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Author Topic: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....  (Read 7390 times)

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Online Midschoolfool

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Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« on: July 14, 2020, 11:44 PM »
OK. So tonight (if you've been following my waffles) you will note I got the loft sorted. It feels enormous, not having to manoeuvre around 3 bikes any more. I also tidied up my shit, and found that I have an insane amount of bike seats. About 12. I felt like fooking Chris Hansen "Why don't you take a seat? right over there..." FFS.

So I finally cleared it all up. Took hours. Any way, then when I had I saw the Fatboy leaning against the wall looking incredibly sorry for itself. I felt bad, because I bought it before the Dirt Bike and it was supposed to be done next, but it scared me a bit. Let me explain that. I bought it for peanuts. Like, I literally stole it.



It popped up on Farcebook one night and the guy wanted eighty quid. Those wheels though, god what a travesty. I already had a Huffy in the shed, and didn't fancy another ton of pig iron so I haggled him down to sixty quid, delivered, for the rest. Now if you look at it you will notice it has a 28t Profile sprocket on. With a 17t back wheel. Now I don't know what the hell this guy was doing? but whatever it was it wasn't far. I hoped that sprocket would be in good shape, but it had less teeth than me. And I have had half of mine removed due to constant grinding and biting.

OK, so let's go back in time to when it arrived.

The good.

Original frame
Original fork
Original stem
Original seat clamp
Original Post
THE seat (these were actually quite expensive TBH. The company is now defunct but they made high end race parts for many years).
The main very expensive decals are OK

The bad.

Paint is absolutely wrecked. It is a lot worse than it looks. In fact, there is less paint on there than paint itself.
The bars are a horror show (god only knows where he found those !, I wouldn't want to look there tbh)
The sprocket was wrecked
The cranks were total cack
I broke a knuckle removing the BB. And no, I shit thee not.



That wasn't one, or two, but three hammer strikes. The BB was incredibly greasy (now we know why there's a world shortage of crude oil) and the red mist set in. I really must stop doing that...

The frame is not alu as I assumed, it's actually 4130. I had no idea they did them in two different metals !
The rear and fork decals are toast.

OK, so I have most of it right? you try finding any desirable frame, fork, stem, seat post and seat for sixty quid. OK so let's cover why the paint is wrecked.



Again it doesn't look that bad. I figured out it was steel, BTW, when I noticed it was rusty  :LolLolLolLol: Like, how does alu rust ?  :wtf:

Any way, I asked a few questions over at the museum and yes, it is 4130. There's actually a decal behind the seat tube saying so  :uglystupid2:

Now again, I have lots of street/park/freestyle bikes. I even have a 100% dedicated flatland rig now. So I wanted a couple of jumpers. What was really awesome is that the bike had a top of the line DX brake on. That wasn't stock. It's the posh one with this lever.



OK, so ignore those bars. They weren't the kinda red I was thinking (I was a little bummed but god they couldn't have worked out better for my Metal Kizz !) any way, I cleaned up the lever, painted the logo back on the post (it's not perfect but it's a dramatic improvment over SPECIAL..ED. (get it?) and then I put it all away for the winter.

And then I bought wheels, and cranks, and a chain ring and bolts etc.



Oh and a sealed BB (Shimano square taper with a SRAM/Truativ Euro to yank adapter). I know, I was going to use those wheels on the Mongoose but now I am not. That can wait tbh. Better shot of the cranks



They weigh.... Nothing ! and they cost about fifteen quid ! Now the HEMI decals on the chainstays have had it. However, I never liked that name any way. I always preferred Fatboy, but I guess they got it in the ear from the P.C crowd? IDK. So those are off now and a buddy out in the states sourced and sent me these.



If you still don't think the paint is that bad look at this.



That is up close. It looks like that all over, and worse. So then I was going to use those Odyssey 4/4 bars on it, but again they weren't right. So again I did the obvious thing and bought these !



lol. why? because they were piss cheap. Twelve quid delivered. Obviously ignore the fact they are radioactive green, I will get to that in a bit. I also bought these tyres.



On sale. However, those *are* going on the goose. I ordered these earlier instead.



