𝙏𝙍𝙈 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝘽𝙍𝘼𝙏

[kingfish254]

Started painting the carrier.

View attachment 207404

At the beach????

 

[Ulu]

I see Rusty pits in the near future.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

At the beach????

That's my secret to patina paint jobs; painting at the beach.

I see Rusty pits in the near future.

You are a visionary!

 

[kingfish254]

That's my secret to patina paint jobs; painting at the beach.

I KNEW IT!!!!

 

[Ulu]

You are a visionary!

I remember life in the snowbelt, but I never lived at the beach. I just hear the reports.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

My initial thinking from a month ago was to just use new fiberglass parts in untouched gel coat straight from the molds. I thought it would be cool to show them in the raw form for this bike which will be used as a demo bike for the Speedline parts. All of that changed the day before yesterday.

After I started customizing the carrier the original gel coat finish was not an option any more (at least for that one piece). Also, both tanks that I used in the earlier mockup pictures have both since been sold, so since I don't have much time left and don't need to use up all of it on putting together a new tank. I pulled out an old tank that had been used for a mold and had been partially put together in the past as a demo. I should be able to get it up to speed fairly quickly and it also pushed me over the edge on deciding to go ahead and paint all of the Speedline parts.

Now I don't have to choose which tank to use. It will have to be the Arrow.

 

[kram]

Sometimes it’s nice when the situation makes the decision for you. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the paint!

 

[kingfish254]

Hopefully it makes the process easier so that you can do your magic in

Do your thing man!!! This is gonna be sweet!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

 

[OddJob]

I KNEW IT! CALLED IT!

Yeah, RIIIIGHT.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

LOL! I thought about you as soon as I made up my mind to go forward with paint!

You guys know me better than I know myself.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

This tank was never set up for use on a bike. At one point it was a static display that was mounted together with blocks of wood.

So both halves are in the jigs getting the internal parts mounted for the first time.

 

[OddJob]

"You guys know me better than I know myself."

I was going to say exactly that ^ , but I didn't want to sound presumptous.

RIIIIGHT !

 

[The Renaissance Man]

All of the internal mounting parts are installed and free from the jigs.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I've been bouncing around like a pinball machine trying to cram in every minute. So many things on still on the list!

The first thing that I did this morning was some painting. The frame is a decent repaint from the past and I didn't want to touch it. But... I made an attempt to find a rattle can red to match it and couldn't. I kinda like the look on the frame so I decided to just go over the red with more red so that I could paint some other parts to match. I picked the darkest red that I could find off the shelf and didn't look back.

I actually like the color better than what was on it. This color reminds me of the dark burgundy color on my old Colson loop tail. It should be a subtle color change from the mostly black which will work well for the brat style.

The downside is that the paint is drying much slower than I would prefer. I'm hoping it will be dry enough after lunch to move on with it.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The last step before paint on the tank is cutting the rectangular light switch hole.

Harbor Freight needle files work great for squaring up the hole.

Mission accomplished.

Time for some more primer!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

One thing leads to another.

Now that I'm painting things it is a commitment to the bike. What I mean is that the parts that I paint will no longer be available to sell as new and will remain with the bike. My original intent was to keep all the Speedline parts untouched and show it as a demo for them but with the option of taking them back off if I chose to.

The rack had to be painted because of the custom work to it and utilizing the 'used' tank was a good way get it off the shelf and on a bike. What I didn't consider was the chain guard. I have no problem committing one to the bike and painting it but I realized that I can't use the one that I've been using in my earlier mock ups.

If I'm going through the trouble of painting it, I want it to fit properly and therein lies the rub. There is a notch in the guard for the fender to clear. That would not be an issue except that it does not line up with the 24" Felt rear wheel that I'm using. Again, if I was using unpainted parts for a demo I wouldn't care. But now that I'm painting the parts I want it to be right!

If you are still reading this far down the page, thanks! That was a long way of saying that I have added more work to my limited time by building up a new chain guard while I have a brand new one sitting on the bench.

Luckily I had one made up and waiting in the mold. I always try to keep parts made in the mold even if I don't need them so that it protects the mold from damage.

I removed it from the mold and trimmed it this evening. Tomorrow I'll put it in the jig and get the mounting brackets on as quickly as possible so that I can move on to painting it.

I didn't think to get a picture after it was trimmed. As soon as I finished I had just enough time to gather everything back inside before a rain shower started. More pics tomorrow.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Fiberglass resin, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of resin in the morning.

 

[Captain Awesome]

Fiberglass resin, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of resin in the morning.

View attachment 207908

I admire all of your jigs, fixtures and poke yokes for the fitting

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Thanks. It's the only way to produce the parts consistently to fit like the originals. The fixtures where made around the original parts to insure the proper fit.

Gettin' jiggy wit' it!