"The Bishop" - Done!

[justride]

Hey all - I'm new here, just a couple of posts, but have been lurking for a while. I started this build a couple weeks ago - pretty excited to see it shape up.

The Bishop started it's life as a Felt Surf City that I picked up a few years ago. It was a cool looking bike, with a great frame, but it wasn't really doing it for me anymore. The biggest problem was that the thing was built to celebrate Huntington Beach. A few years back, there was a big lawsuit between Huntington Beach and our local surf spot - Santa Cruz - over who could use the name "Surf City". HB won, so I have a bit less remorse over what I am going to do to this Felt Surf City...

I'm going to do a few things to this rig - first off, the paint has to go, then I am planning on ditching the 26" tires for some 24's with a bit more "girth" to them. The saddle has to go, the bars probably have to go, the front fork can hang around for a bit - need to decide what the permanent replacement will be... Suicide shifter is also in the works.

For a paint scheme, I am thinking of flat black - except for the tank - that will be polished. I will probably throw in some white pinstripes at some point - seems appropriate for The Bishop...

I spent the afternoon one Saturday pulling off the components and getting the frame stripped. Airplane stripper is good stuff, but getting the old paint out of those welds is a pain in the butt.

The garage is a disaster, with all kinds of crap piled up - most notably the empty beer bottles. Beer and bikes are a great combo.

Once I got the paint stripped off the tank, I decided to give The Bishop a little polish to get a feel for what it was going to look like. This was a super quick buff, but I could tell, this was going to be pretty sick!

I know I don't have a lot of time for this, but what the heck - may as well give it a go, right?

JA

 

[Jake Sensi]

Re: "The Bishop"

Welcome to the Jungle!! GTB!! Peace

 

[big kountry]

Re: "The Bishop"

welcome to the show thasts a nice list of to do's but you have a month to get em buttuned up I like the ideas you've got sweet an simple pure Rat Rod

 

[kingfish254]

Re: "The Bishop"

Welcome to BO7!
That is one slick bike to start off with.
I love the polish idea!!!1
Short time, but plenty of time!!!!!!

HAVE FUN!!!!

 

[justride]

Re: "The Bishop"

Well, the frame is finally stripped - took forever even with the airplane stripper. Top tip - a small wire brush is the right tool for getting paint off of those deep aluminum welds... Anyway, before repainting, I wanted to make a few mods to the frame - I'm taking off a few of the cable bosses, and cutting down the seat tube a bit to get the seat lower.

I hit this with my angle grinder - not a precision tool... This is the underside of the frame, and will be painted, so I'm not going to stress about the extra gouges.

For some reason, Felt made these seat tubes pretty high. I took off about 5/8 of and inch or so - just extended the slit a bit, then cut off the excess with a dremel and filed it flat.

I made a bit more progress on polishing "The Bishop". I have been sanding it with 400 grit paper, then hitting it with double 0 and triple 0 steel wool to prep for the polishing. I was thinking of using my angle grinder to do the polishing, but my drill seems to be working just fine. This is a medium pad with a white compound.

So far, it's living up to my expectations. This is the top part of the tank, sporting a nice mirror finish. Should get a bit better with the final polish, but it looks pretty good as is.

The saddle here is a stand-in, not sure if I wil go with a bananna or not - something to think about...

I'm still thinking about the right fork for this ride, but in the mean time I stripped the original, hit it with a couple coats of primer, a couple coats of flat black paint, and some matte clear coat. It's looking fine, but I think this ride is looking for something beefier...

And finally - I installed a much needed bottle opener in the garage...

 

[kingfish254]

Re: "The Bishop"

You lucky dog. I can't get Racer 5 here is GA.
Don't forget to install the obligatory bottle opener somewhere on your bike as well.

Your build is moving along nicely. Love that polish work!!!

 

[Funkme]

Re: "The Bishop"

Gee you work fast... You will be finished in know time...Love the polish job !!! Brilliant...

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

Re: "The Bishop"

Great job on polishing, I like that chrome look! 8)

 

[elvis51]

Re: "The Bishop"

polish the whole thing!! that looks incredible man! nice work. never thought to polish an aluminum frame like that...

Easy E

 

[justride]

Re: "The Bishop"

You lucky dog. I can't get Racer 5 here is GA.
Don't forget to install the obligatory bottle opener somewhere on your bike as well.

Your build is moving along nicely. Love that polish work!!!

I discovered that the bolt pattern of the Starr bottle opener is the same as the bolt pattern of a standard water bottle boss - which is already on the seat tube... Bikes and beer go together like grease and fingernails!

 

[justride]

Re: "The Bishop"

Picked up my triple tree fork today - the guys at my local shop had some in stock. Of course, they are threadless, and my headset is threaded, so I need some parts before I install. I think I am going to paint the trees black, so I probably don't need the headset quite yet.

Tomorrow is Independence Day, and I will celebrate by going on a 50-60 mile ride with some friends before coming home and having a few beers while working on my jockey shifter. I would like to start priming the frame for paint, but I am just not sure where I want the black paint to start...

 

[justride]

Re: "The Bishop"

I have been noodling about how I was going to install the shifter boss, and I am planning on installing a rivnut in the frame, but I wanted to do a little proof of concept before I got to drilling. For the test, I am using a little segment of PVC pipe, but I'm planning on using part of an old handlebar.

The PVC was a little too skinny, so I used a bit of tape to shim it up. Inside the PVC, I jammed a little piece of elastomer inside with an allen bolt running through the middle of it. I shaped the PVC a bit, but will do a tighter fit with the final product.

