Okay, so I'm gonna get a check for like $500+ for being rear ended. I could just have the shop the insurance recommends do the rear bumper and be done with it, but I also have a few scratches on the car, and dent from when granny hit it, and just this past two months a bunch of horrible spider webbing of my roof. I'm thinking about getting one of those $600 paint jobs (I know I know, *gag*) same color as I already have. Unfortunately, doing everything perfect on my car is not a priority right now, with tuition and all. So a $2000 paint job is out of the question in the immediate time frame. I just want to get something that will look decent until I graduate.

I picked up a copy of HCI a couple months ago b/c it covered an eclipse getting painted by 1 day paint and body. HCI said their a lot of myths about there about quality of paint jobs. The car was lame color-shifting paint, but HCI said the quality was descent.

I might try them out and beforehand make them sign in blood that they will properly mask of the car, so as to not cause overspray. I'll tell them that I'll mask the car off myself if I have to.

Oh yea, and I don't feel like stripping the car myself.

Which car is ur's? Black one? I woul dprolly mask it off too. Tell them to take some cash off if you do though. Might help. I'd go for it!

Just keep in mind you'll get what you pay for. That eclipse in the mag has been in a couple other places too, and it's sponsored by them. They used special paint they don't usually sell (chameleon). I would just worry mainly about how well they prep it, since it takes days to properly prep it. Also, if they fix your dent, it should at least dry overnight before they paint it. Ideally, it would dry, then they can primer it with this special gel coat that goes over the bondo, let that sit overnight, then paint the next day. I would never recommend anyone to go to 1 day paint/earl scheib/maaco/etc, but it's really up to you. I'd personally leave it until I could save up for a good paint job if I were you. Also, if you do go there, make sure they use a dual-stage paint (separate base and clear coat). Their cheap packages uses a single-stage acrylic paint that looks really bad. I saw a prelude with black sideskirts painted by maaco I think, and it was really nasty. He was getting it repainted right since it didn't match the rest of his car - the surface and shine was not even close to normal dual-stage paints.

BTW, DuPont, PPG, Sherwin-Williams, House of Kolour, and the German brand of paint used by BMW/Mercedes etc (forgot the name) are all fine imo.

Yeah dont worry about it... The stigma with cheap work (namely... Maaco) is only there because dumbasses see an ad in the paper "$200/whole car!!"

thats like... one layer of color one layer of cc... friend who worked here (and hooked me up) TOLD me that this WILL flake and DOES suck. I've had I guess... three different sources of "crappy"/low end paint jobs and I think it looks fine. With the notable exception of my door handles/mirrors...

Seems like the guy didnt put ... flake in that paint or something? Looks a little flat against my silver in direct sunlight... But I dont really mind..

Thanks guyz. Heh Marcus I'm glad you answered this post. The thing is, graduation is so far and I can't stand looking at this granny dent anymore. Dual stage, hmmm. Doesn't exactly say what the stage 3 system is on their site http://1daypaint.com/1daypaintsystems.html. the base coat is separate, I just don't know if they use a clear coat or not.

when I graduate and start making beacoup bucks, we'll have to talk about a bigger project Marcus ;P

dupont paint is very good, not too expensive, but for the price you get a lot of quality. chromabase is dupont's main line of base/clear paints. feel free to Im me about dupont or house of kolor as i deal in them everyday.

Originally posted by ez
Thanks guyz. Heh Marcus I'm glad you answered this post. The thing is, graduation is so far and I can't stand looking at this granny dent anymore. Dual stage, hmmm. Doesn't exactly say what the stage 3 system is on their site http://1daypaint.com/1daypaintsystems.html. the base coat is separate, I just don't know if they use a clear coat or not. when I graduate and start making beacoup bucks, we'll have to talk about a bigger project Marcus ;P

Yeah I totally understand where you're coming from...it looks like their stage 3 system is NOT a separate base/clear coat. It's a urethane paint which I'm really not familiar with. It looks like you have to go with the stage 4 system ($1195) which they advertise as separate base/clear, and similar to the system auto manufacturers use. "This base coat/clear coat system is the same system used by major automotive manufacturers." Based on their site info, I'm pretty sure stage 3 is not a dual-stage system.

Also, they do machine and hand sanding. Most good shops only sand by hand...I had to hand-sand my entire car at least 5 times through the whole paint job process. If you were to get it painted by them and you had the time, I would hand-sand the car before taking it to them. It would probably take you about 3-5 days of hard labor to get it sanded right. The reason these shops are able to cut costs is they use the machine to do most of the work.

my paint is shirman williams...my aunt had her car done at maco 3 years ago and it looks pretty good still...but I have seen cars look way worse.