It's official:

I am SOOOO friggin jealous! I would almost make the drive over to Albuquerque just to see a teener off the stands, especially THAT one.

Looks great!!!

I can see your dog in the driveway in post #800. Show us the whole car already!

OK. Sorry:

next:

next:

last:

That's going to look great trimmed out. It's the same color as my Dodge truck. Awesome job.

Looking awesome!!!! Very nice job, indeed. Congrats.

Steve Hurt

So I guess we had a blow-out with the painter (Mike Fuller of Rio Rancho, NM). He apparently looked at this site for the first time last night and didn't appreciate Liz's former comments about painters being 'tweakers'. Liz and I both endured drunken phone calls until 4:00am.

To be honest, I have no idea whether or not Mr. Fuller uses drugs, and I don't care.

What I do care about is quality work for a fair wage.

(assuming he's watching)

He's had plenty of time to complete the paint on this car, but once again, he shuts off his phone and plays on his Harley until it puts us in a bind to get things completed.

He wants his pay when he accomplishes anything, but EVERYTHING comes with warranty work attached, because little of the work is correct the first time.

He still owes the RS warranty work from April of 2004!

Just on Liz's car:

1. There's a major crack in the Bondo on the driver's side, rear quarter.

The entire quarter will have to be repainted.

2. The front deck doesn't fit correctly despite the fact we gave him the hinges to mock it up prior to paint.

It will have to be bent to close properly.

3. The driver's door doesn't close at the proper level despite the fact we gave him the door and hardware to mock up prior to paint.

Hopefully he'll solve this during the repaint of the DS rear quarter.

4. The underside of the roll bar has no paint!

I don't know what to say. Despite his apparent qualifications, and the fact that he managed to get paint on the underside of the RS's roll bar, he missed it. As a result, Liz will not have a rear window on the way to Portland. I'm sure it's not a big deal for Mike, but then he obviously doesn't care anyway.

5. There's overspray on most of the rear suspension.

Well, an obvious attention-to-detail error. Oh well, who cares besides me and Liz.

Look, the list goes on and on.

He told Liz last night that he's performed '$20,000 of work for $4000'. What a fucking joke.

I'll give him this: The exterior panels are pretty straight, but his attention to detail is seriously lacking and he's a nightmare to deal with.

He still hasn't painted the top for the RS two years later.

Stay tuned, I'll probably be painting this weekend.

So, then what you are saying, if am hearing you correctly, then, Joe, is, that, you would not recommend him?

John


P.S. New 'comma use' record!

Yes, we'll go with that. But all my commas were used correctly.

That's bullshit. If he couldn't do it for four grand, he shouldn't have quoted you four grand. Considering he did your car, you would think he would have been able to estimate it with some accuracy.

That's completely correct. And my car had much more body work on the flares.


You guys will love this: He said 'If the tweaker comment isn't removed by tomorrow night', he would launch his own website to discredit me.

How would he do that? www.series9sucks.com.

Come on Joe Sharp. Go online and purchase 'series9sucks.com'.

I would do it for you....

Geeze, I hope Z doesn't close this thread because I spoke poorly of my painter.....

It'll be OK, my painter doens't have friends in CA.

Well, an obvious attention-to-detail error. Oh well, who cares besides me and Liz.

Look, the list goes on and on.

He told Liz last night that he's performed '$20,000 of work for $4000'. What a fucking joke.

I'll give him this: The exterior panels are pretty straight, but his attention to detail is seriously lacking and he's a nightmare to deal with.

He still hasn't painted the top for the RS two years later.

Stay tuned, I'll probably be painting this weekend.
[/quote]


$4,000.00 .......DAMN ...... I did a little work on a 914 for a friend at work that he had painted for $1500.00 and he ended up with about the same results. Overspray on all of the rubber....trim that was fuched up when it was taken off, trim that wasn't put back on, scratches still visible from bondo work, etc.....etc ! I told him that I would have done a better job for a lot less monies, and I do not claim to be a professional. Hell .....the primer on my car looks better than the new paint on his car !!! I am glad that I can at least put my own paint on....that way I can save money and if it screws up, it is no one's fault but mine !! I don't blame you for being ticked.....cause I would be too!!!

I have been following your adventure and enjoying every minute of it. What I can't understand is if the painter did such a suck ass job on your first car, why did you use him for Liz's car?????

Oh by the way .....car looks AWESOME !!!!!!! May have to hitch a ride with Pokey if he makes that trip !!

Nine pictures follow. A pictoral of Mike's hackishness:

You have to look carefully in the reflection. There's a crack, down to metal that runs between my fingers.

