This will be long but bear with me...
As many of you know I was hit from behind by a fellow biker the second week in May. the damage will be right around $11k when complete!
I decided now was the time to do the things I had been thinking about. One of these was to go with some Klockwerks fenders and a custom paint job. I discussed with him what I wanted and speciffically told him I wanted to stay with Silver paint and silver (or silver tinted realistic flames). I wanted to stay in the same color family as silver... no color other than this! I also told him I was going on a trip Sept 26 and needed my bike together at least a week ahead of that to work out the bugs. There is alot of work being done and I wanted to do all the tweaking before my trip. He told me no problem things are slow and I'll get right on it...probably be done next week. This was almost two months ago! After many visits and phone calls reminding him of my trip he tells me to pick up my parts on Wed. about 12pm. I call on my way and he tells me it's not quite done but come and look at it. When I get there I think i'm being punked!!! My parts are painted Silver with Oriental Candy Blue Flames all over them!! I'm stunned and when I asked he said don't you like that? I asked why he did that and he proceeds to tell me what I want can't be done so he decided to go with blue. Without going into all the details suffice it to say I was mad. He says, I guess I'll have to fix it and start over... but I don't have time to fool with it because I'm going to the race. I leave and call my wife to vent and her advice is to pray about it. I'm too mad to pray you'll have to do it for me. I recall a guy that was recommended and decide to call him and get him to fix it. When he calls me back I tell hime about my dilemma without mentioning any names. When I get to the part about the silver with blue flames he tells me that he painted my bike. WHAT?? He also tells me that painter told him specifically to use blue. Turns out my painter does not do the airbrushing that he is known for and uses this other guy! My painter finally gets the parts stripped and re-painted abiut 9pm last night. He also has several smart comments about me worrying the he!! out of him. I pick them up and take them to the aribrush guy and he tells me today my painter sent the wrong base color for him to touch it up and he will have to repaint the base color with some he has! Now I'm stuck with the decision of taking my parts back to my painter on Monday for clear or finding someone else? I'm going to ask the airbrush guy to do it but my painter sends him alot of work apparently and he may not want to get in the middle. If I do that I also has to figure out what to pay my painter? This is making sick just thinking about it.

Again sorry for the length...and I left out alot of details!

 

No way I would ever go back to a painter who didn't do what I was paying him for. He's working for you, you make the calls, not the other way around.

 

Did the blue look decent? Sometimes artists get carried away and "assume" that you surely will like it.

As far as time pressure,...... that should be left out of the equation on ANY big project. You just don't rush perfection (without risk and lots of headaches).

 

He must think he's a world class builder/painter.
I seen videos of top builders making one-up customs and the customer asked for a certain color. When the bike is finished and the buyer sees it for the first time, the colors are no where close to what the buyer asked for. The builder states I know you wanted color X, but the bike screamed color Y.
They claim they love it and ride away smiling.

So my guess is this guy has delusions of grandeur and thinks he knows what you need not what you wanted.

 

He has no authority to do what he did, period. Forget about that artistic license stuff. The customer is always right. Had you not articulated what you wanted and said "surprise me", well that would have been another story.

It reminds me of my freshman college year, quite a while ago. There was this spoiled little rich girl whose Daddy was buying her a new Cadillac Convertible. When asked what color she wanted, she told her Dad "anything but red". Sure enough, perhaps as an (expensive) joke, he bought her a brand new, bright red Caddy Convertible.

Who can figure it out? However, praying about it is really the only solution, primarily so you don't STRANGLE the painter...

But remember (or become familiar with) Romans 8:28:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

You just might wind up with the coolest looking scoot on the planet!

 

No the blue did not look decent. The flames were great but the color blue was like cotton candy blue. Some people may love that but I was very specific that I wanted silver with silver realistic flames. There is supposed to be bar and shiled logo mixed into the flames on the tank and some other art on the rear of the front and rea fender??


