The older forum members might remember this

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I do remember it. You also had to do all the masking yourself at that price.

And, $30 was about 2 days pay.

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I had one car painted at Earls. It was $99 by that time.

I did a ton of rust repair on that little Datsun 510.

Looked OK when it was done, just OK.

My wife owned a 1981 510. It ran great with that Naps-Z engine…but it was so prone to rust. We sold it in 1987 and it was almost undrivable because of all the rust then.

Maaco was the big cheap auto paint company where I lived. They’re still around. They have a place in the market - Cheap.

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The only car that I had repainted by them was my '74 Volvo, whose paint was completely chalked after ~3 years. It looked better–from a distance–after the repaint. Upon close inspection… not so good.

In my neck of the woods, the nickname for that business was Earl Slob, and I think that this was somewhat appropriate.

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We owned two Dataun 510s, a 1971 and a 72. Both rusty as heck but fun cars. Little 96 hp 1.6 liter 4.

When I was a kid ~1966 my father got his 48 Plymouth painted at Earl Scheib.
About the same time he had a new motor installed at Sears.
My teenage brothers were embarrassed to be in it and would scrunch down if we went by saw someone they knew.
My mother nicknamed it “High Boy” because it sat above all the newer, low slung models.
It would fit right in with today’s SUVs.

Around 1968 a hole opened up in the floor.
I thought it was neat to see the road going by, but my father gave it to a friend who had a little farm in Virginia.
He put it up on blocks and attached a saw blade to one of the rear hubs to cut wood.

Joke was they sanded the cars with golf shoes, back when golf shoes had metal spikes!

I had 2 cars painted at MAACO and one at Earls. MAACO was more expensive but a far better job!

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For an extra $10 they’ll roll up the windows first

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When I graduated high school my girl friend had a 49 Plymouth that had been painted by Earl Scheib. Paint did not look that bad actually but they sprayed everything but the bumpers and glass. Everything else was maroon.

She was short (4’10") and her dad painted the wood blocks bolted to the pedals maroon to match. Made it an aggravation for me to drive… :frowning:

There were a couple of these outfits. Actually the biggest thing was grinding marks and over spray. So they tell me you could get a decent job if you did the prep work. Then again, I got my Morris Minor painted at a real body shop for $20 back in 1966. I did all the prep and masking so all they had to do was shoot it. Back when paint was cheap.

Yup!
If the car had a chrome strip on the side, they did mask that, even if they didn’t do a good job of masking. But, the white metal script denoting the car model (Fairlane, Belvedere, Biscayne, etc) was always painted over.

Those script emblems are a bear to mask but can be easy to remove… sometimes. Usually they had to come off cars in my area because there was rust underneath.

I agree.
Back in my pre-adolescent days, a friend and I would ride our bikes to the section of the town dump where the city deposited derelict cars that had been towed and not claimed. I accumulated a decent collection of '40s & '50s hood ornaments and model identification badges… which I wish I still had! :pensive:… but on the other hand, there were several that broke when I tried to remove them.

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They used to be metal with the little tabs that would fit into holes in the sheet metal. Rust was common around the holes. They they started just gluing them on. No I think most are just plastic and glued on, but break easily. I don’t remember which car anymore (Buick or Olds) but I had to buy a replacement. $10 for a stick on piece of plastic. And that was some years ago.

Brings back fond memories of a buddy’s 3rd party hand me down Skylark which he decided to gussy up on a teen’s very limited budget.
"New’ retread tires, Pep Boys seat covers, purple flocked paisley contact paper on the dash and a $30 Earl Scheib Banana Yellow paint job complete with all the overspray, orange peel and drip marks you could possibly want. :grinning:

Looked like hell but with for $2 for gas, did the job and left a lot of great memories.

Kid wanted a qt of yellow paint. Went to store and they mixed up some and the guy was moaning that it used %50 yellow tint. But he also said they never sell yellow paint,