Looking for Appearance Tips

[harnalien]

Anybody ever used the Duplicolor Vinyl Coating. I want to keep my stock door panels and molding, just redye it for a fresh look. also, i've heard mixed opinions on lmc dash pads. Does anyone know how much would an OEM pad cost, or another option for the dash? One other thing, I want a basic paint job, black w/ a coat of clear. Has anyone used Earl Scheib or Maaco, or should i steer clear. I'm on a budget. Again, I'm not looking for show quality, just something that looks like it came from the factory. Thanks.

[Army_Dude]

Not too long ago I did my interior. I was leaning towards DupliColor. It was suggested to me to try a product called SEM. I found it at a local paint supply store. It comes in spray bomb so you don't have to mix it. It was about $10 a can and I think I used a little over 2 cans. I'm glad I used it. it came out real good.

But in my opinion, Duplicolor will also look good if you take the time to prep. Whichever you decide to go for, take your time. And use an adhesion promoter.

As for the paint job. Someone here has an interesting qoute in their avatar that I'm finding more and more to be true. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I know it's enticing to get a fresh paint job for under $200 but C'mon. I've had friends who took cars to Earl's and (about 5 years ago) they came out with trash in the paint and it was flaking off in about 6 months. I'd wait.

[N2TRUX]

Take a look here for an article I wrote about dying interior panels- www.73-87.com

I do not recommend any of the cheap paint jobs. They will look lik crap in a short time. Your better off saving up for a better quality paint job that will last...

[Slonaker]

A company I used to work for got one of their trucks painted by Earl Scheib. There was not a shiny spot on the truck when they were done. I could have done a better job with spray cans. They also got paint on everything...glass, chrome, headlights, taillights, tires.

I have known several people with cars painted at Maaco. Every one of them, including one I bought from a friend, had paint that would peel off at the car wash. It also faded quickly.

Those cheap places save money by using low quality materials, and by not doing the necessary prep work. I have known a few people who got decent paint jobs by using budget shops. They did all of the prep work like trim removal, sanding, and bodywork themselves, and paid the shop just to shoot the paint.

If you are able to do that stuff yourself, you might be able to get a half decent paint job on a budget. Don't expect the paint to look good for more than a year or two though unless you can get them to shoot good quality paint.

My truck had one of those cheap enamel jobs on it when I got it. It was pretty bad then, and gets worse every year. It isn't shiny at all. I call the color "blue suede" because it is blue and fuzzy.

Slonaker

[harnalien]

Thanks for the tips guys. I think I will find a reputable shop, and just see if they can do my job in stages. body work, prep, then paint. for some reason, i forgot about the 89 blazer my dad had painted at Maaco that looked good from a distance, but peeled around the trim.

[TEAM THC]

be careful knocking maaco. around here a local paint shop can pay to use the maaco name. the shop i went to would do paint jobs as low as $300 or for the money they could do a show quality job. i drove by there every day
and checked all the cars they painted for a couple months. i talked with the guy and asked him about each job and how much it cost. i did most of the prep work. body work is time consuming, if a shop charges $50-60hr that can add up quick. i had them paint my truck a toyota metallic silver base coat/clear coat. i paid $2100 and could not be more pleased. the 300 dollar job is no prep they just lay down some cheap paint or corse its not goiung to
last. if you want a good job be willing to spend some money.

[rockman20]

I have dyed my dash in my 93 but I ended up going with a special mix. I went to a place called Sturdevants here in town. I found the color that my dash is from their interior color scheme book. They took the code and then custom mixed me a spray can. It ended up costing me just a hair over 12 bucks with tax. But, it sprays nice and works good. Now.....time will just tell about the durability.

As for the cheap paint shops, everyone has told you no. And Maaco is no exception on that! I had my Cutlass painted there. It was almost a 1,000 job and I had stripped the car to bare metal, had all the chrome, lights, bumpers, etc removed. All they needed to do was shoot it. For almost 1,000 I am so displeased with the paint job. It at least isn't flaking yet, but if you get a door ding, it cracks like it is 100 years old. Then you can chip off the paint after that. It's bad! At least it is still shiny though! But now whenever I get to repaint it, I will need to strip it down to metal again to get this brittle crap off from it!

[gldevall]

Take about a $100 and have it wrapped in tweed or some type of material.

[piecesparts]

There are two ways to look at this paint thing: 1) Places like MAACO, and Earl Scheib do paint cheaply and that stuff tends to fall off easily. 2) A quality paint job (if you can find a shop that wants to do that kind of work) will cost some serious dollars. I personally have a lot of money in my paint job on my truck, but I also saved a lot by doing a large amount of the work myself. (sanding, prep, and buffing)
If you do the prep work and get the body clean and sanded, then there is NO ONE that puts as much paint on a vehicle in one day than MAACO or Earl. Those guys have experience in spraying paint. Do the dirty work and then pay them to spray it. Talk to them about how they mix their paint, because they may add to much hardener to get it to set up.

I don't know what brand of paint those guys use, but I am partial to a couple of quality brands and have some reservations about the others. I like the Sikkens and PPG are at the top end of my list with Dupont and Valspar falling in after that. Those others, such as R&M and Omni, are basically thinner with a color tint mixed in it. They are so thin, you pay for a lot of coats to get the coverage. Buy quality paint and do it right the first time.
One can almost paint a car themselves, if they want to do it right. It is not that complicated, once you set your garage up to keep the dang bugs out and wet the floors down.

[C&C Chevy]

Unless you don't have a place to paint and sand, do it yourself.

[marvxyz1]

I can remember when Earl Sheibs used to sell their paint jobs for 29.95. I had a couple of jobs done by them. Yellow Pinto wagon came out okay. Blue Pinto wagon had smudges on various places otherwise fair job.

[marvxyz1]

I believe Maaco is upscale compaired to Earl Shieb.

[Jim85IROC]

I've used a bunch of the interior paints... SEM, Duplicolor, and Plastikote. I've found that the plastikote is a 100% perfect color match to the original GM interior in my Camaro, so I've used that the most. I did some kick panels with it, and they've stood up to every bit of abuse I've dished out at them. They've been installed and removed dozens of times, kicked, etc. The key is proper prep. Sand the plastic lightly, clean the product with a plastic prep (I used the SEM stuff) or mineral spiriits, then do a few light coats.

Overall, my complaint with the Duplicolor and Plastikote stuff is that they can be a bit too glossy, and due to the cheaper nozzles, you don't get good enough atomization to spray light coats evenly. If you don't lay it on a bit heavy, it doesn't lay down flat. The SEM seemed much better at atomizing and allowing me to get complete, smooth coverage with less paint, which meant the natural texture of the plastic was better preserved.

Here's the first pic. Here, the housing that the monitor is in was painted with SEM, wetsanded, and hand rubbed to provide a perfect match in luster and color to the original (unpainted) plastic housing that the radio & heater controls are in. Pay no attention to the dash board... it was white from dust/dirt:


Here's another pic, this time of my old set of kick panels. The kicks were painted with the Duplicolor Charcoal paint. My door sills are the original, unpainted GM plastic: