Suggestions on painting businesses

[Smoothro]

I recently acquired a used TRD lip kit and am looking at places to get it painted at. I am looking to get that painted and the new grill ( thanks Renova) whenever the grill arrives. I have been quoted rough estimates of anywhere between $350 at Maaco, to $1200 at large local collision shops. My question is, has anyone ever dealt with Maaco and do they do a good job? Any suggestions as far as other locations that would do a good job for a decent price? I'm in the Atlanta area btw. Of course I've been told several times that the paint won't match exactly since my car is close to 8 years old now, but I still want it to look as close as possible.

[Jon11582]

Those quotes both sound like alot for just painting, and for something thats not even on the car (requires no masking, removal).

I would have expected something alot lower, like 500 on the top end and 100 at the low end.

Its OK that it doesnt match exactly, as the TRD kit and the grill are different panels. Color variations are usually only noticable when on the same panel, and most shops "close enoughs" wont be noticable.

[Jai_Jai_Binks]

Of course I've been told several times that the paint won't match exactly since my car is close to 8 years old now, but I still want it to look as close as possible.

There are two ways to match the colors:
1. Read off your color code by the VIN, should start with CTR ??? This results in the color your car came off the factory
2. Other method is used by high end paintshops (i don't know if maaco uses this, they may??) but its entails using lazors. Your paint is scanned into a handheld tool and the computer regerates the mix to match this color. This is great if you have an slight older car whos paint may have faded. (again, you have to decide if your paint is stunning or faded).

WHATEVER route you do choose, PLEASE PRE-MENTION the use of flexi-paint additive to your trd kit. This flexi paint additive alloys the paint to flex and still retain its shape (without this the paint starts to crack and what we call webbing). Painting is cheap, adding flexipaint is expensive. I'd make sure tha $500 quote you got entailed using this additive. GL

[Turbosolara]

just make sure they send off the old paint first. maybe it is cheaper if you can send off the old paint of the trd kit before you submit it to paint job. But usually bodyshop does not like you do your job by yourself.

matching paint is not a really bid deal, my bro painted its 95 civic hood and bumper and the color came match perfectly.

[Solorange]

Yes definatly sand the old paint off my old car got rear ended and the body shop that fix it was lazy and never did. Within 6 months the new paint start to peel off the showing the old paint. Also Ive seen a couple of maaco jobs meaning the whole car painted and they are terrible. They probably wont sand off the old paint and they dont cover the car very well leaving things like weather stripping painted and they have a lot of runs in the paint. So I would recommend not going with them. But since they would just have to paint the kit that not the whole car they may be ok for this situation. But dont let them put it on, just do it yourself. But Id go with a high end body shop or even a dealership body shop.

[SolaraBlue]

yeah i hear horrible things about maco.

a friend of mine had his TRD kit painted and it was something like $200, to give you an idea of what youll spend.

[Smoothro]

Yeah I've had people tell me not to sand off the old paint because alot of shops prefer to do it themselves, or they feel like you would mess up the surface. Thanks for the tip on the flexi-paint additive, I will definitely see about that one.