Ugh! So disappointed.

Just before Christmas I was recommended to a highly reputable shop near me for some custom paint work. I bought a Klock Werks Wrapper front fender and the shop was to replicate the stock paint job on my CVO on the new fender. Before I purchased the fender, I asked the owner of the shop, "Are you sure you guys can do it?" he said, "yes, he was sure." I have seen a lot of their work and it is TOP NOTCH. Based on the work I saw, I knew it was at the right place. The guys who does their work is a guru who has done lots of wild paint jobs on bike and cars and more importantly, has on several occasions replicated CVO paint jobs as well.

Like most quality paint shops that do custom paint work here in the north east, winter is their busy time and this shop was no exception. They let me know up front that they would work this relatively small job in over the winter. I was in no hurry, my drop dead date was to be finished in time for Daytona. Fine, let's do it I said. In addition to the fender, I ordered a new set of Agitator wheels and rotors. I love the look of the 19" Agitator and the Wrapper fender. Fender, wheels, tires, etc, I'm in for about $3,000. (not including the paint job)

I kept in touch over the winter. There wasn't any actual progress getting painting done, but I was aware the biggest challenges would be first, matching the paints. (Harley WILL NOT provide this info any more.) The next challenge would be replicating the stripe. Progress was made ordering the 5 colors that comprise the paint job. Progress was made doing test sprays determining the best technique to replicate pattern of the stripe.

I spoke to the owner 10 days ago and finally they had everything they needed. All the paint, and a good technique for the stripe. They had set aside a full week of shop time to get the fender done.

So here we are today, 2 weeks away from the day I'm leaving for Daytona. (I'm going a few days early). So I call the shop to see how things are looking and when I can pick the fender up.

That's when I get the bad news... For reasons beyond what the owner can fully share with me, the relationship went south between him and the guy who's actually doing the paint job on the fender. The guru. The guy who was recommend as "The Man" for replicating a CVO paint job. After 9 years of working together, enough was enough and they had to part company. The owner did acknowledge that my fender was one of the nails in the coffin. The reluctance of the guru to put in some extra hours to work on it amidst all the customer hot rods they are working on.

So now I'm at square one. Along the way, I ended up with two Klock Works fenders. (Don't ask) The owner is going to spray one of those fenders for me in monochromatic to match the dominant color on my CVO. I'll be able to leave that fender on my bike for Daytona and the foreseeable future.

So, here I am at square one.

Now the challenge is up to me to find a shop who is capable of doing the job. I won't spare expense because I want it perfect. The owner is doing his best to do right by me and since he has all the paint, he said he'll hold on to it for me and when I find a shop that can do the job, he will sell them (or me) the paint at cost.
This will save time and hassle of matching the colors again. Just have to find a shop who can manage the technique. FWIW, and according to the owner, the guru is down and out with no where to store his tools let alone paint. So, tracking him down doesn't seem like an option. I am however, only getting the owner's side of the story.

I had a different thread going early on in this process and some of you guys recommended some shops you know of you think are capable of this kind of high end paint work, but if you've got any more suggestions please let me know. I do intend to reach out to some of those shops. I'll be sending my original stock fender (to use as a reference to match), and the 2nd Klock Works fender off to where ever to do the job, as soon as I find the best shop for the project.

Any great paint shop recommendations are appreciated.

Below is a close up of the stripe that is the biggest challenge so you can see why this is proving to be so difficult. Would be awesome if the MoCo could just paint it for me.

 

I've had a few visits to the local custom paint shop (True Kustom) in Denver, it never comes easy or cheap! And it's never comes fast enough...sorry about your trouble.

 

For the striping and special effects, contact DeWayne Connot outside Philly or Alan Johnson in Blairstown, NJ near the PA border. I'm sure they work with paint shops for the other part of the job.

 

Danny Bally in Rio Rancho, NM. I've had 4 paint jobs done by him, all excellent work. He fixes damaged paint work for the local Harley dealer, including CVOs, so it shouldn't be a problem for him to get paint codes. He's done work more complicated than that, so that shouldn't be a problem. Also, he is the guru, his employees do the simple stuff so he 's not going to quit.

On all the work he's done, he's been on time as per his estimate, and always charged what he estimated, no "hidden costs" or "unforeseen problems."

I don't know how busy he is right now, or if he does mail order work, but I'm dropping a couple of fenders off with him in the next few days, and can ask him about it if you like.

 

This is the work he did on my bike. The tiger is hand painted, not a decal.

 

Find the guru,, a good man with a paint gun isn't "down and out" for long.

 

send your fender to Harley cvo paint shop expect to wait

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
After you're done screwing around in Daytona, yeah, send it to HD and wait.

 

there are only 2 people I would trust with a project like this, first one is BD's Cycles ( http://www.bdscycles.com/Home.html ) the best work I have ever sen bar none

the second one, also highly recommended is Scot at Thin Air Graffx, ( http://www.thinairgrafx.com/ ) a phenomenal talent who has won Best Paint In Show at many Boston area shows (World Of Wheels) and did the tins for a 100K custom build commissioned at a friends shop

 

Nice work. I'm going to talk to a few more local (east coast) options first, but if they don't pan out, I'll definitely give him a call.

I was actually able to track him down on Facebook today. I asked him if we could talk and he said yes, to call him tomorrow, so we'll see.

I'd love to do that, but HD won't paint aftermarket parts any more. This according to two local dealers. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to call MoCo central command and ask though.