paint and painters

[Phil Speight]

Yo

I was in hospital t`other week. As a result of my consultant`s desire to change my medication( I have chronic Crohn`s Disease but don`t worry on my behalf ) I could well have died of Pancreatitis. I didn`t - but intimations of mortality don`t `alf focus your thoughts .

So listen up - and perhaps some of you may help me spread the word

Last night I was told , not for the first time , that people around such and such an area ( OK Welford ) say our paint "falls off/won`t shine however much you put on , etc etc". I was for sure either going to write this or yawn myself to sleep it`s so goddamn boring.

This is a plea on behalf of ALL the obvious paint companies who target the canal market ,Craftmaster,lnternational , Blakes, whoever. None of us , absolutely none of us, would last two minutes if we sold bad product. Why should anyone hope to survive in business deliberately peddling rubbish at high prices? Society is too demanding and too sophisticated these days. There are no bad cars , no bad motorcycles ( I`ll debate that point with pleasure elsewhere(!), no duff electrical goods and the same applies to the paint we and our competitors offer the canal customers.

If you , or your painter make a dog`s breakfast with any sensibly priced paint product from any of the obvious sources either you , your painter or the circumstances/conditions are to blame. I don`t care if the person with the brush has been painting two months or twenty years . I know painters who use our paint , International and all the rest who do stunningly good work with EXACTLY the same paint used by the "such and such a paint is crap " brigade. The main difference is they ARE good while the rest merely think they are and are too proud to ask for help or advice.Last night, as I said, I had somebody telling me how bad our paint`s supposed to be while sitting on an absolutely fabulous boat painted to perfection WITH OUR PAINT! Super shiny, super smooth , and crisp as you like. Painted incidentally not by us but by Dave Mundy -terrific.

Come on folks - give us all a chance. Some people out there need to forgive me for inadvertantly getting famous for very little in a small world , some of them need to accept that we are good at what we do and we aren`t alone in that, and some need to understand that when it says on a tin of paint "for professional use" there is more to being professional than charging money. It also says " DIY painters contact blah blah for help and advice ---" so why don`t more people take us up on the offer rather than messing up and then looking for a scapegoat!

Ah - well - I`ll doubtless regret writing this - but I enjoyed it while it lasted - and i really do intend to make these points on behalf of all the paint companies not just ours.

Good news for me , of interest to car freaks/restorers here present and of no interest whatsoever to everyone else - I couldn`t take number one Alfa to The National Alfa bash last weekend on account of the engine being in bits , I couldn`t take number two on account of the engine being in bits AGAIN - so I took Alfa number three. Won best new entrant AND second overall in the national concours! All I did was wash it.............

Forgive the rant - it really does get wearing some times !

Cheersall

phil

Edited July 1, 2007 by Phil Speight

[Chris-B]

Yo

I was in hospital t`other week. As a result of my consultant`s desire to change my medication( I have chronic Crohn`s Disease but don`t worry on my behalf ) I could well have died of Pancreatitis. I didn`t - but intimations of mortality don`t `alf focus your thoughts .

So listen up - and perhaps some of you may help me spread the word

Last night I was told , not for the first time , that people around such and such an area ( OK Welford ) say our paint "falls off/won`t shine however much you put on , etc etc". I was for sure either going to write this or yawn myself to sleep it`s so goddamn boring.

This is a plea on behalf of ALL the obvious paint companies who target the canal market ,Craftmaster,lnternational , Blakes, whoever. None of us , absolutely none of us, would last two minutes we if we sold bad product. Why should anyone hope to survive in business deliberately peddling rubbish at high prices? Society is too demanding and too sophisticated these days. There are no bad cars , no bad motorcycles ( I`ll ebate that point with pleasure elsewhere(!), no duff electrical goods and the same applies to to te paint we and our competitors offer the canal customers.

If you , or your painter make a dog`s breakfast with any sensibly priced paint product from any of the obvious sources either you , your painter or the circumstances/conditionsare to blame. I don`t care if the person with the brush has been painting two months or twenty years . I know painters who use our paint , International and all the rest who do stunningly good work with EXACTLY the same paint used by the "such and such a paint is crap " brigade. The main difference is they ARE good while the rest merely think they are and are too proud to ask for help or advice.Last night, as I said, I had somebody telling me how bad our paint`s supposed to be while sitting on an absolutely fabulous boat painted to perfection WITH OUR PAINT! Super shiny, super smooth , and crisp as you like. Painted incidentally not by us but by Dave Mundy -terrific.

