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.

Evil Project - update

Well the Evil Project bike has taken a turn for the artistic, (not autistic) (photos to come soon) I have been inspired by a web comic called Yehuda Moon

http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2010-07-15

so I decided to take the frame and do just that, I am currently painting the frame in order to add the formulas on the frame. However I decided that it would look much better if I took off one of the rear triangle so I headed out to harbor Freight and picked up an Angle Grinder or as I am calling it - The tool Terry should never own. I did manage to get one of the rear triangles cut off the frame as well as ruining a shirt, cutting my jaw, scaring the daylights out of me, and snapping a plastic chair on the balcony (anyone want to buy an angle grinder? only used once, don't mind the bloodstains)

So now all I have to do is
Prime the frame
Paint the frame
Paint the formulas
Clear coat the frame
Get recognized as a famous artist
Get rich
Turn to drug and alcohol
Die in a hotel room
Have a stranger write my biography

Then I'll be really famous

Look out world here I come

My Evil Project Part 2

Photo Credit: DbackLover

The Stripping continues and it is a serious pain in the A**. Today marks the second day of me trying to strip the paint from the bike frame. By the looks of things I have another couple days of sitting down and stripping the paint until my drill gets to hot and begins to slow down.

As the build goes on, I have been learning more and more about not just the bike but also the local biking community.  I wish I could say that everything I learned about the local biking community was positive but I think we all know better than that (nothing is all positive or all negative) I have run into this on the various forums (and not just biking but all the forums that I have been on) When I asked questions about parts on the bike I would usually get several really good and informative answers mixed in with comments like (the whole thing is junk and not worth your time / You cant have a good bike unless you spend a lot of money)

Editors Note: Left of sanity makes a very valid point in his comment below, after reading this post I realized that I was putting forth a negative overall opinion of the Local Biking Community and that is not what I meant to do. Overall the biking community is a fantastic group of people. In general I really enjoy the time I spend on the forums. I have yet to have a bad experience on the forum, (lets face it I posted about looking for a beater bike I could strip down and the next day I had someone on the forum offer me one for free) So while I am focused on this one aspect of all forums, please understand that there are many more positive aspects than the one negative I have chosen to bring to the forefront.

Editors Note (7-16-10) The Paragraph that was here has been deleted on examination and comments of those involved I realized that what I said was said in the heat of passion and was far harsher than was intended. on re-reading it I find that it really does not properly express the point I was trying to make and came close to being down right mean to people who didn't deserve it.

I know what you're thinking, You are thinking that this doesn't have much to do with TEP The Evil Project but it does. I have long had the belief that you don't need hundreds of dollars to have a decent bike to ride around the city and on the trails. So what I am going to do is keep a running total of the price of the bike. The next bike I build TEP2 will be a road bike

In Related news, I am going to try and get down to Free-Ride for volunteer night, I am hoping that I can pick up some long forgotten Jedi Bike knowledge. For those who don't know Free-Ride is "not a traditional repair shop, where you drop off a bike and someone fixes it, but a bicycle educational facility. There is that old saying “if you give a person a fish they will eat for a day but if you teach them how to fish they will eat for a lifetime.” That is our basic philosophy at Free Ride!" (at least that is what their website says.) So I will be heading down there on saturday as well to put in some volunteer hours to help out and pick up some tips on the bike I am building.

Running total on the bike so far:
Price of original Bike - 0$ (was giving to me)
Hours so far - 4

I am looking forward to finding out more about this and the people who run it.

My Evil Project Part 1

Photo Credit: DBackLover

Well I have to wait no longer. I posted on Bike Pittsburgh Forums that I wanted a  beater bike that I could tear apart and not worry about breaking anything expensive. Tim (Thank you Tim) offered me a Magna Mountain Bike for Free, All I had to do was go pick it up. Well today I went and picked up the bike. (you can see the photo of the Bike as I got it.

I worked on it for an hour (until it got to dark to see) and managed to strip off most of the items. i.e. everything but the chain and the sprocket. I learned quite a bit while doing this. After the photo below you can see the interesting things I learned about stripping a Bicycle.

Things I learned:

1. You can strip a bicycle of parts really fast if your not to concerned about keeping the parts.

2. Before you start something like this read up on the process. I spent several hours over the past few days reading the The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair: For Road and Mountain Bikes(Expanded and Revised 5th Edition) And I have to say this really helped.

3. Make sure you have your tools, All your tools. I grabbed my big orange bucket of tools (what can I say I like orange) from my sister's where I had been working on my nephew's Bike. I can see now that my nephew has been playing with my hex keys and Chain tool since neither of them were in my Bucket. (so you can see why the front and rear derailleurs are still attached to the bike) 

Next things to tackle

1. Get my Tools from my nephew!!

2. remove the chain, derailleurs, sprocket and Bottom bracket.

3. Clean up the Frame.

4. Strip the paint off the Frame.