Finished the preparation work

So after lots of work and an average job of using body filler, I am happy that I eventually got the frame into a condition that it's ready for priming. I know it won't be perfectly smooth, there will be some smaller dimples, but once it's all painted up, I hope the eye will be focusing elsewhere on the bike.

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Starting to take shape

One week after the clear coat was applied, I can start to put the bike back together....well with the bits that I have, even if they are temporarily off of one of my other bikes. The forks, brake callipers and modified original handlebars all went back on nicely, but when I started to size up the outer brake cables, it was clear that the cyclocross levers were not going to work. I bit of polishing on the original Weinmann levers and I actually think these look so much better. Still a list of thing to source, but starting to look really good...

Decals and Handlebar Tape

I think I am trying too hard to be a perfectionist. After wet sanding the gloss coat ready for the decals, I sanded a little to heavy, or in some places the gloss coat was too thin. The up shot was that I sanded back slightly too much and in two places you could see the metal shining through. The consequence was, more sanding, more painting, hey ho. However, by the end of today I had flattened out the paint ready for the lacquer, but before I do that next week end, I was able to put the decals on. These are a replica of the ones on the original frame and I think they set the colour of really well... In between odd jobs I also wrapped the handle bars with some nice leather look bar tape...

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:

Bicycle Restorations

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