So I want to share one of my unpleasant situations I have encountered during my bike build.

So one of my commercial accounts at work is a body shop ( to remain un named) He specializes in custom cars and has a great gallery of work on photo and some in person. I speak with him about possibly painting my fenders and chin spoiler about 3 weeks ago. He says he will and I took my parts to him on Monday. We agree on a price, and the price sounded good and I made sure to tell him that the money is less important than the quality of work. I just wanted him to know I expected perfection. He also said they would be ready Wednesday (2 days later) and I made sure to tell him to take his time as well. He assured me that the work would be "flawless and Perfect"

So, I called him tonight (Friday) after I get off work and he says they are ready to go and look better than he could have imagined and he will be there for another 30 mins. So I changed and grabbed som cash and headed to the shop.

First thing I see is that my Harley orange front fender still has orange peeking through!! WTF, then I notice the super thick clear that has been sloppiliy machine buffed. The top of the fender is glossy as could be, with orange paint clearly visible under the new black base/clear and the sides of the fender are dry as a popcorn fart with orange peeking through as well. Yet somehow he still managed to lay on the clear so thick it bellowed out at some edges. Basically I gave this dummy 3 parts and they were all different color, and he didnt even prime them all black prior to paint/clear.

The rear fender looked ok EXCEPT he sat the fender on what looks to be a aluminum work stand and he marred the edges of all the paint on the edges. Exposing bare metal, and making the fender look like it had been chewed on with a dremel. BARE METAL, no paint, no clear, and nothing had been feathered, and once again, no primer. Just base/clear/buff

My chin spoiler, looked like it was dunked in dirt, and then clear. They tried to buff out the dirt, had a fish eye reaction. The clear ran down the in side of the chin spoiler prolly 4 mil thick.

I leave and the owner apologizes and says he will make it right, call him next Wednesday. He is about 4 beers into a sixxer at this point. I leave calmly but my thoughts are jumbled. As I get further and further away I get furious. I called my girl and told her I wanted her to see this work. She agress and comes along with me, I call the owner and tell him I will be there in 10 mins to talk about these issues.

I get there and ask him for a few minutes to show my girl this work. She couldnt believe the level of work this guy did, also noting he was confident in doing a perfect job when we dropped it off on Monday.

At this point he is 6 beers in, and is trying to calm me down, even though I wasnt at all being loud or insulting. Merely clear on what I expect out of the work I contracted him to do. He then goes on to tell me his painter is 63 years old, and he rushes them. He also made it a point to tell me the paint looks great in poor light.......I told him very clearly that this isnt a 10 foot bike, its not a 6 ft bike, its a new build and I expect the paint accordingly to be that level.

He started to backpeddle and say that if he would have done it himself it would have been perfect. He also said that if I didnt think he was up to the task that I should take the work somewhere else, and he wouldnt charge me. I did NOT want to do this to another painter, as I feel like the guy who made the mess should handle this. Its not fair to other painters to hand them screwups like this.

I told him that I would do that if he wasnt up to the level of work I expected, and that I also know that he is completely capable of doing the work at this level. This was why I chose him to do the paint in the first place. He finally told me it could cost more, and that he would need 2 weeks to do that level of perfect because he was behind on other projects, and wasnt able to personally devote his personal time any earlier than that.

When I finally left the shop, he had agreed to paint all of the parts over again, make sure there is no dry areas in clear after compounding, all of the edges would be painted and knick free, and that he would also base /clear the inner fender areas, then tape off the inner fenders, and paint the outside. I thought that wasnt required but given his lack of detail on the edges, I figured I better let him go a it his way.

He said if I wasnt happy that I could have the paint job for free. I have a real hard time farming out work, because no matter how clear I am in my expectations, and how free I am on budget I end up having things like this happen.

Rant Over, Therapy May Be Required.......Tequila isnt working

 

Dang good luck with the paint..... I have only had one vehicle painted by a shop and it took six months for a civic hatchback and they still didn't paint the hood or engine bay.....

Be sure to post pics when it's done...

Barnabie

 

Yes, some people do take pride in their work. The painter I use here in Albuquerque is a real pro. He does excellent work, it's done on time, and always charges the estimated price, no hidden surprises.

I hope you don't regret walking out when he gave you the chance. I hope he makes it right for you.

Good luck.

 

Let me see if I have this right. The guy did **** work the first time. You expressed your displeasure and he said he'd take care of it. THEN 10 minutes later, you felt the need to pull your GF into it and take her back with you to break bad with the guy? Am I missing something here? Does your GF carry your ***** in her purse or what? You had already gotten the situation under control and gave him a chance to make it right. Why return the same day, with your GF just to rip on the guy again??

 

Very few, in any profession, take pride in what they do anymore.

 

I think I would have taken the oppourtunity to take it somewhere else. Makes me think back in the 90's when we were having a house built. I expected perfection and the builder told me the workers don't even know what the word perfection means. Good luck getting your problem solved.

 

I work for the Gov 30 yrs , and I can't teach the guys with less then 5 yrs ****.
The boss says , just let them figure it out the hard way. And I say some will never figure out there's a better way if they would just listen a little.
BUT there all great at sighing there pay checks.

 

I took her there for a voice of reason, at no point did either of us rip on the guy. She has seen the last 15 bikes I have built and painted myself, so she knows what kind of work I expect from myself and what kind of work I would expect from a PRO painter. I grew up in a really rough place, and my idea of calm and hers are two different things. I wanted her to look at the work, and I wanted a second look so I could be clear on what I expected from the 2nd go around.

If I would have went alone, the chances of the guy knowing what I really thought were extremely high, and quite frankly the probability of him catching a right hook to the jaw would have tripled. At 6ft 255lbs I think I have control of my ***** just fine. But thanks for being a keyboard warrior and taking your little opportunity to add nothing helpful to this situation.

 

Op wrote along winded post and not one photo, Lost Me LOL

 

Sorry guys, no pics. I thought if I would have taken any pics I would have fueled the already tense situation.

At this point, I will either get a really nice paint job back whilst allowing the man to make his name right, or I will get a decent paint job back for free and possibly have to do the finish compounding myself.