In living color

Pictures soon, in living color!

I selected some blue metallic paint for frame #1. I'd probably call it Teal, its not turquoise, but it has a bit of green in it.

Last night I cleaned fork #1 (straight legs, 62mm rake) and shot a couple of coats of primer and then a couple of coats of color. Generally, it was easier than I expected (it's been a long time since I've sprayed paint - the product is improved). As it set up, the color turned out to be very close to that of my first good bike, a '71 PX10E. Maybe that was Freudian, eh?

It takes a wet coat to get a smooth surface and good color (not having the metallic flakes stand out too much on the surface).

The can indicated full cure in 30 minutes - which didn't seem reasonable. After an hour, I tried placing my first fork decal. Two lessons: 1) let the paint set at least overnight; 2) trim close to the decal before applying. The cover sheet has an adhesive backing. If this touches paint that isn't completely (all the way through) cured, lifting the backing will lift the paint too. It appears that this adhesive doesn't go over the decal itself - so by trimming close to the decal, there is much less adhesive to grab the paint.

Net, I have one leg with a well applied decal and one where the decal is alright but the paint near one side is bad. Hopefully, if allowed to sit, I can sand out the booger, mask the decal and respray to good results.

This is a rattle can job, so I'm not going to be compulsive about it, but would like to minimize the dodos.

Anyhow, I'll get some pictures of some joints on the frame and some of the painted fork and get them posted soon.

Cheers,