No paint:

Door fit:

Deck fit. It's the same on both sides:

Buffing problems:

Overspray:

And on the RS (a $6000 paint job):

Peeling:

Failure to remove the plugs prior to painting:

And lastly, the top. Still paintless after two years.

If you would like this kind of high quality work for yourself, please call:

Mike Fuller (currently unemployed) @ 505-331-4436. His phone will probably not be on, but keep trying. You too, may be able to arrange a fucking by him.

He did a better job on the RS, but was very unreliable as he was painting the car at his shop which was 300 miles away.

He agreed to paint the TG project in town, so we thought we would be able to keep track of his work.

.....fool me once, shame on you.....fool me twice, shame on me.....



It won't happen again. He's painted his last 914.

Sorry to hear that Joe. Seems like just last year it was down to the wire with the RS and getting some detail work out of this guy too - Just like this time.

"Oooopps, cotton picken' Phurin cars!"

If I do it it would have to be without the Mrs. knowing. She'd kill me if she found out I went without her.


SORRY 'bout the hijacking. Still LOVE the car!!!!!!

It is for these exact reasons that I do my own paintwork.

I learned more or less how to do bodywork and paintwork over 25 years ago when my dad decided to take on the task. I have met painters and I have met some of the people that work in body shops. These are (in my opinion) not the brightest people on earth.

Also in my opinion, if they can turn out the work that I have seen them turn out (which was damn nice by the way), I should at least be able to get close if not as good of quality.

The main thing that I have learned from doing and reading is that prep work makes or breaks the paint job. The best painter in the world won't turn out good quality with crappy prep work. The job won't last.

The second most important (in my opinion) that I have learned is that body work is not a race. Take the time to do it right the first time, and if in doubt, redo it until it is right BEFORE shooting paint.

I could never do this as an occupation as I would never make any money (I take way too much time).

In the end, if I have a problem, I know who is to blame, and I know that I'll get it fixed for free (materials not included).







Joe, I still think you have done a hell of a job on the blue car.

John I reckon you've got the right thesis... wish I'd done the same.
The painter I used also missed the underside of the rollbar + there was overspray on rear suspension. They took it back to bare metal but left the old paint in the door jambs and weather-seal-channels and sprayed over the old flaky paint.
It's a nice shiny paint job but why not get the details right...and if its going to go over budget I'd rather that than take it back for probably another 2 months when I should be driving the damn thing

Damn......I'm feeling better about my self-sprayed dusty garage job!!

the finished product looks awesome man!!

Rear valence test fit:

Liz got the rear deck shocks in today (and a bunch of other stuff):

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been EXTREMELY busy.

It's not finished, but here's our TurtleGirl presentation for WCC06:

Seats in:

The stickers on the back bumper will only remain until the bumpers are repainted properly:

Liz adjusting the belts:

And the RS has its top painted, by me, because we don't need no stinkin' painters:

And so, I sign off from this thread.

Future contributions will be by Liz. Today was the official end of the build for me.

Her car will be attending the WCC, and it is my sincere hope that it performs as well as the RS last year when it left the driveway with only 50 miles (Liz's has 30).

See you Friday Brother...
Joe

Well done my firend. Well done.

Great work Joe. Liz and Nicko have fun.
Take lots of pictures. I will be there in spirit.

Well, we're on our way back from the WCC. Sorry no pictures yet, I don't have my camera stuff here in the hotel room.

On the way out, we were having distributer cap problems, so we drove it all the way to Cortez CO from home, and then trailered it into Salt Lake City. At Eric Shea's house, we did some diagnosing, drinking and brainstorming with Gint(Mike & Sharon Ginter), Eric (Shea), Mw914 (Mike Wills), Ferg (Mike Fergeson) and StratPlayer, and decided to try some stock spark plug wires instead of the Magnacore wires we had purchased to go with the MSD and the Blaster2 Coil. Apparently the MC wires were the wrong resistance. We borrowed some stock wires (THANKS ERIC!!! They'll be in the mail back to you when we get home,) and the distributer cap stopped blowing up.

So Luckie and Joe and I continued on to Portland with the car on the road and the RS on the trailer. She drove 20.5 of the 26.5 hours it took us to get there, and only was on the trailer for 6.

On the run up to Mt. Hood, though, more trouble. The bushings in the shift coupler somehow spat out, and I only had 3-5 gears. No R-1-2. Not fun when trying to get up that hill with the traffic stopping ALL THE DAMN TIME!!! My clutch really took a beating. We hobbled it back to I-84 after the lunch, and came back to the hotel. She's going to be riding on the trailer all the way home.... Not really a fix that we want to undertake on the road, if'n ya know what I mean.

We had a great time, though!!!
Keep an eye out for the updates as I finish this car when we get home. I still have lots to do!!!

thanks so much Joe! really inspired me. hope to meet you sometime.