A running Joke

Photo Credit: www.desktopedia.com

Well it seems I have found the problem in the ongoing saga of Bike Frame Painting. After several attempts, some more successful than others but all failures in the end I have learned an important lesson.

I have found the Weak Link.

"Hello Weak link" I say to myself.

I suffer from the pitiful combonation of exacting vision and total lack of patience.  I not only know just how I want the bike to look but I also know (in my mind) just how to achieve this. I am somewhat hampered by the small matter that I have the attention span of red bull addicted 4 year old and the patience to match.

Still as G.I Joe says "Knowing is half the Battle"  So once again I found myself brushing scraping and sanding, only to head back out to the dustbowl of a work area to put the first coat of Red paint on the frame. Yeah Yeah I know the bike is going to be orange but the red paint is also a rust proofing so it is going to make up the first coat.

Now I just need someone to come over and take the frame away from me for a few days so I cant play with it until I can put the next coat of paint on.  I have to admit I am starting to feel pressured since I have to get the paint on the bike before the weather gets to bad to work outside. My plan is to get the paint done and over the winter get the rest of the bike put together for its unveiling in spring.

Is it wrong for the weight of the paint to be greater than the weight of the steel in the bike?

That's pretty much normal right?

No really Progress this time

Photo Credit: Me

Well After the last post (Somedays you win) I took some serious time to consider what I needed to do. The first thing I decided was that I needed to start fresh. So I will repeat this and consider a new part of the Bible (Fatguy's Painting Bible) from the book of Primer Chapter 3 Verse 4 (Primer 3:4) Primer covers a multitude of sins. So I put on 3 coats of Rust resistant Primer and (the red) and two coats of filler primer (the gray) after a good hour of wet sanding I headed back outside to put a couple coats of black on the top tube.

This is the other thing I decided - This bike is going to be the new FatguyOrangebike Bike. So I placed the vinyl letters on as you see them there.  I did this on both sides of the Top Tube and tomorrow I will add several coats of orange to the upper part of the bike.

Once the Orange is on I will place the rest of the letters and then add a over layer of white on the top tube and hopefully people will be astounded at just how cool the custom FatGuyOrangeBike will look. 

So until the next layer I'll leave you with these photos and let me know what you think.

Somedays you win

And others you lose. Today was such a day (as far as the bike goes) I picked up some pretty cool looking purple to use as an accent color. with the bike taped off I painted it.

Two Words

Massive Fail.

As you can tell from my lack of photo here (I dont even want to take a picture of what the frame looks like let alone post one here.) so starting next week it is back to the wire wheel as I work to take the paint off the bike and begin again.  Anyone know how much it would cost to have my bike bead blasted back down to bare metal?)

I will still go with the orange, I like the orange, I like it alot, it is just everything else about the bike that was all wrong. Gonna need to rethink this whole thing.

Fork U - and other things

Photo Credit:Me

Well, Its been a busy week so far. I did manage to get the forks for the Ventura primed and one coat of orange on them. Looks like I will be stopping by the Autoparts Store tomorrow and picking up another can of paint (or two) since The orange is pretty much empty. I have several coats of Orange left to put on the forks and Truth be told I still haven't decided if I want to use Black as the Accent Color. Im going to throw the question up on the Bike-PGH Forums and see what the fine folks there have to say.

I did mention a Busy Week Right? I thought so.  Over the Past two days I have been spending my evenings sitting at intersections counting Bikes (and everything else) as they rode past as part of some Bike transportation census.

It has been an educational couple of days.

I have learned that,
Almost no girls ride bikes (yes I know this is false but My data says it)
Less than half of you wear a helmet! (however almost all the girls did)
More of you ride on the Sidewalk in Pittsburgh than the Street.

And we wonder why cars think we don't belong on the street?

Tommorrow I will be counting Bikes at the 9th st Bridge so after that I will post my numbers for the three bridges.