Mostly because I found a image of the stock bike and it came with Comp 3 on. Not real Tioga ones, just Specialized ones.

OK so let's get onto the paint. The fork is actually worse than the frame. However, again I don't like the Hemi decals so those are going completely and I will repaint them. There are two white S decals inside the fork, those I will remake myself. So the bars and fork need to be painted. However, what I forgot was just how easy it was to prep factory painted parts. So I will just clean the fork, scuff it all up and.....



Venom red. The bars will get the same. I also ordered this supposedly acrylic "varnish" and will test it out on a couple of test samples.



If it's crap and doesn't go rock hard they can stay satin. OK so here is the plan. Very, very carefully sand the frame down around the decals. Fiddly but not hard. Mask up the large frame decals and two MX decals with this.



Now you can see why I was playing with it the other day ! and also this.



Then paint the black. After that I will remove the mask, clean the decals (they are greasy AF) and then hopefully if that clear is any good clear the whole frame, protecting those almost impossible to get one hundred pound decals.

That is the plan any way. I would die inside a little if it ended up like this poor soul.



Dear Oldschoolers. DON'T DO THAT TO MID SCHOOL CLASSICS ! Love me xxxxx

Offline Mikku

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2020, 12:18 AM »
I'm in the middle of marking 56 essays, so may as well add another one to the pile - at least this one will be more interesting!! :daumenhoch:

Love THE seat and those cranks! & the Alienation wheels! & the firewood! I'm in for another roller coaster ride! :D
From Dorset to Japan:- http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,182215.0.html
Ok riders, random start. Riders ready, watch the gate old gaijin make a fool of himself! :D

Online Midschoolfool

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2020, 12:41 AM »
This is what it should look like.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMX-bike-Rare-original-1999-Fatboy-specialized-HEMI-comp/124250786947?hash=item1cedec8c83:g:rH4AAOSwq7NfBGtJ



Well, similar. Mine is a 2000 MX and the decals changed. That is what I aim to do with my fork. Just nice and plain, with the two S decals. I was super duper pissed off, because I won one of those chain rings on Ebay last year for three quid. I was the only bidder, and he didn't send it  :rant:

That was when I decided to whack a race crank on it. The original was solid steel, so I didn't fancy tracking one down.

That black and white thing? that's not mine thank god. I cry looking at that.

I don't know why I wanted one. It was one of those bikes you see and you can't unsee. Then I saw TJ Lavin jumping one at X and thought "hey, now I want one !".

I am quite glad it is not the alu one tbh. Horror stories of the head tube cracking and worse !

They had this habit of snapping in half  :LolLolLolLol:


Online Midschoolfool

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2020, 04:27 PM »
OK so last night I tidied up the loft.



Fatboy



Fork





Stem and top bolt. Thankfully the bolt is not damaged on the writing, so I will mask off the top and blow the sides in with some satin black.



The rest



I bought some really nice pads for the brake last year. Forgot about that, always a bonus ! Lever





I will be using those wheels. Tyres are for the Goose.

This is Chris Hansen Corner.



A box full of seats  :LolLolLolLol: 14 in total, 6 have posts on.

Cranks and bars for the Goose.


Online Midschoolfool

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2020, 04:55 PM »
Note. To self, mainly.

As I was putting the cranks away I noticed the other side of the chain ring is just anno red, no writing. So I will flip it and paint the writing side black.

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2020, 02:29 PM »
OK, very slight change of plans again. Decided to keep the red wheels for the Mongoose. Somewhat because of the hubs, and also because I found something ideal for the Fat Boy.





Gusset 7x. They look familiar.....  :LolLolLolLol:

Decent price too, with substantially better hubs.

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2020, 04:25 PM »
OK the fork is primed. Started off filing off the hammer dents. Someone really whacked on these :(



The steerer was the worst. Preserved this decal so I can make some.



Sanded and then washed in a bowl of soapy water. I didn't want to waste loads of gunk, as I need that for the frame and the Mongoose.



Oh yeah to get off sticker residue I use white spirit/turps. This also has an added bonus of taking off dirt too.



