I've been talking about the impending paint job on the '63 Cruiser for several weeks now. A couple of times, as Saturday approached (the day my painter has access to his shop's paint booth), some minor thing got in the way, but I was patient thru it all. The last Saturday of June looked good, but it was my fault that someone else's car got painted instead of mine.
The weekend before that, the painter came by my house to see the Cruiser. He'd not seen it even tho he'd agreed to paint it when the bodyman finished his repairs and finessed it so that it would take the paint nicely. This was on Friday - the 19th - and he balked at the clear coat I'd gotten for the job. Even tho it's about the most expensive stuff PPG makes, his complaint was that he couldn't deliver his best effort unless I went back and swapped it for the stuff he specified. Being it wasa Friday evening, I couldn't do the swap until at least Monday, which meant it would be the NEXT Saturday before the Cruiser could get into the booth. Then, because I didn't call him quick enough to tell that I'd swapped the clear, he let someone else get in line ahead of me.
So, Thrusday afternoon - July 2nd - he calls me and asks if I'm gonna have the car at the shop Friday morning. He'd not told me that the shop was gonna have Friday off, so he wanted to mask the car up on Friday morning and then shoot the paint early on Saturday before it got too hot.
Now, even tho the car IS driveable (and I drove it less than half a mile from the house to shoot that little bit of IDYSD video), I didn't fancy driving it the 6 or 7 miles to the shop - right in town - without hanging lites and such on it to be legal. SO, I enlisted the help of my gearhead neighbor and his nice trailer to get the car to the shop. By 9AM, it was sitting IN the paint booth and I was getting excited about retrieving it in a few hours with it's Blue Mist coloration gleaming in the sun.
The painter guy again looks in the box of paint supplies I've bought and says "UH-OH", they gave you the wrong stuff AGAIN. Of course, I groaned, grabbed the "wrong stuff" and headed out to the paint shop to exchange it. It would only take 15 minutes or so and I'd be back.
When I got back to the shop, the painter met me at the door. "I got bad news for you." he says. "There's no way I'm gonna spray that paint on that car until the bodyman straightens out some stuff he missed."
"WHA??? WHA'D he MISS????" He leads me back to the booth where he's stuck a half dozen bits of masking tape to point out the boo-boos. And they were THERE! I was flabberghasted that my body guy could have missed such glaring glitches - glitches that protruded outwards - not inwards. 4 of the six points were obviously glaring oversights of my bodyman - a guy with nearly 30 years of experience - the guy, by the way, who'd recommended this painter to do the honors.
I call my buddy back up, he brings his trailer back over (of course, he'd disconnected it already) and we haul the Cruiser back to my place. I was disgusted, to say the least. I pulled it back into the shop and walked away. I'd already talked to the bodyman on the phone and he'd agreed to come by and make things right on Monday.
I DID get the car out to drive it for the aforementioned video clip, but it went right back into the shop after that.
Today, the bodyman comes out and runs his hand over the first two dents. He stops, looks at me with suspicion and I said "HEY! I haven't had a tool NEAR this thing since you finished with it 2 weeks ago!
I confess, I was SO trusting of everyone involved, that it never occurred to me that someone would sabatoge the car. NEVER! But by golly, I opened the door and looked at the inside for the first time. There, showing the chipped sound deadener that I'd applied just two weeks ago, were obvious tool marks where the painter, I guess, figured out a way to get out of painting on his long weekend!
He (and he alone) was with the car during the time I was off chasing the reducer he specified. The car shows FOUR defini
The weekend before that, the painter came by my house to see the Cruiser. He'd not seen it even tho he'd agreed to paint it when the bodyman finished his repairs and finessed it so that it would take the paint nicely. This was on Friday - the 19th - and he balked at the clear coat I'd gotten for the job. Even tho it's about the most expensive stuff PPG makes, his complaint was that he couldn't deliver his best effort unless I went back and swapped it for the stuff he specified. Being it wasa Friday evening, I couldn't do the swap until at least Monday, which meant it would be the NEXT Saturday before the Cruiser could get into the booth. Then, because I didn't call him quick enough to tell that I'd swapped the clear, he let someone else get in line ahead of me.
So, Thrusday afternoon - July 2nd - he calls me and asks if I'm gonna have the car at the shop Friday morning. He'd not told me that the shop was gonna have Friday off, so he wanted to mask the car up on Friday morning and then shoot the paint early on Saturday before it got too hot.
Now, even tho the car IS driveable (and I drove it less than half a mile from the house to shoot that little bit of IDYSD video), I didn't fancy driving it the 6 or 7 miles to the shop - right in town - without hanging lites and such on it to be legal. SO, I enlisted the help of my gearhead neighbor and his nice trailer to get the car to the shop. By 9AM, it was sitting IN the paint booth and I was getting excited about retrieving it in a few hours with it's Blue Mist coloration gleaming in the sun.
The painter guy again looks in the box of paint supplies I've bought and says "UH-OH", they gave you the wrong stuff AGAIN. Of course, I groaned, grabbed the "wrong stuff" and headed out to the paint shop to exchange it. It would only take 15 minutes or so and I'd be back.
When I got back to the shop, the painter met me at the door. "I got bad news for you." he says. "There's no way I'm gonna spray that paint on that car until the bodyman straightens out some stuff he missed."
"WHA??? WHA'D he MISS????" He leads me back to the booth where he's stuck a half dozen bits of masking tape to point out the boo-boos. And they were THERE! I was flabberghasted that my body guy could have missed such glaring glitches - glitches that protruded outwards - not inwards. 4 of the six points were obviously glaring oversights of my bodyman - a guy with nearly 30 years of experience - the guy, by the way, who'd recommended this painter to do the honors.
I call my buddy back up, he brings his trailer back over (of course, he'd disconnected it already) and we haul the Cruiser back to my place. I was disgusted, to say the least. I pulled it back into the shop and walked away. I'd already talked to the bodyman on the phone and he'd agreed to come by and make things right on Monday.
I DID get the car out to drive it for the aforementioned video clip, but it went right back into the shop after that.
Today, the bodyman comes out and runs his hand over the first two dents. He stops, looks at me with suspicion and I said "HEY! I haven't had a tool NEAR this thing since you finished with it 2 weeks ago!
I confess, I was SO trusting of everyone involved, that it never occurred to me that someone would sabatoge the car. NEVER! But by golly, I opened the door and looked at the inside for the first time. There, showing the chipped sound deadener that I'd applied just two weeks ago, were obvious tool marks where the painter, I guess, figured out a way to get out of painting on his long weekend!
He (and he alone) was with the car during the time I was off chasing the reducer he specified. The car shows FOUR defini
BP
We've got to quit saying, 
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