Saturday April 15th MAACO Tour We really had a great tour of the St

Saturday April 15th MAACO Tour
We really had a great tour of the St.
Louis Park MAACO. About 20 CMIers were
present for the tour as well as Doug (from
D&G down the street). Gary got there a little
late so he had to ask questions that had already
been covered but that way we were more
certain of the correct response. Mark McKee,
the new owner of this franchise, took us
through personally and answered any and all
questions about this business and MAACO’s in
general - whatever we asked he shot a good
clean straightforward answer. It was very
worthwhile. Here’s Mark showing off the
Corporate Logo.
Mark started out in the front office where a customer usually comes in. Told us
how an estimate is laid out and what the
different paint types there are....Enamel 300$ Enamel with UV protection in it $500Urethane $800 - and then the base coat/clear
coat for $1000. He expalined very well that the
paint job is just that - a paint job - if you need
body work or frame straightening or
replacement parts etc. those are obviously not
included in the price of a paint job. We were
primarily interested in paint jobs on our
beautiful and straight CORVAIRs and only
mildly concerned about body work. The
question was asked and I thought he gave a
very good answer. Someone popped out the
idea of bringing in a car and having them take
off all the chrome and trim and bumpers, etc.
He said that shop time is $60/hr to both remove
and replace it....BUT.....since these cars are our
toys it would be much better if we took off our
own trim and cleaned it up on our own time and
then replaced it - - after they did the painting.
It was interesting to note that he too
thinks people who do the paint first and then get
at the motor - driveline - suspension, etc have
their priorities in the wrong order. Gary was
most heartily agreeing with him on that very
point.
Mark walked us all through the body
shop and out back where the cars were waiting
to get into the painting area.....showed us some
that were there that had been done to
the customer’s requirement - - meaning
the customers didn’t want the car done
like we would have wanted - sometimes the customer says “just paint
over the dents” or when the car is an
old lacquer job and the paint is all
cracked and chipped and needs to be
removed so that new paint will lie flat
and smooth....and the customer says,
‘just paint over the old stuff’.....well
then that’s exactly what Mark does.
Mark took us into the paint area
and showed us the mixing stations
where any color in the world can be mixed.
Their computer data base is updated by DuPont
every year when all the new codes are fed in.
When I took my car to be painted just a few
weeks ago I gave the painter the GM color
code (22U) and they punched it in and up came
“Superior Blue Pearl Metallic” with mixing
instructions for a pint or a gallon.....the “clear”
coat is always the same and goes on over the
top of the base (color) coat. He explained
about how difficult it is to match any color and
that it’s always best to repaint a ‘large’ area
where you go to a break in the body line even if
the new color is close to the existing one. He
also said that spot repairs on a Base/Clear
should have the clear of the entire panel redone
as the joint between the old ‘clear’ and the new
‘clear’ will always be a problem.
Here’s Mike the paper guy taping my
‘64 a few weeks ago. I asked and was given
permission to enter the work space and take a
few pictures.....that is usually a NO-NO but I
asked real nice! The other guy with his hand on
my hood is Bill the body guy who welded in a
new section in my hood - where the ‘64 letters
used to be. The hood is a good solid unit
except where the letters had been - - the factory
foam behind each letter held any rain that was
driven in - keeping the area nicely moist - and
allowed all thirteen holes to rust out....each
letter has two holes with metal clips that hold
the seven CORVAIR letters....the “I” needed
only one clip, that’s why it’s thirteen holes.
My engine cover is just there in front of Bill on
the picture. I brought several parts in - separate
from the car - so that they would get treated all
around - top and bottom.
After your paint is applied, at MAACO,
the car is wheeled into a nice warm ‘oven’ room
to finish the ‘setting’ of the paint. Takes about
an hour and is cooked at a modest 110 degrees
for that time. The last area of the shop is where
the car is buffed down to get rid of any nubs
that happen to be on it and then its new and
shiny self is wheeled out the door. The buffing
can be done as soon as a few hours after the
paint is applied as these modern paints don’t
have to “dry” they just react to the air and
‘cure’- - sort of like epoxy cures....(chemically
curing instead of drying off with a big stink of
paint thinner going all over the neighborhood like paint “used to” do).
Mark went out into the front parking
area with us and looked at a couple cars and
gave estimates on what it looked like would
have to be done - - and how much it would
cost.
George’s car took a lot of looking at and
Mark felt that each panel on George’s ‘64
would have to be stripped due to severe
checking of its now ‘antique’ Daytona Blue
paint.
Fran Schmit