Technical & Reference Section > Tech and Restoration
A magic trick. Turning lemons into watermelons....
Midschoolfool:
OK so a few years back I got "burned". Note it was a minor burn and down to my own drug induced stupidity, but yeah....
So one night I was in bed and my brain was on a restoration high. I had just finished two bikes, and felt invincible. So I figured I would look for something else to build and restore. I had a Sunday AR EX back in about 2016. I don't really know why I bought it, and soon got tired of looking at it. It wasn't one of the ones that people go lala for, it was boring and I never rode it. Actually thinking back I ordered a completely different bike. I ordered a Gary Young EX which was based on a New York fire engine. So gloss red with gold flake, gold parts and transparent gold pedals. Sadly they didn't have it, so I settled on the AR and yeah, bland.
Any way, let's talk about my mistake. I had taken all my sleeping meds and was lying in bed. I saw this.
And thought I would restore it to the tune of the grape soda model. Again, any one who knows these early Sundays knows they were and are iconic. They had wild colour schemes unlike anything since the 80s. And the more wild the more money they now demand (a lot, dude).
However, when it arrived the bubble burst. See, not only was it spray bombed in a disgusting manner, it also was not a Funday. It was an Aaron Ross EX ffs. Fact was though I paid practically nothing for it as you can see, but I was so angry I just buried it in the loft and haven't been able to bring myself to even touching it since.
Yesterday though that all changed. I recently completed and recommissioned three bikes to be moved to my flat. That doesn't mean I can build another bike and TBH? I really don't want to. That is not what I am going to do here. However, a mate on another forum just found a Wave frame (they are all practically the same these early Sundays) and I asked him if he knew any one making decals. He sends me to a US seller who wants 60 dollars plus 35 dollars shipping. Add on VAT and import fees? and.... :LolLolLolLol:
Yeah, right. That would mean that even the base price of those decals would cost me more than the frame. Again, :LolLolLolLol: it would also cost more than a 2k paint kit for the frame, so let's have another :LolLolLolLol:
However. It then occurred to me that I have been using AI recently. Firstly to create my custom stickers for the Jane build, but also to upscale things. See, AI will not pop out a decent sized image for some reason. IDK why, but they are limited to small images. I then found out you could upscale images using AI, to 8x the original size.
And that is how this came about.
Yup, Jane got turned into a framed poster :LolLolLolLol:
OK, so let's take this measly little image the seller of these massively over priced decals put up. Feed it into AI, and, et voila.
UP YOURS GREEDY BOLLOX !
That is the mess of a frame there. For some reason I thought it was this. Doh, pills for the lose :LolLolLolLol:
Now the point of difference with this build is it is not a build. I want a frame only. Amazingly I have the wheels for this bike.
But like I said, I need another bike like a hole in the head. So, I am going to crack out the drill and wire brushes, rip all that nasty paint off, and then......
Now that is even more lairy than the original. However, all of those era Sundays suffered a fatal flaw. The pigments in the bright paint turn white. And so does the pink on the decals. So no one has a pristine one. Stock it looked like this.
But the decals I have the art for are for the aftermarket frame only. Perfect. BTW the green is MUCH brighter than it appears in that photo as you can tell from the neon pink parts.
Talking of parts. I don't need any. However ! Recently Odyssey released some limited edition pink stuff. So.
I don't even want to remove it from the card. What I am going to do is build a box from 9mm MDF, and build a display box with lights in. I will line it with one of these.
And then keep it far away from the sun and UV.
Midschoolfool:
Just had an idea. I will put a "break glass in case of emergency" sticker on the plexi glass on the front. That way if I ever get so bored and want to do a build......
Midschoolfool:
OK so I started work on the decal art. The one downside with AI is that if it can't see something clearly it tends to smudge it a bit and make it fuzzy, and destroy small details. As such the 41 was a bit off, the "Thermal" part was pretty much gone, and there were a couple of odd black smudges that should have been ants, as well as it ruining the two ants that are supposed to be there. Also the "Sunday!" bit was smudged and blurred.
So I fixed all of that. I need to replace a lot of ants next, but that will be tedious (easy though).
Midschoolfool:
OK good and bad news.
Bad news first. As I mentioned before this frame (and the other neon colours, and Orange Soda, and Grape Soda) frames were all prone to turning white over time. That is why you can't find a perfect one. Well when I read the small print in the paint listing on their website it said -
Please remember to pick your application of this product carefully, it has limited lightfastness. USE WITH DISCRETION.
In other words what they are saying is that as soon as UV hits it it dies, and turns white. I know mine will be under LED lights, but even those emit some UV. I do not want it turning white.
As thus, I am going to get this.
A paint that uses pigment and not dyes.
Midschoolfool:
Ok so the paint is ordered.
Apparently the slime green is a base coat, but I want to put it over white so it is as bright as possible.
I also had a look for some of the OG parts from the bike. Not because I want to build it, but to go into the display cabinet at the end. More pink stuff, basically. Just to offset the green.
Those came on the bike, which was a great find. The original keyboard grips are no longer made so I got the next best thing. They are Aaron Ross sig V2 keyboard grips.
That should be enough pink to go in the cabinet.
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