Before

Finally this week I managed to strip the old nasty Fiber Tape off the handlebars of the Ventura. However I am struck with the rather awkward position on putting all the work into getting the crap off of them and then not being sure I want to put this style of Handlebars back on the Bike. I have several different sets of handlebars on hand (so to speak) and I did manage to get the stem un-stuck (all it took was every bit of my strength and almost every swear word I knew.) so I think I will try out several different styles before I decide on drops.

After

Ventura - Painting Continues

Photo Credit: Me

Painting continues. I spent my free time yesterday taping up the lugs on the bike and my free time today after counting cyclist downtown taking a razor to the tape and getting things ready for the next layer of paint. Granted I haven't decided what color to use as the next color. Part of me is thinking black but another part is leaning towards white. I think the black will make a stronger contrast but the white will make for a more visible bike.

I also noticed several spots that need another coat of orange paint or seven. Finally got the stem freed from the forks and put the first coat of primer on them. Several more coats of primer and I will be able to add color. The question is, Do I want the forks to be orange or the accent color.

Let me know what you think.

Ventura - Head Badge

Photo Credit: ME

Here is the head Badge, after I managed to get it off the head tube and spray it with black paint. Parts of this will be filled in with orange paint. Just not sure which parts yet. Here is a photo of the what it looked like before.

So you can judge what changes have been made.

Ventura - First color coat

Photo Credit: ME

Well I managed to get the first coat of paint on the frame. (Alas the forks still need drilled out or replaced.) You can see the difference in the shade of the orange on the frame as opposed to the color of the Big Orange Beast. This is just the base coat and I still haven't decided if this is going to be the final color. I am even toying with a two-tone of dark and light orange that I am going to be playing with.

I have already decided that the lugs and Drops are going to be black. Since it is simple science that Black and orange bikes Kick Much Ass! and all the girls go Swoon Swoon Swoon. (Yeah I'm a rapper at heart.)


You can see all the pictures of the Build from beginning to whatever progress I have made at my flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jtindie/sets/72157624779897375/ I will be uploading pictures as I go and will be putting a link in the posts whenever I have new images to show.

Ventura - Progress

Photo Credit: ME

Well it seems that eventually I do make progress. Here is the frame of the Ventura Stripped and sanded. things went pretty easy once I made the appropriate sacrifice to the cycling Gods (that being my only pair of glasses) so I bit the bullet and took the 4 1/2" angle grinder with wire wheel (which has previously tried to disembowel me)

That was last night, this morning I put the first few coats of primer. Primer I have found is like love, it covers a multitude of sins.

Photo Credit: ME

So now that the frame has the first few coats of primer I am starting to get excited to see what the bike will look like when it is finished. This week I will head off to the art store and order the cans of Montana Paint that I will need. (while I hope that they will have the colors I need in stock I'm not going to bet that just the color of orange I want will be in stock)

unfortunately I still need to take the forks to the bike shop to get the stem drilled out of them so I can strip them and paint them as well. (I may try to just find a different set of forks.) after that it is just new wheels cranks, and bottom bracket. 

glad that it is all coming along just fine.

Ventura II

Photo Credit: Me

Picked up the paint for the bike at lunch today, not positive that this is the color im going to use but I was getting a can of PB Blaster for the stem and saw it. I am leaning toward using Montana Paint for the frame as I have read some good things about it (aside from it being the favorite paint of Taggers) Still having an extra can of paint (especially an extra can of orange paint) around the house has to be a good thing.

Right?

Evil Project - Painting

Photo Credit: Dbacklover

Well I finally got some paint thrown down on the frame after weeks of grinding, sanding, bondo-ing and primering - sanding - primering. The first coat of semi-gloss black went on and the humidity of the day was making for quite the challenge. still the paint is on and tomorrow I will sand it and put a second coat of the semi-gloss before moving on to the gloss enamel.

All in all this has been a long and drawn out process that I alreay have a feeling I will be repeating in the near future with a road bike frame that is destined to be ridden (not used as art) I also have my next two art-bikes planned out and am just trying to figure how I will go about making them a reality.

If anyone has old frames they want to donate I am willing to take a couple off your hands as long as you understand that they will most likely be cut up and never ridden again.