Originally Posted by
bigbossman
A data point on the auto-body route.....
I tried to do that around here, and was uniformly rejected. They body shops told me, to a man, that their painters were plenty busy with the business at hand - repainting cars - and had zero interest in doing a bike. Even if I accepted pot-luck on the color - whatever was n the gun at the time.
Maybe I needed to approach a painter on the sly for a cash-money side job, but I do not know any painters personally and did not want to spend the energy piercing that veil....... Especially since Ed Litton is so close and doesn't really charge that much. And he puts the decals on.
Yes, this is very true.
The body shop guys get tunnel vision and may not want to expand ouside their usual routine at first thought. Your chances probably increase if the frame is stripped and clean and you show up with it in hand. Then a little schmoozing about keeping your money in the local economy and expressing that you know they do great work wouldn't hurt either. Also, offer cash.
If you have the money to spend the bicycle specialists are probably the best choice, but I don't think the bicycle community should put up with sub-par service.