Come on folks - give us all a chance. Some people out there need to forgiveme for inadvertantly getting famous for very little in a small world , some of them need to accept that we are good at what we do and we aren`t alone in that, and some need to understand that when it says on a tin of paint "for professional use" there is more to being professional than charging money. It also says " DIY painters contact blah blah for help and advice" --- so why don`t more people take us up on the offer rather than messing up and then looking for a scapegoat!

Ah - well - I`ll doubtless regret writing this - but I enjoyed it while it lasted - and i really do intend to make these points on behalf of all the paint companies not just ours.

Good news for me , of interest to car freaks/restorers here present and of no interest whatsoever to everyone else - I couldn`t take number one Alfa to The National Alfa bash last weekend on account of the engine being in bits , I couldn`t take number two on account of the engine being in bits AGAIN - so I took Alfa number three. Won best new entrant AND second overall in the national concours! All I did was wash it.............

Forgive the rant - it really does get wearing some times !

Cheersall

phil

 

Good to see you back Phil,and well done with the Alfa ...

As to paint I am one of the "no matter what I do it looks like cr** brigade" but even I have learnt ( over a very long time) that the biggest mistake I always made was cr** preperation

So later this year we will be buying paint and seting about getting as good a paint job as we can on Baldock

Oh and have no doubt if it all goes T**S up we will be on the phone for help !

Cheers

[zenataomm]

Hi Phil .... I'm not a customer of yours, in fact when it comes to paint I tend to go to Wilko's simply because I know I'm crap so see no point in wasting money buying anything decent. The finished affect will satisfy me and will only need doing again in a year or two anyway, so my needs are met. However we did briefly meet once, about a year ago in Kings Lynn.

Regarding the complaints you hear about, it only reinforces that man (in the generic sense) has no idea as to his personal limitations (ever met one that'll stop and ask for directions? It's accepted that they don't need to, after all Christopher Columbus didn't!)

How many of us have bought a Haynes manual in order to repair our car and got no further than coating it in the obligatory greasy fingerprints (you'd think they'd print them that way and save us the trouble) We're stuffed the minute we read...........

"Having removed the gearbox ensure you noted the mesh configuration between the do-hickory undervalves and the back pedalling mudguards before using special tool BGC/92A at 12pgs setting in order to re-seat the Bi-Carbs." The book then gets chucked in the boot, because it was useless or out of date or they got the model wrong, but it's never our fault. In fact we never like publicly admitting we're shite at anything. A bad workman blames ... blah .... blah .... blah.

I know someone who runs a car accesory shop and he jumps for joy when his supplier shows him some wondertool with the words "NEW" or "No more having to.." he knows they'll fly off the shelf and strangely enough to the same crowd who bought the last wonder tool that either snapped the first time they turned it the wrong way or is still sitting in pride of place awaiting the opportunity to be shown off when someone they know bemoans their fate and need assistance.

So the problem isn't the paint it's the label. It shouldn't say "For Professional Use" for that describes every bloke I've ever met trying to do anything for the first time.

As for the helpline, that's like saying "Ring this number if your manhood is shrivelled, you can't parallel park, you have no idea how to lecture a publican on improving his pub and not only know that you are Mr. Right you are Mr. Always Right."

Trouble is if you rewrote it to say "This costly paint will give superb results only if your pillock quotient is low" & "Man enough to ask for advice? Then ring ......."

but chances are sales would drop, the truth often hurts.

 

You're not responsible for the inflated egos out there, keep healthy and enjoy the things that give you pleasure.

 

Zenataomm

[smileypete]

Last night I was told , not for the first time , that people around such and such an area ( OK Welford ) say our paint "falls off/won`t shine however much you put on , etc etc".

 

Helps to have a few comeback lines for these situations, eg:

 

We've got hundreds if not thousands of very happy customers, and ALL of them followed the directions...!

 

Don't get stressed about it if you can, it's bad for health at the best of times.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[Phil Speight]

Helps to have a few comeback lines for these situations, eg:

 

We've got hundreds if not thousands of very happy customers, and ALL of them followed the directions...!

 

Don't get stressed about it if you can, it's bad for health at the best of times.

 

cheers,

Pete.

Stressed ! Moi?

Ta bud - trouble is these days it takes such a small amount of Glemmorangie to send all the sensible responses clean out the window........

Cheers

Phil