Top Fool

[Psychographic]

I just finished clearing it. About 8 coats with the airbrush, and about 12-13 coats on the sides of the rim. This is equivalent to about 2 coats with a normal spray gun overall, and 3 on the sides. I wanted to build up where the brakes rub.

Pics will come later.

 

[OddJob]

You've gone completely, can I say it in this P.C. day and age...?....completely PSYCHO on this!!


Now I just have to look up all those new to me terms you just laid down; "two coats of Bulldog, followed by the candy concentrate mixed into Axalta (DuPont) Chromabase ".

This rim work deserves a 'How To ' thread in the appropriately named "How To" forum.

Now my only question is, you have to have a plan for as my dad would say , "Dolling up" the rest of the bike, yes?

 

[Psychographic]

I hope this will help a little.

Bulldog is an adhesion promoter.

http://kleanstripauto.com/products/bulldog-adhesion-promoter

Axalta bought out DuPont paint. Chromabase is the base coat (color) in a basecoat/clearcoat paint job. It is mixed 1:1 with a reducer, you also have the option to add a hardener (which I didn't do). I had my supply house mix me some without any pigment, it's basically just resin and binder. I usually use this to mix into white and black to make them less opaque for highlights and shadows when airbrushing. It wound up being a great carrier for the candy.

http://products.axaltacs.com/dcat/us/en/dr/product/ChromaBaseBasecoat.html

Candy concentrate is a concentrated candy dye that you mix into the carrier (clear) of your choice. This was the first time I've used the concentrate. I'm used to House of Kolor's urethane candies. They are expensive, go on fairly thick and take hours to dry. Chromabase dries as fast as lacquer, which is what I really liked about this method. The other benefit is film thickness, this helps greatly when doing a lot of taped graphics.

https://tcpglobal.com/collections/universal-kandy-koncentrates/products/kus-ukk-8206-4z_2

Other than buying premixed candies for airbrushing (which IMO is a waste of money), I would have to buy a qt. of candy color at anywhere from about $75-100, I bought 4oz. of the concentrate for $32 shipped. To give you an idea, I used about 1/8 oz. of the concentrate, mixed into 1 oz of the ready to spray Chromabase. I reached the amount of color using only 3/4 of that oz.

If I can successfully assemble this wheel and move on to the back one, I'll try to do a good step by step process.

 

[Psychographic]

Is it possible that lacing wheels is not as intimidating as I thought?

With help from a youtube video, I do believe I successfully assembled my first wheel. When I hold it up to the still stock back wheel, it's hard to believe they are the same wheels. It's amazing what a little paint and polish can do.

I want to swap the nipples to black ones to match the black center of the hub.

 

[SpikeFC]

Is it possible that lacing wheels is not as intimidating as I thought?

With help from a youtube video, I do believe I successfully assembled my first wheel. When I hold it up to the still stock back wheel, it's hard to believe they are the same wheels. It's amazing what a little paint and polish can do.

I want to swap the nipples to black ones to match the black center of the hub.

View attachment 109026

View attachment 109023

Dude... right now I'm collecting my lower jaw from the floor... As we say in Polish - "Sczęka opada"

 

[toro1978]

This is one beautiful wheel for sure. It looks like it was made of flaming molten gold.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Very "old school hotrod"

 

[Psychographic]

This rim work deserves a 'How To ' thread in the appropriately named "How To" forum.

https://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/engine-turned-wheels.110005/#post-1122161

 

[Psychographic]

Back to the shifter for a bit.

I sanded the cover, followed by 2 coats adhesion promoter,and two coats of lacquer primer. After another sanding I started with a tack coat, then two heavy coats of black enamel with a generic hardener. Once it was well set up, but not completely dry, I hit it with 3 dust coats of Alclad2 chrome paint. I found the Alclad sticks better to the base if it still has a very (and I do mean VERY!) slight tack.

Even with just dust coats, it swelled up and made a mess. You can clearly see the 3 that appeared. My fault as I should have let the primer dry for a day before sanding.

I let it dry for a few days and wet sanded it with 1500 paper then reshot the black and chrome. Still a little dust, but I can live with it.

Other than painting the case of the shifter, and finding a better screw for the cover, it's done. If I had known where my satin black is, it would be painted. But while looking for the paint, I thought it would look better if I paint it the color of the frame. So I'm holding off on that.

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

Wow! That paint really looks like plating!
Great job.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Psychographic]

My black nipples came yesterday. I thought they would stand out a bit more, but I like how they look. I bet black spokes and polished nipples would really look good.

 

[GuitarlCarl]

Looks pretty awesome to me. You thinking of "turning" any other parts on the bike? Or any to be shot with just the candy gold? I see some gold anodized and just wondered. Is there a rear fender???

Carl

 

[restodave]

It's been said before but your finishes are amazing, both the wheel and the shifter look incredible.

 

[Psychographic]

Looks pretty awesome to me. You thinking of "turning" any other parts on the bike? Or any to be shot with just the candy gold? I see some gold anodized and just wondered. Is there a rear fender???

Carl

I have been eyeing up the handlebars and upper part of the forks. I'm still undecided on a back fender, but I doubt if I'll use one.

 

[Psychographic]

The back wheel is together.

The pair,

I tried to do some turning on the handlebars, so far it's a failure.

 

[Psychographic]

The last part of any major fabrication should be the chain guard. Before I can start, I need to have the chainring and chain in place. I can't find a 3 piece with short enough cranks, I already cut down the ones I have, but it has a narrow chainring pressed onto the crank. I need a single speed chainring and have a 44t one I can use.

It looked like a small washer was put in place before they pressed the ring to the crank. I carefully cut as much out with a cut-off wheel for the Dremel, but it took some hard shots with a hammer to get it apart.

I was lucky that the new ring center was close in size, I just needed to file the splines off. My plan is to weld the new one on to the crank.

 

[GuitarlCarl]

That there is some Pro Ratified modification brother. I'm hoping there's enough meat left where the new pedal threads went through. There's a reason the ends of the cranks are beefed up... I'd hate to see you go though all of that modification and have one of the threaded ends fail.

Carl.

 

[Psychographic]

The ends of these cranks did have a little more meat on the bone, but not much at all compared to now. That little bit might mean a lot down the road, only time will tell. I see this bike as the equivalent of a trailer queen, it will most likely will only be ridden at car shows and the like. I'll have my fingers crossed whenever I ride it.

The crank cleaned up much better than I thought. So I thought I might do some turning on it. It looked good enough to try it on the chainring mount. These are going to be some sexy cranks!

I was lucky that the weld didn't heat the front up too much and doesn't show
any blueing.

I ordered a set of pedal taps.

 

[OddJob]

The turning came back around again as a fine finished product!
But man, those cranks are short.

A 44t chain ring will look like a BIG ring on that crank set.

 

[Psychographic]

The turning came back around again as a fine finished product!
But man, those cranks are short.

A 44t chain ring will look like a BIG ring on that crank set.

I was told "It's not the size of your crank, but how well you spin it around!"

I think you're right about the 44t, I put it on and it looks too big.I've already ordered a 40T.