I didn't consider 2 months being rushed for painting four pieces that were already off. I went to him in May and had several discussions about what I wanted...color, type flames, orientation of flames, and some other specific artwork. I also forgot to mention there were other things that were misiing from the artwork?? I got him the parts 2 months ago and was told it would be 2 weeks max because he was slow and would get right on it. These were his words not mine. Throughout this process I have been very respectful and very understanding. As a matter of fact hear at the end he has called me more than I called him. Even though he had put me in a bind time wise the fact that it was getting doen was good enough for me. I was very respectful to him even after he made an arbitrary decision to tell someone to airbrush blue flames on my bike. If there were any issues all he had to do was call me and I would have been right there to decide the best way to proceed. After it was done he told me it couldn't be done with silver and silver flames so he had to go with a color, still insinuating he was doing the artwork. If I had ever been able to speak to the guy actually doing the work this would all have been solved up front. Once I actually talked to guy doing the artwork he said sure it's not a problem at all. I don't care that he subs the art work out...I still needed him to do some bodywork on the rear fender. This guy won best of show for an Easy Rider event. He is known to be a little arrogant but does outstanding work. There are alot of people that thinks he does air brushing and I would have never known if he would have listened to me. He never once told me anything until I showed up at his business and asked why there were candy blue flames on my bike. He did ask me once very early on how I felt about the color blue and I told him thst would be the last color I would go with...just not what I wanted. This would be like taking your bike to get it painted black and when you pick it up it's banana yellow and the guy tell you he thought that would suit you better? My dilema now is deciding what to pay him? He did do great body work but I am really gun shy at this point. He made a very bad decesion to paint my bike the wrong color, sent the wrong base color to the art work painter and was not available by phone so this guy had to sand and re-paint everything so he can do the artwork tomorrow. He has also keeps trying place blame everywhere but on himself. He even told me that he started to tell me to come get the parts and take them to somone else to be fixed but he needed to recoup his money. Doesn't sound like he is a bit concerned about what he did...just his profit margin. Almost forgot he is also trying to make the art work guy fix it for free even though he did exactly what the painter told him to do?? I just don't know if I can trust him to get this completed next week?

 

I like blue and silver, but I wouldn't have paid for that "art work".
Sounds like that Easy Rider win went straight to his head.
Don't know what to tell you. Only hope he goes under with his stance on what's right if he continues to do whatever he feels like.

 

This is no different than having any contractor do any type of work for you. If you ask a carpenter to build you blue bench and you end up with a red TV stand... What do you do? Ya don't pay him, and take your business elsewhere. If he tries to sue you, your arguement is that you asked for one thing, and you got something completely different.

That is why, it's always best to have some sort of job description or diagram on paper. Much the same as a car repair shop. That way, there is no 'gray area' about what is to be done..any decisions about things like colour choice would be clear and concise. Not to mention the fact that if the issue ends up in court for any reason..you both have a copy of what the original intent was. Hey .. I watch Judge Judy! Get EVERYTHING on paper!

The time wasted is irreplaceable and has no monetary value. I wouldn't trust him either. He obviously has some serious issue with following specific instructions. Chances are you will be burned again....You should learn the 1st time! Sucks if you have to cancel your plans.

I would certainly make sure, that if any of my friends ever considered taking anything to this guy .. that they know the full story.

 

You are exactly correct. There is a silver lining in this...if it gets done?
The artwork guy spent about 2.5 hrs with me yesterday and has a great understanding of what I want. He has been great and is bending over backwards to get me the bike I want. He will have 2 more solid days in getting it done the second time around and the painter is saying he is on the hole and loosing money?? He said all this could have easily been done from the beginnig if the painter would have just been straight. He said the painter told him I wanted silver with reailistic ghost flames. When asked about direction on the color the painter told him to do what he wanted. When he refused and asked what the customer wanted the painter told him I was an easy going guy and and anything would be okay. The art guy asked does he want orange, pin, red...the painter said paint them blue. I am an easy going guy but I very picky and am very specific when it comes to my scoot.

This thing still feels like a dream. I can't believe this guy made this decision without even speaking to me about it.. Still can't believe it!

 

i took my tanks/fenders of my 72flh to a buddy to paint april 04 i got the front fender and tanks back so far,only one side was painted, the other tank is so gouged up from a da sander it needs covered in bondo before i can even paint it my self.. and the rear fender and tail lite is missing.. that only took 6 1/2 years..