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Hit The Don't Panic Button

By Mike Speidel

    I had my car painted a few months back. I went to the shop and had it quoted. The price was right, so I had it done. When I went to pick it up a week later, it was gorgeous - a hot pink 1979 Mercury Cougar... and it was all mine.

    After I paid for it, the shop owner mentioned that if the color of the paint began to change in a month or two, I shouldn't panic. He went on to say he had seen it happen before, so I shouldn't be too concerned if, in fact, it later became discolored. I didn't think too much of it at the time, and why would I? I had my ride back (better than ever) and I was getting all kinds of looks driving down Virginia's highways.

    Today it looks nothing like it did... from hot pink to hot puke! But I'm not going to panic, because I got the heads-up from the shop that this might happen. I'm not going to take it back now either. I need the car and can't afford the time it would take to have it in the shop for another week.

    Amusing, isn't it? Who would actually put up with this? In essence, this story recently unfolded on a brand new overlay project. An airport manager was told by the consulting engineer that if the newly painted runway markings became discolored - "Don't panic, we've seen it happen before." That mentality is not serving the client, and is unsafe for pilots and passengers. What's worse is the airport manager isn't concerned either... because they were "warned" after the fact that this might happen. Consultants are employed to get proverbial monkeys off an airport's back, not surgically attach them (no monkeys were harmed in the writing of this article).

    That's not the typical reaction I was expecting from a client who received a useless product. What did they pay for? The airport likely will have to repaint twice as much to maintain color tolerances, which may lead to premature degradation of their beautiful new runway. An ounce of consideration given to the coating selection while writing project specifications would have saved the client mucho dinero (I'm ambidextrous). There are higher-quality coatings that will resist the rust discoloration the engineer spoke of. Sightline can help... don't paint yourself into a corner.

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