I think I posted on this very subject before but in all the years I did body work and painting I never asked for any deposit period! I reasoned that if I couldnt come up with enuff cash for the materials then I shouldnt be in business. For one It made me work harder and better and I was doing this as a side job as I worked in a factory during the day . I got the stuff done on time and got payed well for the time i did it early 70's to late 80's.. I had a pretty good client base and word of mouth advertising. I was doing BMW's for the assistant to the dean of the law school at the university of michigan.. A great guy that always offered me money to get started.. One time and only once after I started one fo his cars and was progressing smoothly I called him.. I says Jim how bout shooting me a grand.. He says it will be there tomorrow.. 3 days later I went to the local dealer and traded my wrecked and rebuilt yamaha 650 twin on a kawasaki 650 4 cylinder. Payed cash went home woke up to 6 inches of snow the next morning and felt bad about taking this guys money till I delivered the car to him... He loved it... It never happened again.. If these guys dont have the money to do the job then go somewhere else . You will get a better job. One of the local body shop guys that I always liked but watched him screw numerous people I had the pleasure of buying my oxy acetylene torches from .. Heck of a deal after you kill your business.

 

Any pics of the finished product?

 

Times have changed esp. these days I have been doing side work for years and the people just have changed its not as relaxed as it was before I hate doing them but I have to pay for my toys so I stay doing it but these days a contract is the best advise deposit or not.

 

+1 on the contract. A lot of guys understand, some don't. I ask a reasonable time table and put that in writing and go from there. I got screwed more than once and learned from my mistakes.

 

If I am contracting someone to do any kind of work in one of my vehicles, my house or scoots there are three things that I am not doing:

Giving a deposit!!!
Pre paying for work!!!
Accepting mediocracy!!!!

If not I rather pay double the amount for "PERFECT" work as cheaper is always worse..

 

The dimples could be several things but it sounds to me they may be fish eyes. Fish eyes happen when there is something on the metal prior to painting that makes the paint separate. Surface prep prior to squirting paint is extremely important. It has to be spanking clean. If the tins were not stripped to bare metal and it was a scuff and shoot paint job I wonder what wax you used on the paint prior to the repaint. Some waxes are high in silicone. The silicone penetrates the paint and causes fisheyes when you paint over it. So it may not be the painters fault other than not fixing it before returning the tins to you. I painted a Corvette that the silicone from Mothers wax had actually gotten into the fiberglass. Even stripping it didn't fix the problem. The fix then was to use fisheye eliminator and the paint laid fine. The problem with using the eliminator is anytime you paint over top of the old paint you must use the emilinator. Sounds like your painter didn't have enough cash flow to redo the work. Runs in clear coat are not a big deal and are easily fixed. Sanding with 1000, 1500 then 2000 grit ultra fine sandpaper should take out the run then buff. Not sure why he didn't at least do that for you. I know it sucks but if it ends in small claims court the court will probably allow the painter to attempt to fix the problems. Good luck.

 

I got the parts back.........still waiting on a few mechanical parts that i ordered from the Harley dealer, then it's all going back together. Hopefully I can finish it in a weeks time after work so I can go riding next weekend! The I will get some pics!

 

Get ahold of LRT (Tom Summers) http://www.lowridersbysummers.com/ tell him ¿spoom sent ya.