Paintjob time - any advice?, Getting a Maaco job Options

[GriffGirl]

Okay, so here's the deal– my hood is badly faded and the bumper has mad rock chips. Someone opened up a Maaco not too far from me and is having a special on their "Supreme" Paint Service, so I'm going to take advantage of it and have my car painted. I'm keeping it silver, but am changing the silver from Alpine Silver (Maaco calls it Silver Metallic) to a silver that's a tad darker and has more metallic flake in it. I can't remember the name of the color.

I know there are things to be aware of, such as removing whatever I want removed and not taped off, etc. I figure a moderately sh1tty paint job will look better than the way my paint looks now. The guy @ Maaco warned me that with a single-stage paint, there's a greater chance of flaws. When I asked "like what" he said there could be some orange peel, even some dirt. DIRT!? WTF? I'm not expecting a $2k paint job for what I'm paying here, but dirt!?

Lastly, I have a crack in my bumper. Maaco wants $180 to repair it. If I had the $180 to repair it I'd just replace the whole bumper. (anyone in the PNW have a bumper for me! ) So I'll repair it myself. I know it won't be top notch, but I can do the best I can with whatever guidance you 6GCers might have to offer me! Current photo of the crack can be taken/posted if that would help.

What prep work can I do myself? What things can I do before hand to get the most out of the Maaco job? What can I do once I get the car back from being painted, to "help it along" and make it look as good as possible?

[Random_Stranger]

I gotta be honest too. They painted my bumper $50, hood $50, and riser blocks $50 and guess what? The color came out nice, but now, I notice that the reflection from my original paint, vs theirs is better and more clear. They hood and bumper have this mosaic like appearance to it, like many hole like bubbles, I am guessing they painted it outside with a breeze? They asked me if I wanted them to paint under the hood, and I said yes please, guess what? They didn't. I even said I would pay extra if they could repair a tab that was missing or broken from my bumper, they said they couldn't or talked out of it, even though I was willing to pay for it (and these guys repair collisions?). Anyway, the bottom line is you truly get what you pay for, yet sometimes what you pay for you do not get and there are hidden gems out there. So just meet people, talk to them, talk to customers there to see if they are returning as a satisfied customer, or because something needs to be redone.

Whatever you decide to do, let us know how it all came out. Oh yeah, and they took the parts apart on my bumper and hood, but on my bumper, they just gave me all those parts in a plastic baggy. LOL I had to assemble it all back together once I got home, which I guess isn't that bad, but kind of made me question the future if I ever decided to take my whole car to get painted, which I plan to do in the future, because I NEED IT, and probably in the same boat as you, or could use a paint job even more than you.