[Donunder]

It starts with--Nice paint job. Who did it?
You answer-- Fred Bloggs Restorations.
And then comes the loaded question from hell---Would you recommend them?
At this point might I suggest that you become a politician for just a short moment and answer along the lines of Well they did my car, you seem impressed with the finished job and I'm happy with my dealings with them from a price and quality of work point of view.
If pressed, you can then say Look I'm happy with what they did for me but I make it a point never to recommend painters.

I speak from experience from years ago when I had a couple of cars painted by a mate of mine. He quoted accurately, did the work within the agreed time, stuck to his price and produced work that I was very happy with.

Over the next little while I recommended this fellow to other "car" people who had seen the work he'd done for me. Most were satisfied with their jobs but two in particular were very unhappy (and I have to say one of the jobs was not quite what I would have expected from this guy) and one even took to putting my name about that I was receiving kickbacks from the painter and that he was charging skyhigh prices for shoddy work. Thank goodness this was all well before the days of forums and social networking, but it was bloody uncomfortable for me just the same.

Paint jobs are so very subjective. A laid back person will accept work that can have a nitpicker apoplectic. There are so many aspects of painting a car that can be open to interpretation, and let's face it if a guy's spending big bucks on the thing that people first notice about his pride and joy, the smallest imperfection becomes a source of angst, a lot of which will be directed right back to you, the person who recommended this painter in the first place. Friendships can and do suffer....