Factory color that no one will admit to!!

Erik the Awful said:

When I had my wife's shop built, I gave the builder the foundation specs from the metal building company and told him that's how I wanted it - cracking foundations is a problem around here. I also filed the specs with my permit request. The day of the foundation pour I was at work and got an angry call from the builder because he had to dig the footings wider at the last minute. The permit inspector had shown up and noticed the builder was "doing it his way" instead of what was spec'd. Read your contract and follow it. Don't bid to do the work it you aren't prepared to follow it. Note that I work in the aircraft industry where strict contract compliance a very important thing, so your industry might operate differently.

Ever hear the story about how Van Halen had a crazy line buried in their contract that the venue had to provide a bowl of M&Ms with all the green M&Ms picked out? They did that for a quick visual of contract compliance. If the venue had that bowl of M&Ms, they knew the venue was professionally run with attention to detail. If the bowl of M&Ms wasn't there, they knew it was going to be a $#!+show.

I think the color difference is a case of a GM bureaucrat saying, "Eh, we could just use this color code again. Nobody will know the difference."

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some contractors are very skilled at finding ways to justify change orders ....

Hipster said:

Pretty much how the Basf rig I work off is set up

When I pull a formula up on the puter it lists "most common color position" first, then all the variances under that with reference numbers to the color deck. Grab the color deck I need , kill the booth lights, grab the daylight corrected lamp and start looking at colors. If nothing's close I go get the camera.

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We seldom scan, with the variants grouped by color instead of manufacturer, we can just thumb thru the deck for one that's blendable. It may be a color originally from another manufacturer, but the car nor paint has ever complained.

Ron Taylor said:

some contractors are very skilled at finding ways to justify change orders ....

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Under the "Design/Build" process a project manager is expected to find added scope to the contract.
That is part of the job
When we bid the job we know that our bid is only the foot in the door.
We have to be qualified to even be on the bidders list and have to have a good rock solid reputation before we are invited to bid on the job.
Big projects rarely hire the low bidder.
That just is not the way that usually happens.
But it does happen and that is a recipe for disaster every friggen time.
Everybody knows that the bid drawings and specs are wrong.
Everybody knows that.
Architects design **** that is just impossible to build and spec out materials and designs that are insanely unsafe.
We all build that into our bid and into our exclusions of scope of work.
The money for change orders is already a part of the overall funding of the project.
The only question is who is going to get all of that money.
I am. I am a steel fabricator but I am taking the plumbers money and the elictricians money and the drywallers money all of it.
And I do it by taking the sub contracts off of the GC and handling it all in house.
You cant backcharge me through the GC if if you are under my contract with you.
And all of those little stupid adds are now a part of my much bigger change order.
I get to add at least 15 percent on top of whatever you are claiming as profit and overhead.
That all lets me operate as a general contractor without being a GC.
Im am still a sub.
But, and this is a really big but...
The only way you can do this is by being hardcore damn impressive in the field.
You have to be the best and you have to hire the absolute best.
If you as a company assume that level of responsibity and that level of liability you better have some damn badass people behind you.
When you start taking over subs from the GC you are also taking over the "liquidated damages" from that contract.
On a big project that is often $150,000 thousand dollars a day.
Some people in this industry view this as gambling.
it isnt just throwing the dice.
It is high risk with a high reward.
And very well planned in advance.
That is just what we do and we are pretty damn good at it.
It is so friggen easy. live in a normal house so they have enough money to buy a house.
Drive a normal car so they have enough money to buy a car.
Live the same life your employees live.
That is how you put toghether a crew of people who can do anything and just ******* crush it.
The only way in this life that you will ever be a superhero or some kind of a rock star is to wake up one day and figure out that you are surrounded by superheroes and rockstars.

Erik the Awful said:

When I had my wife's shop built, I gave the builder the foundation specs from the metal building company and told him that's how I wanted it - cracking foundations is a problem around here. I also filed the specs with my permit request. The day of the foundation pour I was at work and got an angry call from the builder because he had to dig the footings wider at the last minute. The permit inspector had shown up and noticed the builder was "doing it his way" instead of what was spec'd. Read your contract and follow it. Don't bid to do the work it you aren't prepared to follow it. Note that I work in the aircraft industry where strict contract compliance a very important thing, so your industry might operate differently.

Ever hear the story about how Van Halen had a crazy line buried in their contract that the venue had to provide a bowl of M&Ms with all the green M&Ms picked out? They did that for a quick visual of contract compliance. If the venue had that bowl of M&Ms, they knew the venue was professionally run with attention to detail. If the bowl of M&Ms wasn't there, they knew it was going to be a $#!+show.

I think the color difference is a case of a GM bureaucrat saying, "Eh, we could just use this color code again. Nobody will know the difference."

Click to expand...

Yep. I started out running and programming cnc punch presses for a prototype division of Simula Corp back in the 90s.
A 1977 stripitt 750 with a fanuc tape reader.
I got the job because I had experiance running and programming flatbed engraving machines and they pretty much all ran HPGL or some version of HPGL. or DXF
Pretty much pen up, pen relative, pen absolute.
We used "Prippit" I still have that in 3.5.
Really basic flat pattern layout graphic software.
Basically I had to do the flat pattern layout and all of the bend deductions on paper.
Then offset the tool path and maybe a bit of nibbling while doing the clamp offset so you dont punch the clamps.
Then run that through 100 feet of paper tape reader that ran through overhead pullys to that fanuc tape reader.
That old 750 was a an air clutch leaking turret clutch full of oil shot pin sensor out of whack had to pry bar that damn thing becuase the upper turret would stick piece of crap.
The lower turret would hit its lock pins and lock in place but because the turret clutch was oils soaked the upper turret would keep going.
I had a tappered bent pry bar that fit into the shot pin bushings and I had to stuff that into the upper shot pin holes and drag on that thing long enough for the punch to line up with the die set.
After a couple of months of that slipping turret clutch and the 24 inch air punch clutch leaking I finally convinced them to pay for the air fittings and buy me a new turret clutch.
2 days to fix it.
600 bucks for parts.
They had been screwing around with it for ten friggen years.
Ten years.
We were a prototype shop.
We built full size driving trucks for the MX missile system.
We built the second gen de-icer for the boeing 777.
We manufactured the later gen explosion proof seat brackets for the humvee.
We prototyped armour for the F-16.
And we manufactured the electrical contacts for kidney dialysis machines.
And the ownner fought us tooth and nail.
Just a dope.
That whole experiance was life changing for me.
I fell into this whole deal because I will read a tech manual on a machine and chase that right into the dirt.
For all of that not knowing a damn thing about what I was doing.
For all of that just making it up on the fly?
I got accepted into a world of craftsmen.
Aviation precission sheet metal mechanics.
And eventually they showed me how to become one of them.
About 50 percent just being taught how .
And another 50 percent from sitting around the welding table at lunch time and sharing whatever you brought that day.
Spending a Sunday cooking some ribs for lunch on Monday because you know that Steve is bringing his pasta salad and aint now way on ******* earth are you gonna get shut down by Steve and his friggen pasta salad again.
That is the comraderie of the shop.
That is what is missing.