prepping for paint

[shaun_bayarea]

ok so i'm gonna be getting my car painted at maaco in about 2 weeks and i need to know what to do beforehand....i know maaco doesnt do very good paintjobs but i just replaced my rear hatch and the rest of the body is faded is spots too so i need a paint job and i dont have a few grand nor would i spend a few grand on one considering what i paint for the car. so i was thinking i would sand and primer the car before taking it down there so i would have a little better chance of getting a decent paintjob...my question is do i need to sand all the cars paint off? and should i just like a powersander or a belt sander or should i just go at it with sandpaper....i've got a few friends helping me out so theres a few of us doing it. and then how many coats of primer do i apply?...i'm getting the car painted black so should i use black primer too instead of the normal gray?..i basically just need to know how to prep my car the best i can before taking it down there.... thanks in advance for any help you guys can give

[Jon Powell]

If you are getting your car paint black, at Maaco, and you are prepping it, you will not be happy. Black shows EVERY flaw and learning to prep for paint is not an easy task. I have been in the autobody business for over 10 years and I just prepped my first car for paint this last weekend. We painted it Red, which is a pretty forgiving color and it was a pain in the ass, and I still can see the bodywork. Leave it to the professionals. You will be much happier with the results.

[shaun_bayarea]

so should i not even prep it before taking it down?...or should i have them repaint it the original color which is a light blue?

[Jon Powell]

It is just a pain in the ass to feather everything out...I would recommend, if going black, to have them do the prep work and just pay for it. After seeing what is involved in prepping for red, you will be way better off

[shaun_bayarea]

well macco does prep it beforehand anyway, i've just heard they dont do the best job on it so i was seeing if it would be better if i did it and had them paint it but if you think it's one of those things better left up to them then i quess i'll just leave it as is and have them do it...it's not like it's gonna cost me anything more by having them do it since it's allready included in the paintjob price. thanks for the help

[Jon Powell]

Just make sure you clarify up front what kind of job you want from them. make sure that you agree with everything up front so that you arent diappointed in the end.

[ironzpy]

You should debadge your car cause macco doesnt take them off to paint. Also make sure you dont get the cheapest one cause they dont get inside the door panels and some of the paint jobs they offer dont lift the engine out. So you are going to be left with a two color car.

So if you really want a good paint job go to some of your local body shops and ask them how you can reduce thier price, by debagding and tapeing and removing the engine and other ways that will lower the ammount of hours that they have to spend on your car.

If you do decide to prime the car yourself you also want to prime it grey so the painter will cover all of it, other wise you might have spots of black primer in your paint job.

[Towlie]

i think its better to let the shop do it
depending on if ther etaking out any dings or anything
because they mark blemishes and dings or what not

[shaun_bayarea]

i'm pretty sure that none of the maaco paintjobs paint the engine bay...i dont really care about that though. i'm gonna take off the badges and take off my antenna and thats all i can see that they could overspray...and yeah i'm gonna make sure they do the door jams and other places where you could see...i'm kinda screwed on the engine since it would cost an arm and a leg to get them to take the whole engine out and paint the bay