TRADITIONAL Hops and Gnarly

[OddJob]

Patina Master Class. Professor TRM. Meets M - W - F 9am - 11am.

 

[OddJob]

The mask is removed and the paint has been sanded.

For a second there I thought you had switched bikes from Hopalong Cassidy to the Lone Ranger.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Patina Master Class. Professor TRM. Meets M - W - F 9am - 11am.

Unfortunately, Patina class has been canceled for the next few days.

I have very limited time left before next week's deadline. My wife and I are leaving shortly for a trip to Birmingham to visit with my kids, tomorrow I start my three days of work at the sign shop, tomorrow evening after work is the weekly Bible study, Friday I leave for Florida for a band gig at Ft. Walton Beach for two days, so that only leaves a few evenings this week and next week to finish up and get my photos.

And of course, there is always the unexpected to expect. I got the first one today.

I've started putting everything together for the first time now that the paintwork is finished. Things were progressing along pretty well until I got to installing the chain. As I was rotating the chain around it revealed that the chain ring was very bent. Not even close.

So the drive train came back apart, and I was able to remove the chain ring from the crank (probably the first time ever) after a struggle.
I then proceeded to pound away on the steel work table with a nylon hammer and in the vice to get it back to close.

Like truing a wheel, I ran a bolt through the middle and used a drill to spin it and mark the high spots. This was repeated several times until I got it close enough that it would lay flat on the table without teetering.

I hadn't intended to clean any of the crank parts due to the time crunch, but I loaded up the parts to take to the sign shop tomorrow to clean up a little if I have any time to sneak it in.

 

[Da Gas Man]

Holy Hop-A-Long Charlie! My man looking like a great kid that's going to
grow up into an even greater man!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Early morning bath time before work!

Gave it a quick scrub with degreaser and a wire brush and its ready for a soak.

 

[OddJob]

Early morning bath time before work!

Gave it a quick scrub with degreaser and a wire brush and its ready for a soak.

We're still talking about the crankset, right?

 

[Da Gas Man]

We're still talking about the crankset, right?

Ouch! My nethers twinged!

 

[kingfish254]

Great work with the improvised trueing stand.
Time is crunching down on us. Just keep plugging away and get it built in the breaks from life.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

About 7 hours later:

This is all it gets. If it hadn't been warped and threw me a day behind, it wouldn't have gotten any cleaning. I also cleaned up the races, bearings, etc. while I had everything apart. (No boring picture for that, I figured one is enough.)

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Since I brought up being at work I thought that I would share what I've been painting. Most of our work these days is printed vinyl but occasionally I get to go old school and break out the lettering brushes just to keep my chops up.

Years ago I had lettered a sign for this event as a last-minute request and it was used over and over every year since then. Every year it would come around again and I would not have time to paint a new one. I hated that sign because my layout was boring and it was not done very well. Finally this year I had a chance to make a new one to redeem myself.

It actually made a cameo appearance earlier in this thread back on the 4th of July.

 

[Captain Awesome]

Since I brought up being at work I thought that I would share what I've been painting. Most of our work these days is printed vinyl but occasionally I get to go old school and break out the lettering brushes just to keep my chops up.

View attachment 274343


Years ago I had lettered a sign for this event as a last-minute request and it was used over and over every year since then. Every year it would come around again and I would not have time to paint a new one. I hated that sign because my layout was boring and it was not done very well. Finally this year I had a chance to make a new one to redeem myself.

It actually made a cameo appearance earlier in this thread back on the 4th of July.

Are you in Gadsden? I’ll be working in Piedmont quite a bit in the future

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Yep, I'm about 20 miles from Piedmont.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

that sign is incredible. I can't help but wonder, is there a reason the inside of the o in World's is different than the insides of other letters like the d's?

 

[The Renaissance Man]

that sign is incredible. I can't help but wonder, is there a reason the inside of the o in World's is different than the insides of other letters like the d's?

Good catch! Yes, there is a reason.

Many times if I'm planning for an outline around lettering I will paint the outline first before painting the actual letters. This allows me to be less concerned with the edge that will later be covered by the letter. This speeds things up and allows the letters themselves clean up the edges.

With just a basic pencil layout it's easy to occasionally loose track of where you are. When I'm painting, the letters are just shapes (for the most part) and I mistakenly painted the center section white instead of painting on the other side of the line! This wasn't apparent until I painted the letters. There were a few other missed spots also that I later fixed with white. I could have fixed the center of the 'O' but after I looked at it I decided to leave it. I've always enjoyed leaving Easter eggs in signs just for fun, never knowing if anyone will ever notice or not. So congratulations for spotting it!

Most people driving down the road will never see it. Every year folks travel from all over to this event and many of them have taken pictures of the starting sign sometimes posing with it. Those who do notice the 'O' won't have the luxury of asking why like you did, so it will forever be a mystery to them. LOL

I'll show a few other signs when I have time that are not what they first appear to be!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I just googled it to find a picture of the old crappy sign that I lettered a couple decades ago.

Here's a LINK from the Bosten Globe. This is a good illustration of why I wanted to finally replace the old one. You never know where it might show up.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I was able to get a lot done today which is good because tomorrow afternoon will be the last few hours that I'll have until Sunday afternoon.

I have an old waterslide decal for the chainguard, but after some research, I felt that I didn't need to rush into it (especially considering its condition). There is something called decal setting solution that I discovered and I couldn't find it locally. I can order and have it in a couple of days but I don't have time to wait.

So I made a stencil instead and painted it earlier today with some rattle-can satin white. While I had the opportunity I snuck in my logo.

After a little more than an hour I removed the mask.

The paint I used was fast drying (10min. to touch and 1hr. to handle). So after a couple hours, it was dry enough but also soft enough to do a little aging before it became too dry. I first used a rag and mineral spirits and it worked pretty well, but it had the potential to break down the fresh paint too much. So after another hour or so, I did it again but this time I used a rag with WD-40 and it worked great for removing a small amount and giving it a faded appearance. I like to get the paint fade stuff done first before moving on to the scrapes and bruises phase of the patina.

The picture was taken very close so it looks rougher than it actually is when standing next to it.

@Chad T , I did manage to come up with a couple surprises to reveal later, but I haven't thrown out any clues. The only clue that I can give is that it hasn't been seen or mentioned yet. And it's cool.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The rest of the evening was spent bolting everything together for the last time and some for the first time!

Here's a couple of specific Hoppy parts that I haven't shown before now.

 

[kingfish254]

Very cool chainguard stencil painting and aging. Pedals are slick and grungy too. But the headbadge is wickedly awesome!!!

 

[Chad T]

The decal stuff. “Micro-set” can be found at model train shops. This old decals get real brittle tho. Nice job with the stencil. Def a better way to do that. Look forward to surprises!

That headbadge!

 

[Pondo]

That chainguard decal is sweet! And those pedals, I wasn't expecting that. Great eye candy everywhere on this one!