Thursday Morning Mumblings
Posted by Dr Diecast at 2/21/2008 8:51 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
Thursday........ ok, I will admit its nice to see the end of the week but its been a strange one at that. First things first..... no I didnt paint cars yesterday. I have 3 cars, 1 from Australia, 1 from Europe and 65 Plymouth I could not source paint codes for so I had to call my guy at Dupont but he was gone already (east coast). I did talk to him this morning and he is working on them now so.......... if all goes as planned they will get painted today, UGH, i hate when things get changed like this. If you remember I was to be painting flames today but oh well, I guess thats for another day.
So I realized something yesterday that I will now make mandatory in the future. This is about the 59 El Camino. Karl if your reading this I'm not venting about you just the situation that came from this and why I will be changing things in the future.
This El Camino is a very wild custom that when completed should look just as intimidating as the real car but.... the construction has caused some problems though simple to correct in the future. As we all know I ask customers to send pictures with the contract so I have reference to look at while creating there replica. Karl sent me a nice package that actually included paint chips he made from all the colors on the car and a great explanation of what/how/where they were used. Along with this a couple sheets of copy paper with pictures of the car printed on them. Here in lies the problem. There were not really enough pictures especially of the paintwork (flames) and interior so I asked for more and Im sure I said please send pictures but he sent a CD. This is fine..... until....... I have to run back and forth loading the disc and scrolling through them all to find what im looking for. Well that and its not how I do things. However many pictures the customer sends doesn't matter as much as them actually being pictures.
Case in point..... when I priced the project he sent me a couple shots and I though I saw everything but ......... missed the cowl hood completely.. now I am not complaining about that at all. I missed it, I should have asked for more but thats done and over with. What did happen though is my use of the copy paper pictures to get the car ready for paint...... see there isnt really a side shot but an up on a ladder shot so I come to find out yesterday while viewing the CD looking at something else that they removed or never had the chrome trim on the front fenders and doors where this diecast model does. So........whats that mean ? Time to mix up some bondo , fill and sand and re prep the body for paint.
What comes out of this are 3 things....... first my not noticing it when he emaild the original pictures, so in the future I will have to have a batch of pictures up front in order to price the project so I dont miss anything. Next that I demand the pictures be mailed as photos and not on CD or paper. This will allow me to have them with the vehicle at all times. This then creates a 3 item , improved work flow, less free work and I believe in the end a better product since my frustration level will decrease.
Ok....... well I started this Blog at 7am and its now 10 am so....... im not writing anymore and im off to get working.
Im out.......................... HW (means Hi Wayne)
So I realized something yesterday that I will now make mandatory in the future. This is about the 59 El Camino. Karl if your reading this I'm not venting about you just the situation that came from this and why I will be changing things in the future.
This El Camino is a very wild custom that when completed should look just as intimidating as the real car but.... the construction has caused some problems though simple to correct in the future. As we all know I ask customers to send pictures with the contract so I have reference to look at while creating there replica. Karl sent me a nice package that actually included paint chips he made from all the colors on the car and a great explanation of what/how/where they were used. Along with this a couple sheets of copy paper with pictures of the car printed on them. Here in lies the problem. There were not really enough pictures especially of the paintwork (flames) and interior so I asked for more and Im sure I said please send pictures but he sent a CD. This is fine..... until....... I have to run back and forth loading the disc and scrolling through them all to find what im looking for. Well that and its not how I do things. However many pictures the customer sends doesn't matter as much as them actually being pictures.
Case in point..... when I priced the project he sent me a couple shots and I though I saw everything but ......... missed the cowl hood completely.. now I am not complaining about that at all. I missed it, I should have asked for more but thats done and over with. What did happen though is my use of the copy paper pictures to get the car ready for paint...... see there isnt really a side shot but an up on a ladder shot so I come to find out yesterday while viewing the CD looking at something else that they removed or never had the chrome trim on the front fenders and doors where this diecast model does. So........whats that mean ? Time to mix up some bondo , fill and sand and re prep the body for paint.
What comes out of this are 3 things....... first my not noticing it when he emaild the original pictures, so in the future I will have to have a batch of pictures up front in order to price the project so I dont miss anything. Next that I demand the pictures be mailed as photos and not on CD or paper. This will allow me to have them with the vehicle at all times. This then creates a 3 item , improved work flow, less free work and I believe in the end a better product since my frustration level will decrease.
Ok....... well I started this Blog at 7am and its now 10 am so....... im not writing anymore and im off to get working.
Im out.......................... HW (means Hi Wayne)
John,
Quite the serious blog today. What . . . no rants? No humor . . . maybe you need a little more fiber in your diet. No . . . you've got nuclear dumps that require industrial size fans! LMAO!!!!
It's very interesting to see the business evolving. Your ideas today make perfect sense and both you and the customers will reap the benefits!
LATER!!!
Reply to this