Hi All

I just wanted to share my unpleasant experience with you all that are looking or thinking on getting your bike painted. I looked around for a good high quality show painter in the Northern California area since the beginning of summer. I have talked to several painters before choosing Joe Vasquez of Joe’s Bicycle Painting in Watsonville, CA https://www.joesbicyclepainting.com due to the fact he claims he has award winning quality finishes and is the factory painter for Calfee and Kestrel. I did some research and have nor heard neither good nor negative on him which I thought would be safe. I should have known to beware since I haven’t heard anything on him doing custom work either. Maybe some of you have used him and was satisfied with what he has done. For me it was just a totally mess to have contracted this paint job to a person who claims on his website that “All work is guaranteed to be free from defects in craftsmanship for 90 days. You'll love it or we'll fix it!”

This whole has taken about two months now and no progress which I'm going back to square one as this was a waste of time and money dealing with Joe's Bicycle Painting in Watsonville, CA This shop doesn’t follow through with the customer's needs, very unprofessional, no customer call back or contact, poor customer service as you constantly have call to check on progress and overall poor workmanship! So my word of advice is to beware when using Joe's Bicycle Painting in Watsonville, CA for a custom paint, but if you are looking for a simple Earl Scheib paint job maybe they may be capable of that, but anything above that beware.

Paragraphs, it's not just a theory.

1686 words, not bad at all...

You could have just used the last sentence and been done with it.

Sounds pretty frustrating. You have any pics?

Tldr

Holy lack of white space!

Did you get a detailed agreement in writing of the work to be done when you hired him?

worth a thousand words?

Now that there is funny.



Dude, sorry you had a bad experience with your bike paint project.

Thanks. You should try searching for Rad55 (I think that is his username?) epic story in Road Cycling forum. It literally has been years and I still don't think he got his frame painted.

He also does painting for Leopard. He's famous for the translucent clear coat, which has depth, and allows the carbon to be seen through the color.

Joe's did the painting on my Calfee Dragonfly tandem, and from the pics I've seen so far it seems okay.

Detailed agreement, I brought in the fork to show him exactly how I wanted it. He took my name and phone number off a peice of cardboard box. What R.O's, he had no work orders.

This wasn't a major job as this was basic paint job. Just wanted to have my new fork painted and replace the decal in the exact factory position, simple as that. Didn't think he could screw it up! These are photos before and photos after. The first two photos are before the paint job as you can see the decals are lined up exactly parallel to the steer tube as I stressed to him. The two bottom photos are after what he calls his custom paint job. As you can see the decal on the right side of the fork in the third photo is more crooked then the left side as they are way off compared to the factory's positioning. Poor workmanship as he paid no attention to detal!


Factory Orginal Position on Decal





Joe's Position on the decal under the clear-coat

Looks good to me.

Well a blind man can see that's way off. Look at how tilted that Seven logo is sitting. Can't you see that?

Yep, I see it. They're not lined up with the steer tube. Bummer.

The original decals are off location as well. I think you are over critical.

I think it will look fine installed on the bike.

Just remember that YOU SAID THAT,

next time you pay some one to do a job for you, and it doesn't come back the way you wanted.


Or, maybe you are the dream customer that I never get!

"Oh Hey! The decals are crooked and there's dirt in the finish. No biggy, here, let me give you lots of money for that!"

vettefrc2000

For someone that owns a Vette you must be an odd one which is half ass. I know because I'm a vette owner myself! All of many Vette owners are critical to all details. It seems to you that attention to details isn't a concern and doesn't matter. Are you one of these guys when you wax your car you don't clean the wax out of the cracks? I guess your ride would never be close to even be certified as a Bloomington Gold category! Look at his fork which is from Seven Cycles, one of the top bikes in road bikes! It's not a Trek, Cannondale or any of the mass production bikes. Hello, Wake UP There! If he spent that much money on having custom fitted and have one built and getting the fork custom painted should it go right down to the details.

You have a point. If one pays for quality work, than one should get it. I would demand better work, maybe the vette guy isn't so demanding. However, your point didn't have to be made in this way.

This (quoted) post is judgmental, and rude... sorry.

No need to get on a high horse.

Well..... you can't be too critical about things - you do own a Corvette, after all.

That was my first thought as well!

But I'm just a victim of my environment.*



*(as a car spotter, in the past month I have seen Maserati's, Aston-Martin's, several of the Jag XK's and any number of Turbo's & Carrera S's. Bentley's are popular with a number of locals as well. Lambhorghini's indicate that it's either a race week or the Concourse. Couple of weeks ago, the Carmel Pinecone had front page news when a guy let his buddy drive the Scaglietti, and said friend went off-roading!
'Course if I do stop to check out a 'Vette, it's likely a '53 or a nice '66.
Anything newer and it's just your beater car.)

I guess there’s a difference of expectation on what type of quality that is expected here. As said earlier this isn’t no off the shelf bike, it’s a top of the line piece. Even if I was to have a Cannondale, Trek, Giant or Specialized custom painted I would expect to get what I have paid for. Now you wouldn’t want to go to Ruth’s Steak House and paid the price and have a quality of a Sizzler’s steak would you?

speedemon

Thanks for sharing your experience as in the future I may want to have some paint work and I would hate to experience what you have went through. How are you handling this situation now? Are you going to have this redone?

Rude? There nothing rude on that. It's a statement right to the point! Why sugarcoat it?




Yes, I'm having this redone completely. I have been in contact with Mark (Dr. Deltron) on getting the fork to him. The photos don't show it all! There are imperfections scratches, dust & dirt in the paint and clear. Some of you maybe content with this, but I'm not! That's why I paid a professional and expect professional work! I went through the complete process on going with a top caliber bike and I'm not going to cut myself short of that. Obviously there was no pride in workmanship on just a small paint job for them, who knows? Seems that Mark and I are on the same page as to what I'm looking for and I am confident that it will all work out well at the end after he's done with it.