I installed it in a water bottle boss - took no time at all.

And the shifter slid right on.

Next up is a beer and a burger while I think about whether or not to paint the triple tree forks...

 

[kingfish254]

Re: "The Bishop"

Looks like it will work out well.
How was the burger and what kind of beer did you have?

 

[justride]

Re: "The Bishop"

Looks like it will work out well.
How was the burger and what kind of beer did you have?

The burger was great, the beer was Racer 5 to start, then moved to PBR for the evening festivities - their cans are red, white and blue, so very patriotic.

Still not sure about the triple tree, but I think paint is in it's future. I need to get it mounted up to be sure.

 

[justride]

Re: "The Bishop"

Got a bit more done today. I decided to leave the fork arms chromed out, but I'm going to paint the crowns black. The aluminum was pretty smooth, so I scuffed it a bit and sprayed some primer on, but I'm not sure it's going to hold. May need to go after it a bit more with the sandpaper. We'll see tomorrow.

Once the crowns were primed, I got back to polishing. Getting up close and personal with the frame means that I am noticing every dent and ding. I'm sure they won't be a big deal once the bike is done, but still. The tank and head tube are pretty much done (getting the polishing compound (and occasional paint bits) out of the welds is a pain in the butt, which means I may be able to prime the non-polished parts this weekend.

I'm expecting some parts tomorrow - my 24's, saddle and, and hopefully the headset bits I need to get the fork mounted.

 

[elvis51]

Re: "The Bishop"

the polished parts look amazing man! youve definitely put in some elbow grease thats for sure!

Easy E

 

[kingfish254]

Re: "The Bishop"

DANG, SON!!!!!
:shock: :shock:

 

[justride]

Re: "The Bishop"

You ever have one of those stress dreams? You know, where you are late to class, and there is just no way you will make it before the teacher closes the door and hands out the final exam? I had one of those last night. Now, I'm not in to win this build off thing, not by a long shot (I intend to steal as many ideas as I can, and end up with a cool bike that I can ride around town, nothing more), but when I when my wheels didn't arrive, and my stem(s) didn't, and my seat didn't, I started to get concerned that I would never finish this in time. Of course, the fact that I leave for Hawaii Monday morning for 5 days is not helping things...

So when I got up this morning, I had a purpose. I needed to get as much of the other work done as possible. That meant getting the final coat on the fork crowns, and hopefully getting the primer on the frame. I started off with the fork bits, but something got must have pissed off my flat black paint, because the first coat never dried. I have used this paint/primer combo a few times before, and I know what to expect in terms of timing, but something was off. I then remembered that this can of paint had sat out in the sun for a couple days last week, and that must have had something to do with the problem (I had a similar problem with a clear coat).

Anyway, I let it sit for about 6 hours, and the crowns were still tacky, so I stripped and painted them again, with a fresh can, and they are good now.

The frame was more time consuming. I needed to do some final sanding, some taping, and finally I got to business with the primer. It's amazing how much paint you burn through when you are painting tubes. I went through essentially one can per coat! Crazy. Anyway, here's what it looked like taped up and a coat of primer on.

I went through three coats of primer on this thing - painting and sanding, painting and sanding. At one point some idiot bumped the wet paint with his elbow, and I had to sand and touch that up, but eventually I was able to sit back and watch the paint dry - literally.

I did eventually get a coat of flat black on the frame, and it is now drying in the garage. Tomorrow it's a couple more coats of paint, maybe some clear on the fork crowns, and if I can swing it, a custom quill seatpost.

 

[socal_jack]

Re: "The Bishop"

DAng, I think if you stopped at the mirror polish finish you probably won, but hey persue your vision.

 

[justride]

Re: "The Bishop"

It's frustrating. I really want to mock this thing up, but with important parts in transit (wheels, tires, saddle, stems), there is just no point. Well, I hope it doesn't suck when I'm done with it.

Yesterday I laid down primer and a first coat of flat black on the lower parts of the frame. I am going for a cafe racer style, so the polished tank was important, the flat black should provide a good contrast once it is all together. Today I finished the paint, and sprayed on a coat of clear. The clear is a pain in the butt - it works fine on smaller parts, but when going big, it requires some extra polishing to get it right.

The tank is pretty dull at the moment - I hit it with some 1500 grit paper to take out a few more scratches. Fortunately, it polishes up pretty easily now, so it will look good when all is said and done. The area where the paint and polish come together is tricky - paint will not stick to polished aluminum, so I'll be slapping on some pinstripes at the borders to clean things up.

The triple trees are mostly done. Once I get the new headset installed and the wheels, I will cut it down to the final length and give the trees a final polish.

On a whim I stopped in to the bike shop I used to hang out at as a kid in the small town of Clayton, CA. There, hanging on the wall, were the bars I have been trying to find for weeks. $12.99 later, and they were mine. Nice thing about these bars is the rake - it's a good 3-4 inches where most are only an inch.

I sliced them in half, sanded them, then sprayed them with a couple coats of paint and a couple coats of clear, and now they are good to go. If my stems were not in a UPS warehouse somewhere, I could show you what they will look like when it's done, but you will have to wait. I am blatantly ripping off Bean with his dual stems on Bareknuckle Brawler - that was a sweet build.

Tomorrow my parts should arrive while I am 39,000 feet over the Pacific on my way to Hawaii, but by next Saturday night, I should finally be able to mock this thing up. In the mean time, I will enjoy watching the other builds progress - there is some serious talent on this site!