Topic: Maaco vs. Earl Scheib vs. Drunk Neighbor vs. Rustoleum
I have an NA miata that is my daily driver / autox toy. This summer, it blew a brake line and I kissed a suburban. A few hundred dollars later, and I had it back on the road, thanks to Tsoggy's spare car stash, and my neighbor's well-hydrated painting abilities. Now the new paint is all chipping due to lack of prep and cheap paint. It's nasty. At least its covered in road salt, right? Uh . . . It needs a little bit of rust repair on the rockers, and one quarter panel. I got a quote from a highly respected local body shop for $3800-4000 for rust repair and paint. That's not happening. I'd rather buy a less cosmetically challenged car for that price.
I was thinking of patching the rockers and quarter myself, taking it down to primer, and then taking it to Maaco. Does anybody have good or bad experiences with them in the modern era of ,"Yes we do use tape now!"? I'm pretty confident that I can do a half-decent job prepping the car. I've done a rolled-on rustoleum job on a truck that was 40% rust, 30% body filler, 30% steel and 100% hooptie before, and it turned out disturbingly ok until the body started falling apart underneath again.
It seems like most of the complaints regarding Maaco come from people who weren't willing to pay for prep work, or wanted a full repaint in a day, or whose cars were having significant body work done. If I do the bulk of the body work myself, and just leave it for them to wipe down, tape, and paint, what are the chances it will be a terrible waste of $4-700 compared to the chances of it being decent? Also, does anybody know what I can expect to pay for their single stage urethane? The car is black, so I'm not totally set on having clear coat. I do want to do this cheaply, but I want to make sure its not going to a waste vs just doing a crusty rusty rolly job, and I like that they offer a warranty. You get what you pay for, but my only labor only costs me my time. I don't mind spending some money, but I don't want to spend 1.5x the value of the car.