so here on the west side of michigan in Grand Rapids we have what's called Art Prize every september; artists from around the globe enter there art in this city-wide competition, every major business and public area becoming a venue to display everything you can imagine. long story short a group of friends and i have adopted the event as an excuse to get our custom builds and kickaround bikes out to do an art/pub crawl. well after i was hooked on this whole custom n' cheap bike build thing last year i knew i wanted to do something new for this year.
lucky for me my neighbor GAVE me his wife's huffy good vibrations... ridden MAYBE four times he said (he rides a 21 speed bike and she struggles on the hillclimbs, lol!). so now all i need is a mens frame. fund a huffy santa fe on craigslist with a taco'd front rim for $20. perfect.
i knew i wanted to do patina, and i knew i wanted flat/drag bars. so a week and a half before the event i went to work. :lol:
santa fe frame was maroon, so i sanded lightly and started with a hammertone copper for a base:
came through with some white and hit a couple spots here and there:
topcoated with a satin finish wildflower blue:
referenced my white spots picture and went through and sanded the blue real thin, with emphasis on the white areas to get them to show through the most to simulate chalking, and any copper that was exposed in the process was a bonus (learned this the hard way after sanding too much blue off the first time... looked like camofalgue, so i re-topcoated and tried again). was in a time crunch, so instead of masking the spokes and nipples i had to coat the whole wheelset intact with black paint, and did all the rest of the accessories to match. ended up with this:
the fork is the hammertone copper, that i "seasoned" with a wire brush and sandpaper. a buddy of mine hand-laid the stripes... as you can see he is extremely talented. just sat down on the ground with his paint and brush with no template or reference and that's what came out. all it costed me was pint from a growler i had in the beer fridge.
like i said i wanted to put more detail in the wheels, and i wanted to use a road bike stem (short, with negative rise, to really slam the stance), but didn't have time. maybe i'll really finish it, maybe i'll sell it for the next project, can't decide. i sure do love these huffy cruiser frame builds.... i already have too many other expensive hobbies.
bike was a blast! my buddy on his trike with the 32"(?) ape hangers stole the show, but we sure turned some heads rolling through the downtown street 20+ deep. 8)
lucky for me my neighbor GAVE me his wife's huffy good vibrations... ridden MAYBE four times he said (he rides a 21 speed bike and she struggles on the hillclimbs, lol!). so now all i need is a mens frame. fund a huffy santa fe on craigslist with a taco'd front rim for $20. perfect.
i knew i wanted to do patina, and i knew i wanted flat/drag bars. so a week and a half before the event i went to work. :lol:
santa fe frame was maroon, so i sanded lightly and started with a hammertone copper for a base:
came through with some white and hit a couple spots here and there:
topcoated with a satin finish wildflower blue:
referenced my white spots picture and went through and sanded the blue real thin, with emphasis on the white areas to get them to show through the most to simulate chalking, and any copper that was exposed in the process was a bonus (learned this the hard way after sanding too much blue off the first time... looked like camofalgue, so i re-topcoated and tried again). was in a time crunch, so instead of masking the spokes and nipples i had to coat the whole wheelset intact with black paint, and did all the rest of the accessories to match. ended up with this:
the fork is the hammertone copper, that i "seasoned" with a wire brush and sandpaper. a buddy of mine hand-laid the stripes... as you can see he is extremely talented. just sat down on the ground with his paint and brush with no template or reference and that's what came out. all it costed me was pint from a growler i had in the beer fridge.
like i said i wanted to put more detail in the wheels, and i wanted to use a road bike stem (short, with negative rise, to really slam the stance), but didn't have time. maybe i'll really finish it, maybe i'll sell it for the next project, can't decide. i sure do love these huffy cruiser frame builds.... i already have too many other expensive hobbies.
bike was a blast! my buddy on his trike with the 32"(?) ape hangers stole the show, but we sure turned some heads rolling through the downtown street 20+ deep. 8)
