Not that the love affair has been fully re-kindled but I seem to be about two fiberglass kits away from fixing the leaks in my old 83 300DT. I am planning to have the car re-painted its original gold color at MACCO. Yes, I know their not the best but.... Any suggestions as to what I can do pre-paint job to help it come out better? I was thinking of removing the door trim if that's simple and if new clips are available. Maybe doing some of my own masking. There are a couple of body surface rust spots that I want to sand down and paint with Eastwood's black rust encapsulator. Will that screw up the primer/paint Macco uses? The car is either going to be sold right away or be kept for the next 20 years but regardless I'd like it to look a little decent. Any suggestions/web sites to help me get ready are greatly appreciated.

Most paint shops will negotiate if you do some of your own prep work. Lightly sanding the entire car might save you up to $100 and get you better results.

In prepping for paint, you've gotta use the finest sand paper available.... think 280 grit (or finer) wet/dry fabric paper from nearby marina that paints boats. At really rough rusted spots, use progressively finer paper starting with 120 grit on Makita jitterbug power sander.

After sanding (and bondo?) over whatever metal primer you use, get out ther with garden hose and very gently rub down the entire car using wet/dry approach with ultra fine grit fabric paper mentioned above.

Stripping the car of emblems and chrome strips myself, I'd probably leave the masking to them.... any overspray on window trim can be removed with solvent product called "Goof-Off" available at any paint store.

One question you might ask Maco is what sort of paint they use...
Maybe you want to pay extra to get the best Dupont product, instead of whatever ordinary crap Maco usually sells.

Hell, there's no reason to believe that Maco spray techs cant do as good a job as anybody else. It strikes me they just might be using cheaper paint. Reeaaallly good paint can cost upwards of $100 per gallon.

Save money on prep work, and pour money into the paint product being used.... thats my advice.

I have done this in the past ( the WAYYYY past) Results were quite good.
Remove everything you do not want painted---all trim, emblems, script etc.
as diesel dog said, do your own sanding. One area to be careful here is how fine a paper to use. I would suggest using 240, or even 320 grit. These are not the finest grits availible. I am not in the business, but I have seen 3200--there may be some finer. You do not want these ultra fine grits. You actually need a little surface roughness to help the paint to adhere--its called "tooth".
Before you do any sanding--get some silicone remover and go over the car with it, following the directions on the can. Failure to remove silicone ( contained in many polishes) will cause little bits to get embedded in your substrate and will cause "fish eyes" in the color coat.
Good luck!

The best thing to do before having you car painted at Macco is to save up some more money and go somewhere else.

MAcco actually is the best of the inexpensive paint shops. However, here are the reasons.

No prep. They mask and spray, period. No sanding, no fixing, no rust primer, no nothing. Just spray. However, they are GOOD, and the paint will look wonderful. You have to do all the prep if you want a lasting good job.

No color choices except what they have on hand. They use very good paint, but only stock a limited number of colors (in 55 gal drums). No color matching available.

You may have to pay extra for good primer.

The good news is that they will work with you, and one of the guys at work restored a Toyota Land Cruiser a few years ago. Delivered it to them on a trailer, windows out, etc. Looks better than factory, no one believes it is a class job from Macco.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

final sanding should be done with 400 grit wet or dry sandpaper, sand with plenty of water to keep paper from clogging any thing coarser will show.Make sure you use a good wax remover before sanding.remove every bit of trim and anything else that dosn't get painted. Some of the inexpensive paint shops don't use primer or sealer if painting same color. I have seen some self preped cars done at these shops that look pretty good.It is a big job self preping any car if done right.......
William Rogers........