waaaaa aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa

[Cammy01]

okay it all started out on a nice beautiful morning today my sister and i decided to go to maaco to get a estimate on one of my camaros... so we drive like a half and hour to maaco wait for the guy for 20 mins and then he finally was able to estimate it.. well he looks over it shakes his head and notices everything. guess how much its goin to be without painting it, if theres any body work that needs to be done, and if a rust spot..... $750.00 dollars he said it needed to be striped to the bone!!! and he went on about this and that. i stopped listening after i heard him say its gonna be a lot. well i was wondering does anyone know how to strip a car so maybe i can save that money and do it myself im willing to do it and take my time and everything but if anyone knows anything about this wanna help me out? or is it not worth it?thankz

[Shortbus]

I thought maaco just taped everything off and shot the paint w/o doing any body work. Hence why they are the cheapest around. Oh well keep in mind you get what you pay for.

[mike123]

ya seriously , j ust try to do most of the prep work your self , dont try to go cheap on paint , i hate it when i see nice cars with crapy paint jobs

[DaMoNe6969]

When you say stripped.. do you mean the paint stripped off?? or everything fastened to the body? (handles, locks, bumpers, etc.)

I stripped everything off of my car down to save myself money.. and I did.. A LOT.. The guy even let me do it in his shop.. He wouldnt paint around anything so EVERYTHING had to come off... it took about 6 hours (spoiler, handles, locks, f & r bumpers, all gfx, all lights and signals, windshield, dor moldings)

[DaMoNe6969]

oh, and IMO dont go to macco.. As Shortbus said.. They're hacks.. well at least here they are..

[Dober89]

Im not a fan of maaco, if I had to get them to paint my car thats all I would let them do. Take it to a reputable shop to have body work done if you must. Stripping a car, depending on how extensive you do it, can take alot of time.

[4onFloor]

if the guy meant all the paint had to be stripped......why? sand the car down so all clear coat and atleast half the base coat is removed then use an etching primer. even chips in the existing paint can be feather edged to be un-noticable. if for some reason you do need to remove all the paint, you can get a grinding pad that is designed to remove paint and not metal, but it'll take atleast 10 hours to grind all the paint off. or you can sandblast but that'd cost a small fortune

[Cammy01]

wow thankz everyone.... he said that there was too much scatches. or whateva something like that and he said if we painted over it that it would show through.. so like say i just try out the hood how would i do it just use a sander?

[89IROC&RS]

well, you can order an orbital sander like bodyshops use from just about any online tool store. get the propor pads, an air compressor, and air line. take off all the trim and parts outside the car, mask off the lights and glass, and tires. and just start sanding bascly, i dont think ive ever heard of a car being stripped down to bare metal for just a basic paint job. maybe a full blow resto, where they strip it down bondo it and sand it perfectly smooth like glass, then prime it, then blast it with like ten coats of paint. but if your just lookin for a paint job. sand it down yourself, then take it in right away. no rain mind you. and let them know its already been prepped.

[4onFloor]

are these scratches deep or just the usuall buffing and polishing scratches? cause if there just polishing scratches that guy is full of shit. sanding down to the base coat like i said earlier will remove most if not all of them. what's left can be filled with a good heavy sanding primer, and even deep scratches can be feather edged.

[Savage Messiah]

ive got a scratch or two thats to the metal... how hard are those to remove/paint over, if i were to get it repainted?

[4onFloor]

well if it's scratched the metal itself, then you'd probly have to sand down the area and use a spot putty or glazing/spot putty mix. then repaint the whole panel. color and and glaze matching is extremely hard to do without repainting the whole panel. or buy one of those paint markers and run that over it, but it'll probly still show

[Cammy01]

i wish i could get a pic and show u guyz then ud be able to see...maybe ill try and do that tomorrow..... yea thats what the guy told me the car had to be striped the whole car... i think the majority of the car just needs to be sanded down to the same level if u know what im talkin about.. its like peeled in some parts. i really dont care if its not the best paint job just a lil better then it is now!! i think the hood is the badest so if i take it of and spend a lot of time on it i think it would turn out good... its just basically really bad because of the weather. also theres stripes at the bottom of the car i have no clue what id be able to do wit them i think there stickers.... i really need a pic.. ill def try tomorrow!!!!! thankz!!!

[Dober89]

If it just needs to be leveled out because of flaking clearcoat or something you should be able to handle that yourself. I think you could just use some wet sand paper and a sanding block and take your time smoothing it out. Or you could get a power sander but I think it would be simpler to use a block.

[DaMoNe6969]

Even a palm sander would work.. If you wanna use a little elbow grease, and sanding block will work too..
Like Iroc said, mask everything off that isnt getting sanded (keep your windows up to keep dust out)
I would just sand the areas that are scratched for now, stick to a small area at a time..
Hand sand all the tight areas, creases, etc.. Ide use about 150 or 180 grit.. Then use an orbital or palm sander (even a sanding block will work if you wanna go the manual route) and using the same grit, sand the area down til you cant see the scratches anymore.. then sand the area with a 220, 320 then maybe wet sand it with 500 or 600.. You want to make the area smooth as possible but you also want to avoid sanding down to the metal if it all possible.. If you do have to sand it down to the metal, dont let it sit too long before getting it painted..

And if you come across any small dents you want fixed, itd be a good idea to clearly mark them, or even not sand those areas.. Its very hard to see small dents if the areas been sanded away.. Body man might miss them