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What an f’ing disaster

I decided to put the first coat on my bike. It was a disaster. The automotive enamel that I bought the other day was ridiculously ill-suited to the task - it was thick and impossible to handle, either flashing-off too quickly or dribbling all over the place. When I bought the paint from V.G. Auto Paints, I specifically told them that I wanted to brush it on. “No worries”, they said. I even took the primed frame and fork to show them. How disappointing - all that time prepping the frame, wasted.

world's worst pain job

I just called Star Enamellers in Blacktown, who painted Andy’s Bundy (they did a great job on that, so I thought they might be able to help). I told him of my problem and he said, “You can’t brush that on. No way in the world!”. Fortuantely, he’s going to come to the rescue in January, using the paint I have already bought and their professional spray gear (+ a hardener to make it a bit more durable).

world's worst pain job

Like YLD said, “If you never make mistakes, you’ll never make anything”. Question now is, do I build and ride the plain grey frame, or leave all that Dura Ace goodness until the frame is ready in February?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 4:03 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

21 Responses to “What an f’ing disaster”

  1. lock says:
    December 12th, 2007 at 4:13 pm

    mmm… brushed steel.

    sounds pretty good now.

  2. zoe says:
    December 12th, 2007 at 4:21 pm

    oh, you HAVE to wait. until the whole thing is ready and then pimp it up in your pristine sweet bike. you know, until you scratch somehting or the chain falls off or whatever. but it must all be pristine, together, just once. or you’ll regret it forever.

  3. zoe says:
    December 12th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    ps (the paint tin said to thin it out up to 20%. tom didn’t have any thinner, and decided to IGNORE THE INSTRUCTIONS and go for it. reminds me a little of another situation you may remember: “wait, let me get this straight: you downloaded plans off the internet…” ) .. boys and the things they get up to in the back yard…..

  4. tom says:
    December 12th, 2007 at 5:15 pm

    mmm… brushed steel.

    sounds pretty good now.

    Where’s your commitment Lockman?

    “The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.” - Andrew Carnegie

  5. Tim from BB says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 12:37 am

    I was going to say thin the paint but it seems that those instructions were already given lol.
    Remember fools rush in… but then again, the early bird does get the worm (but who wants a worm?!).

  6. ylm says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 5:20 am

    now you have to do something that will test your character big time - wait.

  7. Dunc says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 7:02 am

    Wait, pimp it out and hit up Bourke St bakery for a perve-fest.

  8. Benwah says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 7:09 am

    Stick it out until January Thomason, I must say the actual colour looks quite tasty.

  9. tom says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 9:16 am

    Thing is, I didn’t rush in. I was so clear when I bought the paint about exactly what I wanted to do. I tried thinning it, but that didn’t make much difference - just made it runnier. I really feel as though I did everything I could, but simply received bad advice. I emailed them to say I was disappointed, we’ll see what they say.

  10. timtim says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 9:54 am

    I say build it, you can always take it apart later. The paint is a little disappointing but it will come together. Build it! Don’t listen to all those other nay sayers, you won’t crash and if you did you could throw your body or Benwah underneath it to cushion the fall.

  11. tom says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 10:38 am

    Here’s the reply from V.G. Auto Paints

    Enamel is designed to be sprayed, but can be brushed on. It wont look very good but it can be brushed. You should have got it in a spray can which was advised to you when you came in..

    Not true, they said it would be ‘fine’.

    Or get a spray gun and compressor.. Doing this would have saved you time and money.

    Yeah, right.

    If you had of painted a sample panel first you could have seen how it works when brushed, and saved your self from painting the job.

    That’s why I just painted the fork…

    I wouldn’t buy wood for a house and put it together with rope and expect it to stay up..

    Dave

    VG Auto

  12. timtim says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 12:57 pm

    what a conchita. I am curious what you wrote to him initially. That last comment is just Inflammatory. Perhaps in your reply you can correct all the grammatical errors with a note “I wouldn’t take language, put it together with a painter and expect it to make sense.” Is that taking it too far?!

  13. Dunc says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 3:41 pm

    Umm…. wood? Rope? What the fuck?

  14. Dunc says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 3:41 pm

    Must be all the fumes

  15. tom says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 4:54 pm

    My original email:

    Dear V.G. Auto Paints,

    Last Saturday I came in to buy some paint for my bike frame. I was very specific in telling you that I wanted to brush it on and even brought the frame with me for you to examine. You sold me 1L Magnolia and 500 mL Raspberry Concept Paints Series 400 Automotive Enamel. When I asked you to confirm that it could be brushed on you said, ‘No worries, that’s fine etc…’.

    Well, that’s bullshit - the paint is designed to be sprayed and so flashes off in about 15 seconds. It’s comletely unworkable, even when thinned. Prepping the frame took me hours and now all that effort is ruined. I know guys try to do your best to help your customers and you were super friendly and helpful to me, but I’m very disappointed and pretty pissed off.

    I spoke to Star Enamellers in Blacktown yesterday afternoon, who confirmed that you can’t brush-on this type of paint, “No way in the world”. They can use the paint in their system and spray the frame for me, but I have to wait until January and it’s going to cost me a fortune.

    Yours sincerely,

    Tom.

  16. vampira says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 9:00 pm

    they thought you bought the red paint for drinking, that’s the problem

  17. Dave says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 9:02 pm

    Thats awful, let’s all go down there and chin em.

  18. Tim from BB says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 11:42 pm

    I think they are pirates, hence the wood and ropes. About the rushing in thing before, I meant that you should wait until you get it sprayed and then build it up.

    I did a search and found that you can paint a car with high density foam rollers and enamel paint. It said to thin the paint till just about the consistency of water and apply 2 coats and let dry, then wet sand, another 2 coats etc. You could try this on a small section of fork or something else laying around the house if you still want to give it a go yourself.

  19. tom says:
    December 14th, 2007 at 8:33 am

    The paint is too ‘plasticy’ for that, I think.

    Here’s their final placation:

    Sorry for the misunderstanding and your inconvenience I understand you would not want to wreck your job, especially after putting in all that effort preparing it..

    I will talk to the staff member that served you so this wont happen again..

    Thank you for taking the effort in sending your email and we appreciate the feed back..

    Dave

  20. Dave says:
    December 14th, 2007 at 8:36 am

    Placation is my new favourite word.

  21. Joelle says:
    December 17th, 2007 at 8:13 am

    Tom,

    Is that the paint that you drove to Parramatta to purchase? If so, I am so sorry.

    Joelle

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