I asked a guy to just shoot my car - no body work, no materials - just gun-in-hand and his quote in 2006 was, minimum, $6000 - no cut and buff, no reassembly. Yes, he possibly/probably would have done the last wet sand. I then decided in 2008 that since I was now retired and had less (no!) income and lots of time, to do my own. I used DuPont and SPI. The paint then was $600+/gallon, bought two but have over a quart left. Primers, fillers, paper, etc - at least another $1000. My time - phew!! Even with all new parts, lots of dings, gouges and deep metal scratches which a pro could probably fix in 2-3 days but took me weeks. Is my car as good as what HOTRODPAINT or shine can do? Nope, but it still is decent and better then much of the local so called body shop work I've seen. Even the guy that quoted shooting - gotta say, a couple of his jobs that I've seen, including his personal street rod, aren't so great.

What I'm saying is that MAACO can do a decent budget job, but you too can do a decent job yourself, but you will need a compressor, at least a mid level gun, a good mask and some time (along with other prep materials). Yeah, you WILL make some mistakes, but the satisfaction when someone asks who did it, you point to yourself.

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