pay him even the agreed upon price at the start of the work when the work is done. So he has to beg them to pay him for some time afterwards. So he has soured on this kind of work in general and could make a lot more on insurance work rather than restoration type work that Carmine is referring to. The bottom line is that the experiences of my body/paint guy are not unusual among the better body/paint guys that are left. Now when someone wants an OK job from him at a lower price, then he now requires half up front for the total cost of the job and then when the car is about half done, he requires the balance at that point. If they don't have it, he sends the car back to them undone. In the past, he has tried to give them some flexibility in the mid term payment, but in virtually every case, they still don't come up with the remainder of the agreed upon price for months afterwards if ever.
So what you have now is very good body/paint guys that cost more than most would like to pay (like an average job is $12K if the car is pretty nice to begin with and doesn't need a lot of rust repair) and that being done at $45/hour is some 260 hours of tedious, difficult work, using a lot of chemicals and paint formulations that are ever changing, and having to fix related problems that never end. The other guys that are of average skill will take the insurance jobs and get double the money of a really good body/paint guy. So what you have left after them is the Maaco guys. I am not making judgments about anyone in this explanation, but just letting you know what I am seeing as the reality that exists in the U.S. these days.
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rapidtrans
Senior Member
I can understand the professional guys being hesitant. Pros don't like to guarantee a paint job over the car owners bodywork, prep and provided paint.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
tbm3fan
Old Man with a Hat
Excuse me...
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
Take it to maaco and have the primer sprayed..... (Do your own masking). Then work out the surface and go back for a final spray. After 5-6 months give it to a pro cut & buff guy. You should be happy then.
rapidtrans
Senior Member
I had a couple of cars painted by Maaco back in the 70s. I did all the body work, spot prime and removed most trim. They had several different price points. Pay a little more for their best service and original factory color, prime and mask. Both cars came out looking very nice.
70Tom
Senior Member
Off to paint. Exciting.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Where?
70Tom
Senior Member
Looks like they do decent work. Let us know how it turns out.
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