any experience with maaco?, not sure if its off topic? Options

[Malhar95]

i decided to get the celi painted soon, i just wanted to see if anybody has any experience with the painting company, "maaco"
i heres some really nice reviews about them and then some really bad ones....

both on the extremes. just need some more comments and experience with them,

i called them up to see how they paint, they say they suggest to get the old color repainted, and by the sounds of it, it seemed asif all they do it sand ur car and apply new paint without any real prepping

i know i get what i pay for and with 500 dollar paint job i know the paints gonna start fading soon and chip eventually but then again, it has 1 year warranty and i can always get it repainted after a year or two?

[stephen_lee]

they dont spray it the right thickness. too little and it will do it, too much it will do it... i think. but if you do enough coats you can def sand it smooth and then polish it shiny again

[presure2]

they dont spray it the right thickness. too little and it will do it, too much it will do it... i think. but if you do enough coats you can def sand it smooth and then polish it shiny again

nope.
orange peel is on EVERY paint job in the world. there are varying degrees of it. the better the painter, the less youll notice it.
wet sanding and buffing removes it.
orange peel is the effect of the paint hitting the panel as you spray it.
holding the gun too far from the panel, too much pressure, moving to fast, wrong gun settings can all cause more of it.
we have a set of cards that depeict varying degrees of orange peel from 1 to 10, 1 being completely like the back of an orange, very heavy peel, 10 being perfectly flat.
as an example, check out your local GMC dealer, and look at hummers. the paint on them is horrible, ~ a 4 on the scale.
most new toyotas are ~ a 7...mercedes are generally 8 or better..(they are heavily detailed before delivery)
provided the painter put enough paint on, generally its not a huge deal to remove most orange peel, as long as its not from not putting enough paint (clear) on.
again, for maaco paint jobs, the general rule i reccomend is this:
if your car is a solid color, the single stage paint jobs can look great, provided the painter is half way decent.
for metallic colors, i always reccomend base coat clearcoat paint jobs, for a couple reasons.
#1, and most importantly, when you spray single stage paint, that is metallic, it is very difficult to get the paint to lay down smooth, and get the metallics and pearls to all lay down evenly.
#2 base coat clear coat jobs will always have more depth, and will match the original color, where single stage paints tend to be a hair darker.
the heavy orange peel effect you guys will see on alot of single stage metallic jobs is a result of the painter fighting with the metallics, trying to get them to all look even and smooth.