Finished up that chain guard...
Then I focused on the frame again. It was originally a copper/orange color that was cool, but the owner (the bike mechanic) decided to spray-bomb it with a light/dark blue combo with uneven scallops. He didn't like the way that turned out so he then spray-bombed it with flat black. It sat like that for a while then he handed it over to me to be stripped and re-painted.
I asked him what he wanted and he was thinking about "a red or something". I talked him into letting me paint it with candy orange with some flake. He agreed so it came to the house.
It had mounting tabs for a tank but the tank was long gone. I broke out the Dremel and cut off the tank tabs then went over the frame to smooth out other inconsistencies - primarily the high spots where the chainstays/down tube meet the bottom bracket and leftover slag from welds. After all of the smoothing with the Dremel was done, I took it outside to bead blast it. It took
forever to get all those layers of paint off. Then there was the problem of pitting. The rust had pitted the frame so that meant there would be plenty of light skim coats of putty to be used. When I finally had it bead blasted I cleaned it, sprayed it with self-etching primer, and got to work bead blasting and priming the rear portions of the springer fork. At the owners request they're going to be painted the same color as the bike. Personally I'd have left them chrome, but it's his choice.
After two weeks of working with filler, a mill file, sandpaper, and primer, I had the frame pretty much ready for paint. The night prior to the day I wanted to apply paint, I nit-picked it and found a couple of tiny spots that needed smoothing, so I knocked them out and let it sit so the filler could completely cure/shrink before I primed it again for paint. End result is the smoothest Schwinn frame I've ever seen. 8) All of the tool/machine marks from the tubes being bent/formed are gone.
Yesterday I started shooting the candy base. This is where it will get fun. :mrgreen:
It'll get a few more layers of paint today. :mrgreen:
