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Paint shop to avoid in S. FL!

judoka5051

Well Known Member
Hey fellow RV'ers,

I recently had my RV8 painted, and it came out awful, worse than awful. Anyway,
I made a utube video addressing the multitude of issues. I thought if I could save someone else the misery...

In the video I forgot to mention that he also painted right over the stripper he'd applied. Isn't that great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myOf4xT3254&t=28s

PS, I read the posting rules and don't think I'm violating anything, but if I do, my apologies.
 
That is really bad. What made you choose this guy to paint your plane? Did his references or your investigation not turn up his lack of attention to detail? What did it cost?
 
Ugh. I am crying for you. That is the worst paint job I have ever seen. Would have been better sprayed with rattle cans. Back in the day, Earl Schieb produced better results than that. I see a law suit.
 
Holy smokes! As an added bonus, the screw heads are stripped. There are plenty of excellent paint shops in FL, that ain’t one!

(You NEVER paint yellow over blue! That is paint 101!)

I wouldn’t let that guy paint my lawnmower.
 
Wow! That’s bad. Really, really bad. It even makes my crappy paint job look like an OSH award winner.

Sorry man...
 
Wow, that is truly awful.

I took my plane to someone else to paint because I don't know beans about paint. I figured I could learn it, and probably the fourth airplane I painted would look pretty good, but I didn't want MY airplane to be one of the first three.

Looks like you got one of the first three.
 
As a professional auto restoration specialist I can tell you exactly what caused all those problems. The dry spots are from the painter trying to maximize profit by using minimal materials. The shading in the blue is called tiger striping, its again from not having enough coverage from either not putting enough coats on, not using enough overlap on passes, or gun setup or all 3. The blobs are from the gun dripping. Most likely an inexperienced painter with a cheap spray gun in a big hurry.

I would sure not be paying for that job and make darn sure he pays to get it all taken down and done over again correctly.
 
See it is really your fault, you should have taken it to Earl Scheib paint, I have no doubt they would have done a much better job.

I know this sounded a mean comment and it was really a jock, but the jock is meant to be on him and not you. I really feel bad for you as painting is the hardest part. You give your plane and hope they do a good job.
 
So sorry

I love the Fastback RV8 and it's such a shame that this moron missed up your paint. I sincerely hope that not only you didn't pay him, but you are going to sue him for the damage and what's it's going to take to pay another company to fix it. As much as you may want to try and work on it yourself, I would let a pro shop strip and paint it so that you have their invoices and expertise to use as evidence. Your video is a huge part of that but to put a dollar amount on what is going to take to fix it is a whole different game .

Good luck with it and again, so sorry this happened to you.

God Bless
 
What a nightmare!!!! You're pride and joy trashed by some clown who considers himself a professional! From the remarks in you're video, it appears you are taking this all in stride, and moving on. Whatever recourse you may or may not have, you will get it squared away and eventually wind up with the gorgeous -8 you deserve. Best of luck and thank you for sharing your experience. Love the scheme!
 
A local RV'r reports he is out of business and gone.

Couple of observations: He obviously painted the blue and silver overall and then added the yellow over top (wrong!) because you can see a tape line running through the middle of the yellow. Yellow HAS to go over white or very light colored primer or you get horrible mottling. The cowl mess looks like plastic masking sheet blew up against it while it was wet (been there, done that. Only option is to hose it down with thinner before it kicks and start over). Tiger striping in the metallic due to gun/compressor/lack of skill. Orange peel, dry coats, are just more of the same, lack of skill. The sags are the only thing that would not be big issue as they can be color sanded and buffed to repair. That's better that dry/orange peel.

Overall, a case study in how not to paint.

You mentioned doing all the body work before delivery to the painter, but how did you do that if the plane wasn't stripped? That is an issue because if you used polyester filler, stripping will damage that work. And, of course you can't put any filler on top of paint.

Fosters or Aircrafters might be able to make it right.
 
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Oh my god, I feel verry sorry for you!! that really looks bad :(

I knew my paint is not going to be cheap and it wasn`t but seeing this tells me that it was money well spent
 
Wow that’s the worst paint job I have ever seen. What we would refer to in England as a “Stevie Wonder” job. I hope you declined to pay them for ruining your RV. Hopefully you can get it sorted as the Red Bull scheme will look great.
 
They have an ad in ba....stor..ers..



Sad..
sorry for you troubles..

thanks for warning the rest of us..
 
I think I could have done a better job with rattle cans, and I'm a complete moron when it comes to painting. Makes me sick to look at that. I'm not even that picky about paint compared to most, and that's just god awful.

Good luck getting it resolved and looking as great as it should!
 
Maybe that green weed from the 60's is legal in Florida. I seen a car painted in the 60's when the guy was high on weed.
We had a good laugh. Wow again for the mess
Art
 
Paint shop at Zephryhills airport

If you want a nice paint job done right go to Hawk Aircraft. All control surfaces come off, everything stripped to the metal, etched n alodined and primed. Has been painting aircraft over 30 years
 
howly cow! Thanks for sharing and kinda maintaining your calm... I’d be mad, guess you were too. Hope you find a way out...
 
I was very pleased with Ormond Aircraft. They painted my RV-14A and a bunch of airplanes on my field, including some other RVs

Reasonable turnaround time too - Hawk has a good rep but has a rep for being slow to turn a job around once they start. Ormond pretty much does one or two at a time - usually in/out in a month or less.
 
A few answers,,, and a repaint!

Hey all,

I see there's a few good questions. So here we go. I found his ad on Bar.sto.mers. I had previously filed out quote requests for three other paint shops, and didn't receive an answer for over a month. I later heard from two of them a few weeks after the plane was already at the shop. As far as due diligence, I had a friend mention that he'd seen a couple of planes painted there, and the job came out very nice. Apparently there used to be a partner who could actually paint... I was quoted $6500 for the job, which seemed cheap, but doable since he doesn't have much overhead.

