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Main Frame Respray

They say all the work is in the preparation, and they're not wrong, while last week I managed to sand the paint off the tubes with an electrical sander, this weekend I was left with the task of hand sanding all the joints. Being a vintage frame, all the joints are not butt welded like a modern frame, they have intricate lugs that hold the tubes which are then brazed into place.

Anyhow, 4 hours or sanding got me to the point where I could spray the first coat of primer...


On Sunday I wet sanded the primer very lightly to ensure it was smooth and applied a second coat.  While that was drying, I got to work on the brake callipers.  The ones that came with the bike will work with more standard 700c road rims, so these just needed some cleaning up.  You can see how a bit of elbow grease and Autosol did the trick with a before and after shot...


I have a load of odds and ends on delivery, handle bar tape, brake cable inner and outers and brake cable cutters.  Still to source the wheels and a saddle. So far the project has cost £159, but it's been great fun...

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And the bike is done...

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Primmed and ready for the top coat

Spent the weekend spraying two coats of primer on the bike, I still have a tendency to either spray too quickly and end up covering the garage more than the metalwork, or, spray too slowly and end up with some runs in the paint.  That was easy to resolve with a light wet sanding, but yet to find the balance between the two. I am hoping that for the top coat I won't have this issue, I have found a paint from spray.bike  that sprays on like a powder coat, but dries like a traditional rattle can.  The results I have seen across the internet are impressive, so hoping that this helps with the final finish.  Anyway, here are the results from the primer coat:

Bike No. 2 Finished

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