Paint quality on a restore

[MartinMille BANNED]

Hi All

I'm finally getting to the point where I'm ready for paint on the SSD
My question is this:?:
When you do restore are you better of with
a slight orange peel like finish
or
a flow cote type finish where the paint has that deep wet look but is smooth as glass with no orange peel at all?

thanks guys Martin

[Craig in France]

Hi Martin

Glad to hear things are progressing well and the bike's about to be put back into its proper, beautiful and special paintwork

Speaking personally, I think you want something in between, i.e. just a competent paint job that doesn't shout 'Finished yesterday' nor looks like something done with a brush and some house paint ...

But let's see what Steve says, he being a painter 'n all.

Ciao

Craig in UK/France

[MartinMille BANNED]

Hi Craig ...........you better make a cuppa first before sit down and read this its a little long.
Yeah there have been a few delays with various things eg;
I had all the parts that needed to be done, blasted and the primed by my painter , I was told his wife was due to having a baby and Xmas soon after cool no worries mate have a great time off see you in the new year.
Well it all started from there,we had major hail storms in Sydney and he was called in by his former boss to do some work for him, end of Feb we should be able to complete the work , fine no worries mate I said again phone me when your done yep will do he said, time past etc etc etc and a mate of mine who was getting work done by my painters Dad said to my mate what was happening with my bike, so I phoned him and he said that his son was now on holiday in the Whitsundays (great barrier reef) my blood was now starting to boil,

Roy I said the reason I wanted your son to do the paint job, was because his work was better off the gun then your work , not that his work is that bad.
OK I said I will drop off 2 parts for you to paint black WHAT you want me to prove to you that I can paint do you Yes mate I do after all I'm the one paying for the work to be done, right come back in a few days, days pasted and I called in and bugger me sure it was black but what about the peel I said , OH but they didn't come without peel, grrrr look please paint one piece and flow cote it and let me make up my mind on what I'm going to do. I can paint the bike to the peel look and all but if I was to enter it in a show they will only ping me some points for having a better finish then what the bike originally came out with, so be it after all I'm doing this work for my satisfaction and not some show judge

Next came the re-chroming
I delivered the box of parts to be re-chromed back in Dec last year, they said the same thing hope you dont expect this to be done by Xmas, no mate mid /end Jan will do just fine sure no worries mate
End of Jan came and no phone call to say there ready, so I called, what parts were they Mate,,,,GGGGRRRRRRRRRRR again whats wrong with these people I thought to my self, so I told them what they were bla bla bla and 3 weeks later end of Feb now the phone call came , it ready cool how much? $750 was the reply what , I was quoted $550 back in Dec. OH NO we cant do it for that!!! here we go again ok lets haggle and I managed to get it down to $650 cash, the parts came back and what do you know the chrome is spot on SO spot on that the foot pegs no longer fit through the brake paddle and some parts were missing and someone else's part were in with mine , no wonder they wanted to charge me more.
Sent the parts back didnt I only to have them come back with more blemishes, the chrome that they did before was now re-re-chromed making the foot pegs even thicker and then they asked for more money as I had included a spare set of clipon's and clutch paddle when sent the parts back with the invoice

here is a copy of what I sent them
pardon for poor grammar and spelling as I was in a foul mood and couldn't give a $#@t what I wrote

Hi such and such
I don’t mind paying for something if it’s done right the first time, but then to be charged for them again............. well let me explain
The fuel filler cap I asked to have it re done where it has been over polished and the top layer of chrome has been buffed out I will add arrows again to mark where the blemish is, you will not see it in sun light but take it into the shade and it become apparent
Next we have the brake pedal and foot peg the reason I sent them back was because the layer of chrome was too thick on the foot peg and therefore no longer fitting through the hole and when it came back it had been re-chromed once more making it even thicker than before and the cross hatch pattern is no longer as good as it was
Then when I compared the two foot pegs to each other they are also a different shade of chrome but at least one fitted through the hole
The fee for $30 I don’t know what that is for
Charge for chroming $70 I’m assuming this is for the handle bars and spare clutch paddle but then it say’s 2x pedal parts these I did not ask to have re-re-chromed as explained in the above paragraph
The other parts that I had added were two clip on [handle bars] and one spare clutch paddle to be chromed. I surely did not expect to be charged for them due to the stuff ups, with wrong and missing parts that were/were not send to me the first time round, now more returns that need to be fixed up
This is what needs to be done again
Totally strip both Foot pegs and brake/clutch paddles, re-chrome so that the foot pegs fit through the hole and of course make sure the pegs are of the same chrome color, re-do the fuel cap and please do not buff through the chrome again
Let’s see if we cannot get everything done correctly this time round as these delays have already cost me one concourse and two other shows, after all I did drop everything off to you back at the beginning of December and it just should not have taken this long surely you must agree with me on that and for my first chroming experience it sure has not been a good one especially since you came highly recommended by a very good friend.
Should you have any further questions about what I have written above please don’t hesitate to phone me
Many Thanks Martin

ok finally the parts came back mind you its the end of April now and with the parts came a little post it note that read
""I agree you had reasons to be a little annoyed, but the "Jury" is still out on you sarcasm""

What the blank blank blank and some more blank words a bunch of blank holes I was only letting them know what any customer would have done in my circumstance,

Not done yet LOL bear with me
the Conti's are next, I found a guy willing to make a set with the correct numbers for a good price (no name on this one) same thing ask to have them done for end Jan and still waiting , oh but they have been posted to you, ummm they are still not here OK I will have to follow up on them and find out where they were sent

just goes to show the old saying "if you want something done right the first time, do it your self"

The engine is still apart as I had to source another box for it and I managed to find a super low millage box in A1 cond for it

Now am I being over the top, I dont think so not hey "the Jury is still out"
Ahh you have to laugh about the entire ordeal


At least the end result will be a better then new bike and was it all worth it to spend the time and effort on a SSD .............Yes as there are far to few of them and any bevel is a good bevel

I'm ready for several wild turkeys now, till next time

[Craig in France]

Thanks for that Martin!

Well, you have my sympathy. It's frequently the same story over here, I'm afraid, with both painters and chromers.

(And the least said about powder coaters, the better ... I know of a Laverda SFC whose frame was so badly powder-coated that for 2 years the owner gave up, unable to face all the aggravation of getting it taken off again and re-spayed in paint.)

In my experience, the platers are the worst of the lot. Just how they manage to loose stuff is beyond me - I mean, just how difficult is to batch things up customer by customer?

Fortunately, I now know a good, restoration chroming service who really take pride in their work. They're not the cheapest, but they've always delivered on time and to quotation - and they don't loose stuff!

The best approach I've found is to a) take recommends from other bikers; b) avoid the non-specialist chromers and painters. But, as your experience shows, even then you still get stuff-ups.

I had a case involving a painter who's been doing Bevels and other Ducrappis for years (and even painted Mike's bike, I've been told). He stuck SD transfers on a pair of SSD side panels. "Duh, (name witheld to protect the guilty), I told you it was for a SSD ... and anyway you know these are SSD ones 'cos only SSDs use this colour, right?" "Err, yeh, let me do them again - no charge". Except of course he's now using a different batch of paint, so after a little while they start to change colour and don't match the rest of the paintwork ...

Way of the World, mate - and worse things happen at sea, as my father says. Keep on truckin'