When we discussed the job he said he was going to strip it, alodine, do body work and prep, and then paint it. I expressed concern about the stripper/bodywork situation, but was assured it would be handled. He skipped all the steps between stripping and painting...

He required half the price up front, so $3250.00. Which I'm going to do everything I can to get back. He DID NOT get the second installment.

----------------

In other news, I found a painter in my area that was recommended to me by an auto paint supply store. He's in the end stages of unscrewing my airplane. I will also be posting another video, the 'Good' along with the 'Bad and Ugly'.

Thanks for all the support!

Lance
 
DIY paint - not critical of it anymore

after seeing your video I'm not critical of my paint anymore.

first time to paint an RV and painted in the middle of Winter in Ohio. I had not painted anything in the past 30 yrs. it's still in good shape 4 years later.

small hangar life. cramped but doable. no overspray in the hangar anywhere because the booth was vented outside and pulled negative pressure inside the booth.

IMG_20160120_123451_(1).jpg


****

it's still cramped but it's about to get a little better with the loft and then a hangar make over, curtains!. I purchased this hangar before I had an airplane. you can really do a lot with a small hangar but make sure it is insulated. after I purchased the hangar, for weeks I would ride my bike in circles inside and think about the possibilities. it all came true. unbelievable!

IMG_20210128_224121.jpg
 
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Wow Lance, I'm so sorry to hear of your trouble.

I had my 9A painted by a VERY well-advertised and respected painter in the RV community with nothing but glowing reviews. While the paint job itself is what I might term slightly above average, the attention to other details (schedule, CUTTING STRUCTURAL METAL!, not performing the requested fiberglass work despite charging extra, FOD left in various places, non-structural hardware used for reassembly and poor reassembly in general, poor placarding, broken antenna wires, etc.) left a bitter taste in my mouth. I'm convinced there are no truly reputable and careful painters out there.
 
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... I'm convinced there are no truly reputable and careful painters out there.
Doesn't help most of the people on this forum, but in Europe these guys are awesome. https://www.aerostyll.com

Not just the final result, but the timing, clarity of comms, attention to detail, support before/during/after, price, etc. I could rave on for pages, but you get the idea.
 
Wow Lance, I'm so sorry to hear of your trouble.

I had my 9A painted by a VERY well-advertised and respected painter in the RV community with nothing but glowing reviews. While the paint job itself is what I might term slightly above average, the attention to other details (schedule, CUTTING STRUCTURAL METAL!, not performing the requested fiberglass work despite charging extra, FOD left in various places, non-structural hardware used for reassembly and poor reassembly in general, poor placarding, broken antenna wires, etc.) left a bitter taste in my mouth. I'm convinced there are no truly reputable and careful painters out there.

Kurt - while I would be pretty mad myself about the issues that you suffered, unless you have had a number of airplanes painted at different shops, and had the same experience at all of them, you are doing a large disservice to EVERY paint ship in the market by painting them all with the same dark brush as the one that did you wrong.

I am not asking you to name the shop that did such a bad job (unless you truly believe they created a safety issue for you), but don’t paint an entire industry with the same brush becasue of your experience with one of the companies - not fair.
 
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I love the fast back.

I’ve painted hundreds of rv’s and would never send anything like that out of my door.
 
Maybe it's just me, but... If a reputable paint shop can't afford to begin painting without requiring me to put down a deposit, they wouldn't get my business.. They had your airplane, so it's not like they needed to make sure you would return and pay.. Would be a red flag for me. That paint job is ridiculous. At a minimum, just to save you legal fees, go file a small claims lawsuit against him.. You don't need an attorney to be able to prove what he did/didn't do.. He owes you your money back, plus a whole bunch more..

By the way, I still see his advertisements on Barnstormers. You should forward your video to them and ask them to throw his butt off of Barnstormers..
 
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Maybe it's just me, but... If a reputable paint shop can't afford to begin painting without requiring me to put down a deposit, they wouldn't get my business.. They had your airplane, so it's not like they needed to make sure you would return and pay.. Would be a red flag for me. ...
Mine required some money up front - I think it was half. Helps with cash flow and covers some of their costs in case the customer doesn't pay. Yes, they would have my airplane if I didn't pay, but the process of executing a "mechanic's lien", depending on your jurisdiction, could be long and costly - hangar rent, legal fees, etc.
 
On the flip side

My plane is wrapping up paint now. Here's a picture of the tail numbers and the front deck. The finish is unbelievable. It looks wet.

/Users/darwinbarrie/Desktop/IMG_1331.jpeg

/Users/darwinbarrie/Desktop/IMG_1321.jpeg
 
Wow. Looks nice from 10 feet away. It’s rare that I see a paint job that sucks as bad as ours, but that one makes a good run at it. Hopefully shop #2 does a nice job and you can fully enjoy your baby.
 
My plane is wrapping up paint now. Here's a picture of the tail numbers and the front deck. The finish is unbelievable. It looks wet.

/Users/darwinbarrie/Desktop/IMG_1331.jpeg

/Users/darwinbarrie/Desktop/IMG_1321.jpeg


Looks like you tried to link to photos on your computer. Have to put them somewhere where they are accessible from the web.
 
Way back when, I had all my pictures on photobucket. After they went sideways I switched to Imgur. It’s free and easy. There are some other hosts out there but I don’t have any experience with them.
 
Pretty good!

Hey Brad,

The second paint job came out pretty good. It's not perfect, but I'm not embarrassed to have someone see it.

I'm thinking on doing a video on all the mods I did on this plane and I'll do a show and tell on the paint too.

Regards, Lance
 
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