Anyone know of a decent paint shop in the Fresno area? A step up from Maaco? Its for a driver and funds are short. Joel
For a driver, I've had good luck with Maaco and One Day. If the car stays outside, keep a good coat of wax on it. Had a Vette painted by One Day.
Be sure to check out the cars in the lot waiting to be delivered. I prepped my daily driver (years ago) and got a good job from the local One Day. It is nice not having to worry about getting a door chip from some idiot parked next to you. Charlie Stephens
Charlie Stephens hit on one important part. I've seen some nice looking paint jobs come out of the Maaco closest to me when the car was stripped down and really prepped for paint before taking it down to have the paint done. Not world class show paint but really presentable daily driver paint. Here locally there are a couple of kids who work in back street shops that turn out great paint gun work but aren't much on body work or prep work. I don't think that one of them even has or knows what a long board is but he can da a car in 20 minutes and leave the marks to prove it. His paint spraying is close to perfect though.
If you do the prep and masking, you can actually get a decent spray from Maaco. That's who did my 55.
Maaco should be good, ask around a few places though. Back in the day we used to use Earl Scheib and go for a better color than the standard deal. We'd do the prep work, remove whatever we needed to remove and run it down there. They always came out decent and once you had a few cars done by them and they knew us, the quality was better. Bob
Miracle Auto Paint in Campbell (San Jose area) had a painter that was great. He said he should be good, he practiced every day... I took an F-1 pickup to him, front fenders hanging by 2 long bolts each, hood & doors removed, bed and rear fenders separate. The result was amazing. When I assembled the truck, it was flawless. (nephew and I long-boarded it for a week, LOL) He also painted my '29 roadster, same act; I took the Deuce frame and some running gear parts over, then the body, doors, decklid, shell, and dash...he did the same stuff, all for a fair price: (going price for the 'deluxe' job was $129; my price for all the carry-in stuff was $179.) Needless to say, he got a large tip. Well deserved. I haven't found but ONE place around here, but if you want a nice job (just do some prep and removal of trim) There is a place 60 miles North of Fresno, Scott's Auto Painting. It's right on 99 going North, at Franklin Road. Advertised paint job $260. Nice job, good materials. Nice guy.
See what kind of paint they use. Had a Macco paint job done 1988, looked good for 2 years then the clear started to delaminate and cloud up. They used a synthetic Acme paint. I would use a better paint if posible. The car did not sit outside.
in materials alone it seems to cost a fortune. with labor too, i dont see how some of these places stay in buisness, and in california, there is no longer any great paint jobs with all the rules and regs
I hear what you're trying to do on your budget. I used Mastercraft about 15 years ago for a driver quality paint job on a $50 Corvair. Came out better than I expected. Did all the bodywork and prep myself and removed everything I could so masking and overspray was minimal. It came out with tons of orange peel. After some wet sanding the final thing was real nice and presentable. It cost either $99 or $199 can't remember. Be prepared to do the before and after prep for the best cheap job possible. I sprayed it with a high fill primer/sealer before sending it to Mastercraft but all the other supplies came from the local Walmart. I was a poor student on a budget and later sold the car to a foreign student who ended up taking it to Austria.
The Jalopy Journal
