Technical & Reference Section > Tech and Restoration
The last restoration from me. The Pink Schwinn.
Midschoolfool:
I've got a pile of frames in the loft mate. Two of them I 100% want to paint. For wall hanging.
Maybe what I will do is start doing really thorough guides. The Sunday Funday grape soda is important to me. As is the Ruben really. So yeah, it's deffo not the end but full bikes it totally is !
I was going to wait it out and post this all in one big go, but then I had a look at the photos and there would be about 50. So here goes. BTW before I even start I want to say, categorically, this is by far and away the most superior paint job I have EVER pulled off. Like, not even in the same hemisphere. Mostly because I sanded every single bloody coating of paint. You don't need to do that with 2k and a proper air gun setup, but with rattle cans? THAT is how you get show quality results. And believe me, I got show quality results.
So the last pic you guys saw of the frame was round two with the pink. Which was paint stage 3. After that I wet sanded the entire frame again. All of it, even though it may not have been necessary. Doing that allowed me to catch 3 more pieces I had missed and fixed those, so by this time it was absolutely perfect. Now sure, when you see the next pics you will say "That doesn't look perfect to me !" and that was why I was going to avoid posting them until I could show the next stages all at the same time. When I say perfect I mean perfectly smooth. But what you can't do is touch it, see. All you can do is see it and you will see a washed out pink frame :LolLolLolLol: It's the stages after that where it just explodes into something truly stunning.
OK, so one of my secrets. I mentioned ghost striping. Now you guys would not have fully understood what I meant when I said this, but this is what it means. A ghost stripe or flame or etc is painted with something other than a solid colour. So usually a candy, or a flake or a translucent pearl. You do this because most of the time you can't see it. It makes people get in closer and open their mind and start to really dive into the shiny finish. Recently I did a PC mod and used ghost striping and different coloured pearl flakes on that. This is what it looks like. Note the ghost stripe is the dividing area with no FX on it.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_ewhGqS4D_Q
Now also bear in mind in that photo the final stage (the clear over the whole bloody lot) had not taken place yet. I was just showing what happens when you paint different angles using different colour FX over red (red flake pearl and silver flake pearl divided by a ghost stripe).
So originally I was going to stripe it. You know, kinda like this :LolLolLolLol:
But then I realised I bought some proper water tight stencil vinyl for if I had to paint in the strokes for the decals. I didn't, as we know I printed the strokes. So one thing led to another and I added an easter egg under the frame.
Like I said this bike is important to me. I will have it the rest of my natural life, so looking back when I am old and buggered completely will bring me great joy. I've already burst into tears twice tonight getting all emotional from how much I used to love riding my last one all night mile upon mile and how free I felt.
I also did something truly brave. It's got stripes, it's got ghost text.... FLAMES ! now it needs FLAMES !
Now this was the part I wasn't sure of. I love ghost flames, but on a bike? hence why I went off the air and just got on with it. If I done F-ed up I could remove it and pretend it was never there :LolLolLolLol: As it happens it looks BADASS. That wide top tube took it like a trooper.
OK, so you can see the plans there now. Now onto more secrets. Andrew Faris had a emo looking chick on his bike. I spotted it last week and wanted to put a much more risque pic on mine. Problem is they are all for cars or motorbikes and far too bloody big. Most of them would not work either 'cause they are motor based and have cans of castrol or etc etc. So honestly I spent about two days scouring around. And then I found her. It was absolutely love at first sight. I am a bum man, and I like 'em plenty grabable :LolLolLolLol:
But what made her so god damned perfect is the fact it is a motorcycle decal, so she is posing with her hands like she is holding onto a set of bars. Which would look absolutely fooking KILLER on a pink mental paint job.
So at 11am today with the masking that took me about 14 hours to create and put on I went out into the garden armed with a can of pearl flake in silver. This is how it went.
Like I said, it is IMMENSELY subtle. And that is why it has always been my favourite method. Get it in the right light at the right angle though? explosion
The flames also turned out superb, but were very hard to see. It was still very bright out, even in the shade.
