paint job finally completed

[neilw]

almost 2 years ago I decided to assemble a 59 pan back to original ,but not a total restoration,just an old looking bike I could ride .I got started and asked around for bike painters ,A freind worked at an auto restoration place that also did the odd bike,and said to leave it all to him,he would find out how much it would cost and so-on. A few days later he took all the sheet metal and had it sand blasted ,and took out a few small dents ,and that was where it stayed for 6 months .Meanwhile I got called back to work and had no time to work on the bike .I called my freind to talk about something else and he said he would be painting the tanks and fenders himself because of problems with their painter,they came out nice ,but that was just a coat of white as an underlay I guess you would say ,as the bike was going to be red with a white a blaze on the tank ( like in 59).The white looked good and finally things were happening. Late this fall I started working on the bike ,ordering parets and so-on,and getting ready for the painting to be done ,it arrived but still white ,my freind said not to worry we would paint it in my garage,well after the red was on, the white blaze looked nothing like the stencil I had made for it. So I myself outlined the blaze which was to small ,and Joe painted it white again ,but being the blaxe was to small and now much bigger ,he painted over some of the red..After quite a few coats of white it covered everything and except for runs looked good .We alsop noticed runs in the red about the same time .Not to worry we would sand them out .We did but in some places sanded right through the red ,leaving the white under coat showing .Back to painting more red,more sanding ,finally I rented a spray booth for Joe to spray the clear on in .Next morning I went over there and there were sags,runs speckles of white ,all in the clear ( but it shone nice).I sanded it all out myself and ,phoned the local HD shop for a name of a painter .After explaining the situation he said he'd have a look ,then said since I had the clear he'd charge $200.00 to touch up the poor sanding job and spray a little more white on where it was still too thin ,then clear and polish everything all up.
Finally I have my tanks painted ,it has been just about 2 years since I first sent them out,mind you I was in no hurry as I wasn't working on the bike ,but everynow and then would check to see how they were comming ,and at least they were not stolen or anything.
The moral of this story is go to a business where there's no freind stuff to worry about,and that way you will still have freinds ....

[rwm]

if you change the name .the color and the model this story might be 80% of the club members.

[Tom Lovejoy]

very true Rob, very true.

[Robert Luland]

"O" Yea!!!!