I'm planning to paint my corolla, so anyone have any suggestion of "who" or "where" i can get it painted, AND have experience doing the panda scene? black and white. I'm located in CAlifornia

I hit up my local paint shop in Santa Cruz and they did a super nice Super White II(the shade of white for panda), and then I painted the black on myself. As far as chains go I heard Maaco was good, but only if you pay the right amount of money(and by right they mean a LOT). I'd go local first if I were you man, check out your local paint shops and see the customer satisfaction info on them and maybe drop by and see what they got and how they do it. You can save yourself a buttload of money too if you sand the car down yourself ;P

Sand it down yourself for sure. It takes time and patience but you will def save yourself money. Also, don't go to low grit just to speed things up, you'll cut the metal and that costs more to repair in the long run. Now, depending on how much you realllly care about the outcome, you can go get some paint and do it yourself. Just do a bunch of light coats and it'll come together eventually. If you don't want to paint it yourself though, at least do the sanding.

I can sand my car down myself, it's just that my car have rust on it about the size of an iphone. What I wanna do is cut it off and wield a metal on it, but i'm not experience with wielding.

just sand off the rust till you get clean metal? Unless its a whole or something

Ryusei_Date wrote:I hit up my local paint shop in Santa Cruz and they did a super nice Super White II(the shade of white for panda), and then I painted the black on myself. As far as chains go I heard Maaco was good, but only if you pay the right amount of money(and by right they mean a LOT). I'd go local first if I were you man, check out your local paint shops and see the customer satisfaction info on them and maybe drop by and see what they got and how they do it. You can save yourself a buttload of money too if you sand the car down yourself ;P

once he said macco and good in one sentence, disregard everything else he said.

Just take it to a real shop and spend the money.

If you screw up the prep work yourself and the paint goes to crap, the shop is going to laugh at you when you gripe about it going bad.
If you wait too long after doing prep work yourself and don't do it fast and get it painted fast, you'll start getting rust again. Hence why new body panels usually come primed.

Rust repairs? Good luck.
You better be damn good at what you are doing or else you are going to have mickey mouse looking crap on your hands that is going to require the rust spot you tried to fix and your DIY mess to be removed all in one swipe.

I will commend someone that builds their own engine, rebuilds a tranny, rear end, does their own suspension work and a million other things.

But homemade paintjobs are uncommon for a reason: Most of the time, they look like dookie. Even a lot of the ones I have seen at shops look like dookie.

With my car for example:

It's getting a full restoration. Interior, exterior wheels up.
I am confident in my ability to do the mechanical work, but the body and interior on a car that I really cherish? No way.
I'd rather spend the 5 grand the shop quoted me for on the resto work and have it done right the first time and not have to worry about it.

once he said macco and good in one sentence, disregard everything else he said.[/quote]
Lol my gf got her car painted by maaco.found a coupon online n paid $435 out the door for a 2 stage gm avalanche white paint job. Actually came out quite well except for their lack of masking. I had to remask a lot on my own before they shot the car.



It's nothing special, but beats paying twice as much n has held up for 3 years now lol

that silvia looks nice