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I had my car repainted by a local (Charleston, SC) Maaco shop a little over a year ago. I'm pretty satisifed with the paint job, as it looks nice, but they pretty much only painted what one can actually see. In other words, they masked everything that wasn't to be painted and sprayed down the rest. I get the feeling if I had had an accessory panel, they would have masked it and sprayed the car, meaning if I ever removed it, the area between my taillights would still be the original paint.
So, if you do some prep work yourself, or if you go over what you want done in detail with the person who's going to paint your car, you can get a very high-quality paint job. Alternately, even if you don't do anything (my case), you can still get a good-looking car.
I had the third-level paintjob (maybe the Presidential?) done for about $520, which I have detailed here. A year later it still looks good.
I think most independent shops will spend more time going over your car, getting it ready, and making sure things are done right, but it seems that Maaco shops do a sufficient enough job for the price.
Two point about Maaco/repainting--keep an eye out for specials, and make sure you figure out what you want done with the under-window black strip. I've heard that every Spring Maaco does a half-price deal or something like that, but I think that's every February. When we got my car done, there was a $100 discount deal running. Also, get the shop to remove, spray over, replace, or otherwise do something about that black strip underneath the windows. Mine was cracking, and unfortunately it got masked over. Don't let them do that--get it removed and made body-color, get them to paint a new one on there, or do something. Otherwise the great new look will be hurt by the cracked black tape.
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'89 244 GL -- 111,005 miles (see profile for info on car)
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