[The Fixer]

I firmly believe if you go and investigate some of these Maaco's, that you will find good shops, and bad shops. I stopped into the one in Saddle Brook and watched them prep a car; their tape job was horrible, and another car that they just pulled out of a spraybooth had terrible orange peel and overspray everywhere.

Then I checked out the Maaco down on Tonnelle Ave in North Bergen. They had a '55 Chevy in there, a few Vettes, and a few other old muscle cars. I had them paint my old daily driver '86 Cutlass, and it came out great. And, for those of you that have seen my SS, it was painted by a Maaco out on Long Island at least 10 years ago and it still looks great. Sure, there's a few blemishes here and there, but for a car that gets abused on a regular basis, it doesn't need to be flawless.

Sure, you get what you pay for, but if the shop works on cool cars and the guys they employ care about their job, you will get a decent paint job for the $$. It won't be show quality, but good driver quality.