rct20 Posted June 25, 2004 Posted June 25, 2004 Okay, So I know you all have gone to great lengths to take care of and detail your cars, but my 91 LS400, after having lived a priveleged life for its first 9 years garaged in a suburb, has become a NYC car. Anyone who has lived in, or worse yet, parked in a Manhattan parking garage for any length of time knows it's death to the exterior. No way around it but maybe paying an extra few hundred dollars in tips PER MONTH, to keep it isolated. And there's no guarantee. So now, I've been dinged, scratched, nicked, and scraped to the point that I'm embarrassed to drive it outside of the city and want to get it completely repainted. The interior is in supurb shape and just needs a real thorough leather cleaning and rug shampoo. Estimate from a reputable body shop with whom I've dealt with before is $3125 PLUS MATERIALS ! Last time I looked the blue book was less than that. I don't think I can justify spending more on the paint job than the car is worth. (PS: it has 85,000 miles after 13 years.) What should I do? The shop owner said go to Maaco and see how their highest quality jobs come out looking, and decide. (Doing that tomorrow). Although I'm quite certain none of you have EVER taken your babies to Maaco, you might have with another car. Is it even worth checking out? Any alternatives? PPS: His other suggestion was move out of Manhattan and buy a new car.
silvermate Posted June 25, 2004 Posted June 25, 2004 my buddy had a 454 SS street rod truck painted by Maco from black to Canary Yellow, and they did an absolute horrible job on it....i mean there was overspray everywhere, and after a couple of months the paint started chipping on the bed... i believe he got one of the bottom of the line paint jobs though we were probably 19 or 20 at the time and couldn't afford much,,,thats probably why, it didn't even look like the masked it off, just started spraying i'm sure they do better work, but you have to shell out the $$$$ like you mentioned above for a descent paint job
93LSOwner Posted June 26, 2004 Posted June 26, 2004 $3,125 seems a whole lot. One of my neighboors got his old 1968 truck painted for $1,200, I think it was a customized paint job since the paint sparkles in dard green. Try some other body shops, I'm sure they will quote a lot less. Just last week I went to a Ford dealership where they also rebuilt cars and they quoted me $700 for the roof, trunk and some siding to blend in the color with rest of the car plus the area they are going to paint, the paint horrible and severly damaged.
blake918 Posted June 26, 2004 Posted June 26, 2004 RCT20, that quote seems in line with the quote I got for my '95 LS. I was quoted $2800-$3k to get the entire car painted. He said that the price is so high because there is a lot of labor time to remove the lower grey clading on the car. Too, top notch body shops charge top prices! ;) This body shop did work on one of our Mustangs, and it looked incredible. If I had the money, I'd drop my car off tomorrow to have it done because I know it'd look great. I might look into the hood, roof, and trunk lid since the sides of my car still look good...I could probably swing $700 for that! What's wrong with your paint, 93?
SW03ES Posted June 26, 2004 Posted June 26, 2004 Yeah thats what you'll pay to have a car like the LS painted. I sort of agree with the guy though about moving out of NY, if its just going to get damaged and in that state again within a year... Maaco doesn't do good work. Generally its sloppy, low quality paint that fades quickly.
93LSOwner Posted June 26, 2004 Posted June 26, 2004 I was referring to another car, our 1992 Acura Legend. The paint is severly damaged due to sun. My LS has some small roof damage too. See the LS Gallery pic #389 you can see behind the sunroof the paint is white. Thats after polishing and waxing, this helped a lot though. When I wash the car and some water is sitting on the roof then you can't see it. Here and there some Mecco commercials come on TV, that they do the whole car for around $200!!!
93LSOwner Posted June 27, 2004 Posted June 27, 2004 What color is better for scratches and paint chips, so the defects won't be too visible, Black? Because we have a white camry and the front bumper and some of the hood has some small paint damages due to hwy driving.
mossyoak Posted June 27, 2004 Posted June 27, 2004 Here's way to decide. Go look at new or newer cars and price them. After this shock,,you will be happy with your delima. ie..You have a Lexus LS4 with 85k miles ( Ipresume runs well ) that needs paint. For approximatley $3k you will drive a top car and believe you me, when its painted by a high quality shop, all your friends will be jealous. Ferd
SW03ES Posted June 27, 2004 Posted June 27, 2004 No you dont want black 93, black is the hardest color to maintain. Silver is probably the easiest.
blake918 Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 No you dont want black 93, black is the hardest color to maintain. Silver is probably the easiest. I totally agree!!! :D And it is easily damaged because it has no clear coat. I was thinking about getting my LS painted white, but I would lose my mind everytime I opened the door or hood and saw the black insides. I think that beige is also extremely easy to keep clean(some people think beige is a boring woman's color, but I love it!). The color of dirt just blends right in!
SW03ES Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 Actually a quality paint job would include painting all the door jambs and underhood area. You'd never know it was once black. You can also specify a clearcoat when its resprayed. Not all black has no clear, only Lexus' ;)
blake918 Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 Actually a quality paint job would include painting all the door jambs and underhood area. You'd never know it was once black.You can also specify a clearcoat when its resprayed. Not all black has no clear, only Lexus' ;) Hmmm, that's good to know about the spraying of the door jambs and what not! :D Why isn't Black Onyx clearcoated?
SW03ES Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 Lexus thinks black looks richer without a clearcoat.
jfelbab Posted July 2, 2004 Posted July 2, 2004 Actually a quality paint job would include painting all the door jambs and underhood area. You'd never know it was once black.You can also specify a clearcoat when its resprayed. Not all black has no clear, only Lexus' ;) Hmmm, that's good to know about the spraying of the door jambs and what not! :D Why isn't Black Onyx clearcoated? Scratches and chips stand out on clear-coated black as a white blemish on the black background. They are not nearly as noticeable in single stage black. Black is the softest color of all the paint colors and while they can mar easily, they are also easier to polish out. That said, I believe Lexus began to clear-coat the Black Onyx (202) beginning in 2000.
SW03ES Posted July 2, 2004 Posted July 2, 2004 The newer Black Onyx remains unclearcoated, I did a black LS430 about 2 months ago, a 2002 and it was single stage.
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