Well, I'm taking my car down to maaco tomorrow to see what they can do for me. If they can get me a paint job with the "additonal sanding" I need to get out the scratches, nail polish (from previous owner), oxidation, etc. for under $500 then I'm going to have them do it. After almost 4 years I might finally be getting the paint job I always said I was going to get. lol. This is, unfortunately, only so I can sell the car faster since nobody wants to pay a reasonable price for a car that's in perfect condition mechanically, near perfect on the interior, but 4 different colors on the exterior.

pics and update tomorrow

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Your selling it? What a shame...

If you want a good paint job from them, you're probably looking at over $700... but if you're just trying to put a layer of paint on it to look beautiful for a year or two so the new owner has to deal with your problem... under $500 it is.

This post has been edited by CastrolCelica: Nov 18, 2009 - 9:33 AM

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pretty much... I mean, I've already dumped way too much money into this thing already in an effort to make it more "sell-able" by putting this $500 in I might increase the value by $2-300 so I'm not really making my money back. But a lot more people are willing to buy a car that's all one color...

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Yea, that's true. What color are you going with? The stock or something new?

Here's to hoping that we either get another member here, or that once you see it in all it's glory, you'll want to keep it .

This post has been edited by CastrolCelica: Nov 18, 2009 - 12:32 PM

Well, I ended up dropping it off there! Total cost is $580 for their "presidential" service. Basically they're gonna do all the sanding, then a full primer/sealer, then a single stage paint. And it comes with a 2 year warranty. I could see right through all the sales pitches they were making, but in the end I gave in after the owner eagerly encouraged me to read the reviews of them on yelp.com vs. the other maaco I was going to check out. 5 star rating vs. 2 1/2 star... Also one of the people working there had a 1st gen celica parked out front that was painted a very nice orange.

anyway, here's some before pics. these were taken last week:





and these were taken in the parking lot: (sorry for cell phone quality)

Color?


As a side note, I notice you just took off the spoiler and tail lights. Since having them do the unassembly of the trim and what not is $500, and.. judging from your price you paid you didn't order that, you realize the paint is going to look like **** because you left all your rubber trim on the car, right? I mean.. the paint around the headlights alone is going to be chipping in no time.. as is where your door trim is.

Sigh, I need to stop caring about a car that isn't mine, but I just feel bad for it...

This post has been edited by CastrolCelica: Nov 18, 2009 - 4:20 PM

it's going to be the stock green color.

and I understand the paint isn't going to be perfect. It's got a two year warranty which transfers to the new owner too, so if it does start chipping they can have them fix it. I am paying extra for prep work and $175 for the additional sanding. I had a coupon for 50% off the prep work, it would've been ~$700

got a call from maaco today, they said it's done! then he says "give me a call as soon as possible, I really need it out of here because I'll have a lot of cars over the weekend" well, that really makes me feel good knowing I probably got some rush-job... I didn't get off work today until 5:30 and they close at 6, and the shop is about a half hour away without fighting with rush-hour traffic... So I'll have to try to pick it up tomorrow somehow, even though they are only open 8-1 and I work 7:30-4:30.

I got so excited to see this thread, then I find out you're selling it oh well, we all have to move on. At least you've got 2 other Celicas

well it's not sold yet! I got it back today, and besides some expected imperfections it actually looks REALLY good. Very glossy which I wasn't expecting from the single stage paint. Pics and more info to come tomorrow

Nice, good for you man. I second Castrol's notion...but I guess if you paid for them to remove everything, you should be set. Good choice on the teal too...I'm usually not a fan, but it'll probably look great brand new. Can't wait for pics.

lets see the pics!!!

today I went around and fixed up any issues I had. First, they re-installed my taillights for me, though I didn't ask them (or pay them) too. That was nice so I didn't have to put them back in in the parking lot. Anyway, the left turn signal blinked fast, so I figured they didn't plug the taillight back in. I took both out and they actually installed them correctly. It was the front turn signal not working. I took it out, and the bulb had green paint on it, and I guess that burnt out the bulb. This is actually ok with me though, cause a bulb is only $3, and it means they took the time to remove the front turn signals Next, the rear wiper was running horizontal to the window instead of vertical. I guess they thought it swings up instead of down. My 00 is vertical and swings down but my 88 is horizontal and swings up, so I had to test it to make sure it actually did swing down. And yes, they put it on wrong. I'm not really upset over it though, it was a simple mistake anybody not familiar with the car could've made. The only thing I haven't fixed yet is the headlight rubbers (you can see in the pics) the low beam ones are half falling out. Before the paint job they would sometimes come out at the corners, but I would just push them back in and they'd be ok for another few weeks. well now they don't really want to go back in. Am I going to have to take my bumper off to get these back in right? I also still need to vacuum out the interior. There's a bunch of dust inside now. Other than that, there's a few places where they could've masked better, and there are a few scratches on the front bumper and fenders, but other than that the paint looks really sweet! So, without further ado, here's the pics:

I see you are surrounded in celicas there. 5th gen, 6th gen 7th gen.. got a whole collection going ;-p

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yeah, I'm obsessed. lol. The alltrac is actually a 4th gen though, 5th gens are 90-93. I almost bought a 5th gen GTS too before I bought the 6th gen.

Anyway, I wanted to note, in the pic of the roof, it looks like you can see the primer coming through or something like they didn't put enough coats on, that's actually a reflection of some clouds or something, the roof looks magnificent. I especially like that part since my roof was in such poor shape before and has been ever since I bought the car almost 4 years ago

That turned out awesome! Good luck selling the car.

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question is... have you changed your mind on selling it?

Wow, very nice. I'll probably do the prep myself, but if I ever need a paintjob, I'll definitely consider a good Maaco.

did you remove the handles, bumber, etc for paint or did they just tape stuff off and paint the car as is? if you remove stuff for them to paint would they paint it or are there additional costs for painting what not actually attached to the car?

Wow, hey, they did a pretty good job with that. That's not bad at all!

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nope, they painted them on the car. I saved $35 by removing my spoiler and they painted it off the car. I'm sure if you remove all the stuff there will be no extra charge. I didn't see the point though since I'm sticking with the original color.

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*sigh* it's definately going to be much harder for me to part with now. But I need to pay off my 7th gen, and it's hard to find time to give attention to 3 cars. I haven't even driven or worked on my alltrac in a couple months. Once the 6th gen is gone I'll be able to put some time into that, though I want to sell that eventually too so I can get a 60's muscle car

I reaaaally like the more blueish tint to the teal. It looks much better than the previous color, to be honest. I hope you're considering keeping it now. Especially now that it doesn't look like a giant puzzle .

PS: Celicas can turn better than a 60's muscle car... so just keep the Celica lol.

This post has been edited by CastrolCelica: Nov 23, 2009 - 9:55 AM

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I'll still have my 00 celica GTS which has KYB AGX's and Tanabe GF210's for that! I've just wanted to build a car like that with every part imaginable is available to buy and you can make serious horsepower out of simple bolt ons.

You know what's funny?

I was VERY close to buying your car. I actually called you about it. Hahaha. Paintjob looks sick.

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Well you know, it's still for sale. Now looking better than ever I'd rather see it go to a 6gc.net member that's going to take care of it

Asking $3200 for site members, gonna put it up for $3600 on craigslist

Wow I like it, don't sell it, get rid of th other two, lol