Ben,

What a piece of junk!!!! What a nightmare!

Well, I'm no auto mechanic nor auto painter - BUT - in my day I have
painted a few airplanes, and there is no way with that much work on the
body that I would ever have warranted a paint job for a color match to
existing paint, except by the paint numbers. And if with the same paint
numbers the colors were off, well --- to bad. If however, a full,
complete over all paint job with paint from the same number and the same
stock was done - that would be another story. As you well know, there
are a lot of factors that affect the way paint looks. Even standing with
more weight on your left foot than your right foot when applying the
paint can affect paint appearance when done. This is going to be a tough
one. I don't think that no matter what, are you going to come out on
this one. It's going to be a compromise at best, and a compromise with
which no one is happy,. About the best you can do is be the good guy,
bite the bullet, and repaint the thing. But boy, that is a hard pill to
swallow.

Good luck on this one.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Chelsea, AL

Benny boy wrote:
> Hi, in life, i restore, fix, repair, find a way of saving a van call
> Vanagon, not easy sometime! i work hard, 7/7 more than 13 hours a day, i
> love my job, i love life! i take pride on what i do. This is the only way
> for me, the full way, the hard way, i'm very honest and it can not be
> otherwise for me(not good for business!). If one day i get up from bed and i
> feel like doing something else, i will. But for now, i rebuilt a nice
> campers van call Vanagon, this van is not only a way to earn my life but
> also a way of life for me. But in my line of work, i have to deal with a
> thing call customers! most of the time, they are pretty cool, but! they are
> not my friend, this is the way things are, sadly.
>
> So, in the past 2 weeks, i have been working on a Van, yea, hard, 14 days,
> more than 12hrs per day, 7/7, this is one of the BEST paint job i have did
> so far, better then my own Red Tornado van, the rust part has been worked
> carefully. On that job, only 1.5 days are for the paint job part, the rest
> was removing rust, fixing metal part, welding... anyway, short story: First
> of all, i had say NO to this cutomer before! yea, it was to rusty... so
> after i wile he came back and told me, i want YOU to do it, what is your
> price, i said 5500$ CAD (about 4800USD), so i did the job... painfull.
>
> Remember that the pictures you see are only a fraction of the one i took, or
> the one i could have taken. they don't show all the welding, gluing, grinding...
>
> But sadly, when done, something was wrong... the color match! everything
> else is perfect! the work done, the rust, the paint job is one of my best
> ever, but the color match is sadly a bit offset.
>
> So, look at all those pictures and tell me how to deal with that? i am ready
> to offer him to re-paint the van (sadly, the color code is the right one,
> Valspar and Dupond have the same result??? the color is tricky!), but i
> don't know how i can change the color... even my friend who is a 20yo
> painter told me that metalic blue is dificult to match!!! and on a 20yo van,
> it's worse. should i lower the price! i'm ready to remove 1000$, about what
> the paint cost me (remember, i use high quality paint).
>
> The new color is simply... nicer (others have confirm!), i also offered him
> to paint the inside of the door and door for free to match the exterior.
> Waithing for an answer, but he is not happy with it!
>
> http://www.benplace.com/87_dove_blue.htm
>
> Anyway, a long story to tell you how hi feel about me working like a dog and
> an unsatified cutomer.
>
> I want your advices as customers? just remember one thing, this van was a
> piece of junk... ready for the garbage.
>
> Thank you for your time and imput, and thanks for any advices, if i have
> bored anyone whit this post, i'm sorry.
>
> Regards, Ben
> http://www.benplace.com/vw2.htm
>
>
>