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Expensive paint jobs are not always the best check this out

Crazy Beaver

Well-Known Member
I wanted to share a few pictures of a new paint job I got in the other day, to fix another painters mess. This bike was painted by the one of the most expensive painters in my area. It was painted 3 years ago, and this guy is hard on his bike but the paint shouldn’t look this bad. Not sure what he charged for this paint job, but the guy who did this paint job usually won’t touch a bike for less than $5000. This shows you there are some really good painters out there that charge a lot of money but there are also some who charge a lot and have a crappy end product. Just because it is an expensive paint job doesn’t mean it is the best, always do a little research, check out past projects from the painter and even talk to someone who had there bike painted by the painter if possible.

He took this bike back to the painter and the painter wouldn’t fix it without charging full price for another paint job.

Clear is cracking and splitting
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Paint is bubbling
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More cracking and splitting
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Bubbling and cracking
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Close up
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This is by no means saying all expensive painters are bad but be careful just because there is a high price tag doesn’t mean it’s the best. Bill has seen some of my work in person, just because I paint a little cheaper than some of the others doesn’t mean my work is of a lower quality. Here at Crazy Beavers Customs I try to give a high quality paint job with some of the best art work you will find at a reasonable price, without cutting any corners. I am able to do this because I am not in an expensive store front shop with several employees to watch over.
 
Bet any amount this was done using HoK candies... Same thing happened to mine, same cobalt color. I had to lay so much blue candy to achieve the dark cobalt color, that it cracked later. My mistake as a novice painter. I shouldnt have used orion silver as the bas, should have used charcoal, that way the blue would have darkened without co many layers of candy. But, I am a novice and that was my novice mistake, the professional should have known that all that coandy and clear build up was going to shrink and separate! Mine also took 8 years before it started doing this...
 
WoW, and look how far it separated! He may have painted outside the window of the marbleizer... see how it is still there, but the color shrank on top of it?
 

Crazy Beaver

Well-Known Member
Yes it looks terrible in person, and you are right, it is one thing for a novice to make this mistake but this guy has been painting for over 30 years. Looks to me there were adheasion problems too with the clear and candy, he may have let the candy sit too long before clearing.

If it took 8 years for this to happen that is one thing, but at 3 years it should still look near perfect if it was taken care of well.
 

bruce bruce

Site Supporter
Bet any amount this was done using HoK candies... Same thing happened to mine, same cobalt color. I had to lay so much blue candy to achieve the dark cobalt color, that it cracked later. My mistake as a novice painter. I shouldnt have used orion silver as the bas, should have used charcoal, that way the blue would have darkened without co many layers of candy. But, I am a novice and that was my novice mistake, the professional should have known that all that coandy and clear build up was going to shrink and separate! Mine also took 8 years before it started doing this...

I like the HOK candy concentrates because you can tweek the mix to get it a little darker and use it in the same clear you use for the top coat.
 

bruce bruce

Site Supporter
Yes it looks terrible in person, and you are right, it is one thing for a novice to make this mistake but this guy has been painting for over 30 years. Looks to me there were adheasion problems too with the clear and candy, he may have let the candy sit too long before clearing.

If it took 8 years for this to happen that is one thing, but at 3 years it should still look near perfect if it was taken care of well.
Wow that'll be fun to fix. Came you say "adhesion promoter"
 
Cany concentrates are great if your doing artwork underneath the color... if not, the HoK color candies work just as good as the concentrate. And they darken on the first few coats... And it does look like they had adhesion problems, that marbelizer is showing in all the wide open cracks! Good luck stripping it. I tried strippers, then I went to a sodablast guy, ended up razor blading it.
I like the HOK candy concentrates because you can tweek the mix to get it a little darker and use it in the same clear you use for the top coat.
 

Bill

I used to own some shit!
I saw this in person... I could not believe my eyes!


Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
 

bruce bruce

Site Supporter
I am sanding all of it off, I would rather do that than ever take a chance on this comming back to bite me later.

I meant they should have used adhesion promoter. I'd strip it and start over. you never know what's under the base coats either. If you're gonna stand behind your work you need to know how the bodywork was done too.
 

CHAINSAW

Site Supporter Until The World Stops Spinning!
Wow,.. thats crazy looking!! A nice effect, unless thats not what you were wanting.
 

Bagged64

Well-Known Member
I have a guy in my Cadillac club that had his '66 coupe painted at a respectable shop for over $5000. Well they farmed out the prep work because they were busy. Now he has the same thing all over his trunk lid and starting to happen on the roof. We started noticing it within a year and he has been fighting with the shop since to have them re-paint, but they are saying it's not their fault it's in the prep. He's trying to tell them they are responsible for the prep because they were the ones who farmed it out not him. He hired them to do the whole job. So now it's going to small claims to get some money out of them to have it fixed. They supposedly have a warranty on their paint jobs, but won't honor it because they didn't do the prep. WHAT! is what we keep asking?
 

Crazy Beaver

Well-Known Member
I have a guy in my Cadillac club that had his '66 coupe painted at a respectable shop for over $5000. Well they farmed out the prep work because they were busy. Now he has the same thing all over his trunk lid and starting to happen on the roof. We started noticing it within a year and he has been fighting with the shop since to have them re-paint, but they are saying it's not their fault it's in the prep. He's trying to tell them they are responsible for the prep because they were the ones who farmed it out not him. He hired them to do the whole job. So now it's going to small claims to get some money out of them to have it fixed. They supposedly have a warranty on their paint jobs, but won't honor it because they didn't do the prep. WHAT! is what we keep asking?

That is horrible, sounds like the guy I am dealing with except he is not persuing it, he is just having me paint it different.
 

Bagged64

Well-Known Member
That is horrible, sounds like the guy I am dealing with except he is not persuing it, he is just having me paint it different.

The only reason he's persuing it is that it is a show car and he can't afford to drop a bunch more money into it. Everyone's told him that they wouldn't do single panels, because of the color and they are telling him that it looks like it is going to happen on other parts of the car soon. It sucks because when first painted was taking trophies left and right.
 
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