And unlike the others I have shown popping hard there was no way to turn the entire frame upside down to make it massively visible without dropping it. But the flames are perfect, and every bit as subtle and then explosion as the other stuff I ghost masked.
So for me decals is never the last job. These are not laminated, and water drops make them run. So they need fitting before the clear.
I then took it out in the garden, cleared the fookin BALLS off of it and brought it in to harden. I've now fitted the new repro head badge and have gotten emotional enough about it to shed tears twice. I had forgotten just how much I absolutely loved that bike until I found it. It was then and only then I allowed myself to remember all of the mad happy times and how I used to feel riding it. And memories (all good ones, as I had removed all of the shit and scum from my life !) just keep coming. Funny ones, happy ones, riding 20 miles in one night etc etc. Continually bending the rear wheel (they were single wall like the ones I was going to use before I got that mini windfall) and having to take them to get them trued etc because I was so fussy because I loved that bike SO GOD DAMN MUCH.
This one? has it all. Killer paint job? got. Go faster stripes? got. Personal touches? got. I mean FFS it even has tits and ass dude, what more can a man ask for? :LolLolLolLol:
I will get some more pics tomorrow of it in full clear. It doesn't look a whole world different, apart from the fact is so shiny it could blind you. I suppose that is what you get when you wet sand out every damn layer of the paint.
Midschoolfool:
Shit stuff done (pressing in headsets that don't fit, having to grind them down) and the BB shell.
Obviously in that much sun you can't see the ghost work. That's OK, I got a pic inside before I took it out.
You might need to open that one in another window...
I got some (I hope) good news today. It seems the brake for the front is actually in the fookin UK now and Yodel almost have it :LolLolLolLol:
The final seat post shims and lower Oryg cable are yet to arrive. Will email them if it doesn't come tomorrow.
Given my choice of front brake it would be rude to put a Springfield on the rear. Thankfully what I do have is this.
It is currently fitted to my Kink throwback I did last year.
Which is now in the loft. I'm not getting rid of the Kink, but it was built to ride and I don't ride it. So it can take a Springfield, given it was a budget build. I mostly used spares I had lying around, and already robbed the pedals for my Pork. I replaced those with these.
Which tbh are absolutely fine for the Kink. It is a new school bike any way. The only regret I will have? Well, that Fly brake RRPs at nearly 100 quid. It's CNC, and the most beautiful brake ever made IMO. I got it for 35 quid because it looked like this....
I then gave it a caustic bath to remove it :(
Irony is a fickle mistress ! Ah well, it wouldn't have matched the silver CNC front brake any way, but I would have probably cared not one jot :LolLolLolLol:
Midschoolfool:
Lower cable and seat post shims arrived this morning. So that just leaves the brake, cable ties for the fork (front cable) and a package I ordered from Source with some knarps in it.
SDF:
--- Quote from: Midschoolfool on July 25, 2022, 01:53 PM ---Lower cable and seat post shims arrived this morning. So that just leaves the brake, cable ties for the fork (front cable) and a package I ordered from Source with some knarps in it.
--- End quote ---
Looking very nice. The paint job is top👍
Midschoolfool:
Thanks dude. I always knew if I did get one of these I would go mad. I am quite glad it arrived late, as it has allowed me to learn in depth how to paint with crap cheap paint and get decent results :LolLolLolLol:
Am going to chill for a few days now. Might try the seat post on the shims later, and I need to remove the paint on the lugs too (2 min job hence why I don't bother masking).
Ninja edit.
I am a little bummed about the fork. Only a teeny weeny bit. I thought they had a cable guide, but nope. I did think about buying a Dia Compe chrome one but I realised it would stick out (the bolt end) in a bad place. IE a nice sharp piece of metal right where you don't want it. Couldn't find any of those cool push together plastic ones, so ties will do.
As I say, Knarps are coming because the upper cable is about two times too long. I really do want to dial this thing in for riding. I really, REALLY want to ride it, at least for a big trip down memory lane.
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