I have never heard anything really good about Mario Vaz sprays but anyway me and a friend decided to give a try and left a few frames to be re-painted - one of them was a curly Hetchins which is worth about £700.

This week when buying a frame from a guy, i realized it had so many chips all over the frame, quite surprising since the owner had it re-sprayed recently. He told me the job was done by (Mario) Vaz and he was really unhappy with the results, and suggested me to send it back to Vaz and tell him to do the job again.


Anyway, our frames were there already so all i could do was wait and see the results. He told us it would take about one or two weeks but in fact it took way more than that.


Went yesterday to collecte the frames - and:

- he forgot to outline the lugs on the Hetchins;
- forgot to include the decals in one frame;
- forgot to paint the fork engravimgs in one frame in yellow as requested;
- forgot to include Reynolds stickers in a Condor frame;
- asked him to do a metallic painting with glitter (like some 80's Rossin frames, and also some japanese frames) - but it seems to be too hard for him. One of the frames, which was supposed to be pink with glitter, now looks cheap and boring


He offered to include the decals and paint the fork engravings, but anyway the guy lives in the middle of f*****g nowhere, and you can't go by bike if you have to collect more than one frame.


Does any one has other bad experience with him to share?

Yep. Chipped straight away. Wrong colour. He was cheap, tho.

He did my Pinarello very well, but he did forget to put the headtube sticker on. He gave me the sticker to put on myself, but of course it wasn't under the clearcoat. Still, I found him good value and the paint has held up well. I'd use him again.

shitttttty

what have you done about it? get your money back?

Yeah, chips very easily. When I picked it up there was sand from the blasting stuck to the paint. Had to wander around for hour & half whilst he touched it up. But £40....

thats a crap excuse...if you pay to get your frame painted you expect it to be painted dont matter how much it costs.

if anyone wants there frame painted i'l do it....for a tenner but it will be the wrong colour and half done with sand all over it....anyone?

A tenner you say?...hmm

yeah man sounds good aidan, wheres your workshop based?

I'll do your frame cheaper than that. I have a couple of cans of paint kicking around that I need to use up...

It's not an excuse, that's what it cost. I wasn't happy about it and I doubt I'd go back.

Hmmm, that's a shame, was gonna take a frame there myself soon... Are Armourtex much more expensive? What's the quality like?
My flatmate's got a guy in Norwich that does all his VW panels, bumpers etc, he reckons he'd do my frame for about £20, excellent quality too... Wouldn't be able to do decals tho'...

well i have a couple of black markers that need to be used up......so the only colour i can do is black

Thats annoying... I guess the only decent option to get a frame done in london then when you want frame renovations + painting is to take it to Witcomb. Or have the repairs done elsewhere and then take the frame to Armourtex...

my frame's with mario at the moment, should be ready sometime next week. judging from some of the frames i saw there, i thought the work is excellent...i was impressed with the green and white a.s.gillott? and i think i saw the hetchins

fingers crossed....

How'd the Peter Hare turn out Roberto?

I have one of those little pens you get in Argos/Bookmakers and it has got some ink left - £2 for the whole frame ? - if you leave the wheels on I will also do the tyres.

i kid you not, part of my frame IS coloured in with marker pen

I've got some magnolia at the moment (silk), brillent white, and some shade of light gray paint. I may also have some left over wallpaper. Any combination of these coverings can be done for £10.

I may soon be taking delivery of some white gloss as well but I will have to check with my supplier.


I will keep you all posted.

mario did a good job on mine, but then i kept it nice and simple so not much to go wrong. have even had some welding done (via Mario - i think his brother is connected with Roberts or something) and that has held up nicely so far.

the paint on the bike i bought from herne hill jumble chips extremely easily and i believe it is resprayed by vaz and it sucks!

very interested in this, would you also consider fixing some shelves to the rear stay and maybe some skirting around the dropouts, nothing too fancy like...

hey Roberto - could you post some pics of the jobs he's done for u? I'm curious how bad it gets :P

maybe we got different standards after all lol :P

Got my frame done by Steve, at Armourtex, hackney. Gave it in monday afternoon, got it wednesday morning! What a guy.... Thanks steve, fo' pimpin my ride!

wow! that's really quick. how much was it? you got any pics?

GBP60 for frame n fork blasted and sprayed, but this girl i kind of know got it done for GBP40 - send your girlfriends He also put 2 lacquer coats so no scratches. No pics, sorry.
ROBERTO - you shoulda gone to armourtex for that glittery metallic look, they did mine like that no probs!

I wanted the glitter effect so bad :(

you dirty bitch.

Easy.. I've been using textas to "paint" my bikes for years! Can't be arsed locating correct touchup paint so out comes the permie marker.. done.

And you.


[goes off to polish his £10,000 custom Klein]

Got my Mercian back yesterday, everything seemed fine 'til I got it home... Decals on the head and seat tubes aren't seated properly so they're crinkled and the downtube ones aren't centred, they're about 5-10mm out... Really bloody shoddy...
Suppose I can't really complain, his brother took a coupla cable guides out and fixed the ovalised headtube... Paint seems fine tho' he did forget to line the lugs, which he did while I waited... £90...
Suppose you pay peanuts, you get monkeys... :(

Why not?

it's a cheap paint job what do you expect? i don't think i would get expensive frames painted there, would use mercian or armourtex.

I will call and have a moan but he is so bloody cheap, Mercian wanted to charge me £300 for the same work... And I can't be arsed waitin' another fortnight, I just wanna ride the bloody thing...
I've learnt my lesson, I'l send her up to Derby next winter... :/

It's cheap, but not cheap enough to be that shoddy.

I'd be asking him to rectify it.

I'd recommend these guys;

Atlantic Boulevard

They are based oop north but for £30 they organised a courier to collect and return my frame. They did a fantastic job of it too.

mercian do the pick-up and return for £25. my respray which was inc 2 colours and luglining, plus a bit of welding in some holes, came to £176.