Earl Scheib - The Business, not the HAMBster

Do they still exist? What does a paintjob from them cost these days?

My wife and I were discussing it here and I decided to post it up, because I don't know.

 

im getting commercials for them here almost every day...

http://www.earlscheib.com/


keith

 

Wow, $299.95. I wonder when they were last $29.95? About 1975?

 

I don't know about Earl Scheib, but I had a blast working at a MAACO in Hawaii.....man, do I miss Aloha friday!!!!!

 

MAACO, didn't they sponsor Ohio George Montgomery? I was just looking at a pic of his old Willys today.

My dad worked for an Earl Scheib in Louisiana, which I mentioned to Crystal, which is how this whole post got started.

 

It was MALCO gasser, not MAACO

 

Oh, oops.

 

I had the one in Flint shoot a POS for me about 7 years ago and it came out great, especially for the price. It was WELL worth the price and I wouldn't be scared to use them again.

 

Just say no.

Earl SheiB and MAACO use shitty paint that will just flake off. They will talk you into the "hardener" extra prep work etc. that they probably won't do. You will likely not even get primer.

I had a car done by a "production" shop a few years ago. The price seemed right and the person who shot it actually did a decent job. But looking closely I could see the scratches and chips on the surface that showed that the car wasnt even sanded down. The paint was so soft I could mark it with my thumbnail even a year later; at which thime it looked like it did before it was redone.

Good quality ANYTHING is expensive. Bad quality is ALWAYS overpriced.

 

Do your own bodywork and prep work and take off any trim that you don't want any paint on and you'll get a pretty good paint job. The guy that paints in these shops can sometimes paint a dozen cars a day, so he'll be good with a spray gun but for $300.00 the body or prep guys aren't going to sweat the details.

Maaco uses Dupont/Nason and Sherwin-Williams, both good products.

 

They're all over Los Angeles. I remember reading an article in the paper a few years ago that quoted some executive with Earl Scheib saying "We don't even use the really cheap paint anymore!"

 

move back, then.

 

I know it was 99$ in 1988,when ole Earl and the boys painted my V-dub there in sunny FRESNO CA.

 

ive seen plenty of maaco jobs, one of which still had the keymarks in the paint below ... nithing like having your car keyed and still having it say "bitch" across the hood AFTER the paintjob, lol

the key to getting a decent paintjob from the "deep discount" places is to do all your own prep work

remove all your trim , door handles, locks, lights ect .... strip the care bare on the outside

then do all your own body work .... any damage you want gone should be removed by you

wash the car spotless, then sand down everything for proper paint adhesion ... dont trust that they are going to scuff the panels good enough

but now heres the irony ... to get a good job from the cheapo place, you did all the work you needed to in order to get a great price at the expensive place .... as all thats probably left is a was, a visual inspection, mask & paint ...

 

The joke around here with Earl Scheib was "we'll paint any car any color, any door handle, any tire, any trim, any window........." In the early 80's several friends took their cars there and had them sprayed and I was surprised how good they came out, definitely not show quality, but for a driver they looked pretty decent, my friends did the prep and removed the trim and masked everything else themselves.

 

I often sent cars to the local one to get a cheap paint job. I would do all the bodywork, prep, etc. Then bring it to Maaco, along with my own paint (hardener, and all). I would throw the painter 10 or 20 bucks (back 10, 15 years ago), and tell him I wanted it to look nice. It always did. A good chain paint shop "should" always have a top notch painter! The prep and body people are low paid, but the painter shouldn't be. My local Maaco always had a clean booth....and a good shooter.

 

I haven't done it yet, but an area Maaco told me they would do an extra special job for me on an old car if I would put a "paint by Maaco" sign with it at shows.

 

We had a club member get his olds done at Maaco...He did ALL the prep work and the primer and block sanding..then he went to Maaco..they did a real nice job..he has been driving the car for some yrs now and the paint still looks great.So I guess if ya want a cheap paint job...Ya gets what ya pay for....
As a side bar..my pops had my 55 ford painted at Earl's back in the early 60's and if ya knew my pops he was a peice of work...He had them repaint the car 5 times before he would ok it...they had to hate to see him come in the door...but the car looked sweet...

Mench

 

i plan on doing all the prep work and taping on my van and having it done. Im even having them do the inside.

 

Man 29.95 I remember 19.95 earl schieb paint jobs.

In the shop on Portland if you didn't remove your liscence plates or what have you they just masked 'em and painted. A friend had a white chebby wagone painted black and you could still see the white behind the rear plate.

We pulled the plate and fixed it with a rattle can.

 

Back in "the day" there was an Earl Scheib at the corner of Valley Blvd and San Gabriel Blvd in San Gabriel, CA, my home town. They painted a number of cars for friends of mine over the years. Most of the jobs came out OK. It was all in the prep work and all of the time the car was paint ready when it was dropped off. The rule was never have your car painted on Monday or Friday and always tip the painter and the manager a couple of bucks.

When I came back from Germany in 1964 my mother gave me a 52 Chevy 4 door. I put an Honest Charlie floor shifter in it, had Earl paint it "Diamond Gloss Red" and applied pin stripe decals over the head and tail lights. The paint job cost $19.95 and I had a couple of minor dings fixed for another $5.00. Shortly after I drove it Ft Benning, GA. When we left for Viet Nam in 1965 I sold it to one of my Sergeant's for $60. He wanted it for his wife. While we were gone she traded it for a dog. I see Rusty at reuinions every now and then. He is still pissed about that deal. And he has a new wife.

 

Here in KC the trick with Maaco is to shop and see which one puts out the best paint. Check out what's rollin' out the door and make sure the same guy squirts yours.

Some of 'em here in town put out pure crap while others put out a quality job for your daily.

Back in the '60s here there was an Earl Schieb's that had a skiny little black gal that did all the prep work. She ran around with several rolls of masking tape on each arm (different widths) and a couple of razor blades hangin' out of her mouth.


She was a wizz when it came to masking etc. for a couple of bucks and/ or a tast of gin she'd do a real sweet job, the painter would take a little extra care for about the same.

Lotsa local rods got painted there.

 

I LOVE my Earl Scheib paint job!!

 

God I must be old! I remember $9.95

 

When I used to work for an airline, we had them paint one of our ramp trucks. There was overspray on the chrome, the glass, the lights, everywhere you could imagine. It wasn't glossy, either. It looked a lot like white liquid shoe polish. I guess the boss got what he paid for.

After that, they just bought us a gun and a bunch of white paint. We didn't know anyhting about painting, but the boss figured we couldn't do any worse.

A friend's dad used to tell me about Earl Scheib wiping grease on the glass and lights instead of masking them off. I don't know if any of that was true, or if it might just have been a local thing.

Slonaker

 

25 replies and nobody's said anything bad about me.......too cool

 

Your lucky day
Dave

 

I probably would if I knew you...

Slonaker

 

That's older than dirt.

I sold an old galaxie to a fellow HAMBer last spring sometime, it had an old earl schieb job on it. It weren't pretty but if they had an award for the best use of an old earl schieb job it would have won.

 

Well, what's your story?