A check with a Harley Davidson imprint on it. Long

[Chuey]

I don't want this story to come off as me blasting Harley Davidson owners.

The house next door to mine was abandoned by its owner in some kind of default situation. It was in very rough condition and priced very low to reflect that. A real estate saleswoman bought the house. She has a crew of contractors that she works with to fix up houses to resell. I would have expected a cheapo job from a real estate person who was trying to make a profit on a house but didn't live in the neighborhood. That shows my general disregard for the real estate profession, I guess, but they have earned it. Anyway, the work that was done on the house was very professional and thorough. For instance, they took out the driveway and poured a new one. The whole house was tidied up, meaning new paint, a concrete slab to replace the deck, totally new kitchen and new fascia boards where necessary.

In the process, they painted their visible side of the fence I made between our properties. I thought it was odd or rude that they didn't ask me about painting the fence but it's their view of it so it didn't bother me. That is, it didn't bother me until I started working on getting my Cafe Racer back on the road. The fairing and tank had been in the line of fire of the paint where it came between and over the fence boards. The windshield, fairing itself, nose cone and tank all had either overspray or direct spray. I tried to remove the paint and it left all the parts with micro scratches.

A word about my parts is in order. They were painted with good automotive paint but not by any means a show quality paintjob. Further, there was a heartbreaking spot on the tank where the gasoline boiled over when it was off the bike. It completely removed the paint from a section of the tank about two times the diameter of the gas cap. The windshield had two cracks from the holes I drilled to attach it to the fairing. The nose cone had a crack that developed on one of the mounting holes.

In other words, my parts did not have a show bike quality finish. I decided to call the real estate person and ask for half of what it would cost to repaint the parts and replace the windshield and nose cone. (he nose cone I refer to is a cone shaped clear cover over the headlight.) My reasoning was that I had planned to have these parts repainted once the development work and testing is done. The windshield and cone would be replaced, and hopefully not crack due to lessons learned on the originals. The parts looked and worked fine for my purposes before they had been "overspray modified".

I tracked down and contacted the real estate person who turned out to be a young lady. After hearing my proposal, she said that her father is her partner in these renovations and she would like to see if he would deal with this matter. I was glad to be able to deal with someone other than a young real estate person, and agreed that that would be preferable.

Jim contacted me later that day and we made arrangements for him to come over and see the damaged parts. It turns out that he is about my age and he seemed reasonable when I showed him what had happened. I said, right up front, that I wasn't thinking of upgrading my paint job, which I admitted was a workmanlike paintjob and not a show quality one. Jim told me that he had a "33 Vicky" (expensive American hot rod) and blah blah blah about how "his guy" had fixed a problem similar to mine on his car, and how about if he takes it and sees if his guy can buff the overspray off my tank and fairing? I said fine on that. It was then that Jim told me that he was "into Harleys" and it was just a few minutes later that he felt compelled to inject into the conversation that my paintjob was, (insert some mildly insulting but very dismissive, derogitory term which I can't remember specifically, here). Now, keep in mind that I had already addressed that issue with him at the beginning of our conversation. Oh well, I guess you can't expect someone who is "into" HDs to understand a Cafe Racer that is under development.

"His guy" did a passable job on the fairing. On the tank, there seems to be some bumps that weren't there. I don't know if it's spots that were touched up or little bubbles under the paint. I don't really care that much because it will eventually be repainted. He paid me half what the two clear parts will cost. He paid that with a check. To the left of his name on the check is a HD emblem and it's larger than his name.

I'm OK with how the problem was solved. It's not like I didn't know that there are people who are snobbish about their paint jobs. It did seem important to him to "qualify" the paint on my bike. I wonder how reasonable he would be if someone got overspray on his bike? I mean, "Harley".

Chuey

[Deleted User 287]

That is pretty shoddy of them to not check out what was on the other side of the fence before painting, not to mention checking with you first about the painting.
You put the "finished" side toward their property, right? That is a fairly universal indicator of who "owns", or at least who built the fence.

My neighbor put up a privacy fence this summer. He put the finished side on the inside! Thank god I am only a tenant. I would have been upset if I owned this property.

People...

[Duane Ausherman]

I am surprised that they were willing to do anything at all.

[Chuey]

I am surprised that they were willing to do anything at all.

Why? Surely you've heard of small claims court.

Chuey