I am at wits end, I spend days building intricant blanks and shaping them, I’ve had one glassed clear, when it called for an ice green tint, another double ender Wayne Lynch style, got the fin box in the nose, this week it is a 10’0" pig with 1" balsa center and 2 flaired redwoods that was also supposed to be coke bottle tint top and bottom, it now has a clear deck, another calling for the same tint, got glassed light grey and a mini Jimmons that is holding up and order to a shop in Hawaii, it has sat going on 2 months without a drop of resin on it.
I’ve made my own F-ups, mainly when orders are too poorly written and I read the data wrong, now I have to find homes for expensive boards that have come out wrong, while rebuilding the orders from the ground up
I own a very small contracting business and you wouldn’t believe the horror stories. I’d try to do all things in house if I were in your shoes. With the level of quality that you do you deserve much better.
More than once, I have placed a custom order with a shaper who contracted their glassing out and did not get the color job I asked for.
It must suck from your side of the deal Jim, as you have always taken obvious pride in your work and have a reputation to maintain. Sucks for the customer, sucks for you.
So you’re having a clearance sail this week. Sorry to hear it. Those types of blanks should never come out of a glass shop mucked up. Time to change Glass Shops. I’ve had a similar experience twice in recent years. Fins behind the dots. Sloppy carbon etc. Go North to the Ghetto.
What are glass shops charging to do a…10’0 ice blue tint. 1 Resin pin on deck. Glassed on fin, full gloss and polish.? Just a ball park figure will do.
If a stock clear with gloss and polish& fin boxes is a low $300 to $350; then what you speak of has to be one side or the other of $400. The fin, tint and pinline are the $$. I haven’t had a longboard done in two or three years, but recently paid $200 ea. for a batch of shortboards. Recently heard of $230–$250 for a shortboard in the NorthWest.
Shit happens. Seems to happen a lot though. Of all the times this has happened I don’t recall the glass shop knocking off any $ but the damage is done.
The bummer is these are all customs. One is for a guy who is celebrating his 50th birthday and wanted the board he had always dreamed of… a curved stringer pig. Birthday boards, and especially bday boards that need to be shipped or are to coincide with a customer flying out, take a bit of extra care to make sure everything is in sync. Luckily it didn’t call for a dedication on the stringer. Luckily the customer wasn’t looking for something 4" thick which is a tough sell as a stock board outside of something in the 11’ range.
Now we have a $$$ stock board which wasn’t in the plan but it’s definately going to be a nice surprise for someone walking into one of our dealers. Maybe Haut. Maybe Trim. Maybe Pilgrim.
Jim glued up another blank for him on Sat. Shaped it yesterday and it will be in glassing before the end of the day. It probably won’t make it for his birthday but we just cross our fingers something doesn’t get f’d up as well.
It happens in my business too. What I’ve noticed is that it’s the confident, sure of himself guy that screws up the worst. The mellow, humble guy asks directions, and double checks the plans.
The guy who is full of himself always knows the answer, and goes off in the wrong direction.
Barry, went through 5 glass shops in O’side, the quality just wasn’t there also, mainly from the employees who were just too kool for skool. Leash nubs sanded down to where a drill couldn’t fit, lam’s F-d up, polishes handsed off to a learner, on my boards. Boards that sat for months waiting to be completed, dealers cancelling as they went far beyond the ship dates and had to be pulled and brought to Warren to finish.
But, I got a call from ther owner yesterday apologizing for the f-up and asking what could he do to make up for it, my reply was, it is a very expensive blank, total custom, I don’t have another place for it to call home, so until it sells at some time in the future, I am not paying for any of the glass work, he said OK. The laminator was also one of the O’side former F-ups I’d dealt with.
I’d landed Channin a glassing run with an upstart super star, this laminator never got the boards started and the Japanese client cancelled them after many months. A job anywhere else outside the surf industry and you get a pink slip for being a slacker and good enough is not good enough to pass by me
that sucks, sorry to hear your troubles. I’ve always loved your shapes, I remember a guy named Eric who used to surf NSB back in the day. he had a green model and he surfed really well on that board. hope your luck turns for the better.