Now by this stage you would think it is clean...



It's not.







OK so thoroughly cleaned/degreased/tacked



Shake rattle and roll.



These fork are not by any means in great condition. There are lots of small dints and dings. However, I'm not one to put filler on frames or what not I just think it's dishonest, so I will leave the scars. The DB has a good few too, and I don't like hiding things.

Any way, not much more I can do to this now as I am waiting on parts and paint, but hey good way to spend an arvo.

Offline Bob_Acid

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2020, 09:08 PM »
I read down as far as the green bars, very interesting, then skimmed passed the bits with the tyres, paint and masking and stopped at the bike with the white Skyways  :shocked: how the hell did all that nice gear end up looking like that  :LolLolLolLol:

Then i caught on.

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2020, 09:09 PM »
That's a benchmark. Of how they shouldn't look  :LolLolLolLol:

Online Midschoolfool

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2020, 03:28 PM »
Two bikes at once, baller !



I will skip out the rest as I have detailed it all yesterday.



I missed a bit on the fork.



Will finish the steerer tomorrow.

Tyres came.



That logo is going. Sod that.

Sit back and enjoy your fruits.


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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #10 on: July 17, 2020, 05:09 PM »
Front end primer finished.


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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2020, 03:38 PM »
Flipped the chain ring, so much better.


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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2020, 01:19 PM »
Issues. Not that it would have made much difference...

I ordered the paint last week. About a week ago. Any way, never heard a thing until Monday when I got a shipping noti. Awesome ! I wouldn't be there (at mum's) but hey, at least my paint would be for when I go back.

No shipping noti on the wheels at all. I was expecting crap on those. Any way, just as I am leaving mum's DPD knock on the door. I thought it was the paint, but I had put that delivery off until Thurs. So any way, it was the wheels. Not looked them over yet I didn't even have time to open them but hey I have them.

Then I get home and got an email from the paint company. Sorry we don't have the red you ordered in stock. FFS? really? you told me they had been shipped. Any way, unlike most companies these days who would just bounce your order and send you a refund facelessly they did put it right. At first he offered me some almost pink colour, then we found this.



TBH? it doesn't really matter to me. Just so long as it's bright red I don't care. I am lucky it's a front end paint job, and it just needs to be red. Plus they are 200ml larger, better paint and cost twice as much yet I have only been charged ?3.20 a can.

So that was good I guess.

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2020, 06:44 PM »

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2020, 08:03 PM »
Some guy - "Yeah I have those decals. $100 plus shipping".

Me -  Thumbs down



I can buy a fecking printer for that.

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #15 on: August 01, 2020, 12:02 AM »


So I did just that. All in it cost me ?200 for the printer, 20 A3 gloss decal vinyl sheets and this.



I started off this afternoon with this.



If you look closely you can see they are like, "dirty". Only they are not dirty. That is where they were originally laminated and the laminate has come away and left sticky residue for shit to stick to. They are also peeling at the edges too.

So I figured just bite the pillow, take a ?200 hit in the ass and get it over with. Because I have spent that and more on decals already. Three sets of rare decals? this thing has paid for itself. And I just so happen to have another quite rare 2hip in the loft and of course, it's so scarce decals don't exist. So I will draw my own. Well, photo them, clean them up, trace into vectors and then etc etc.

But I am done being held hostage over a finish because the decals are 99% of the look. Sod that.

I love Del's stuff but of all of the mid school bikes I have done he hasn't had the art for any of them.

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #16 on: August 02, 2020, 07:06 PM »


High pressure nozzles ! yay ! high flow, no standing around for 30 mins.

High winds, nay !



 :LolLolLolLol:

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #17 on: August 03, 2020, 02:56 PM »
Last of the decals was hiding behind the seat tube. So I knocked that out last night.



Printer came today, now I await the decal vinyl and laminate....

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #18 on: August 03, 2020, 07:03 PM »
Hardware done.



Going to redo the seat post, but I need my plotter here so I can cut stencils. The printer arrived. I ran a test sheet on regular A4 paper.



Pretty amazing really. Hopefully the decal vinyl will show up soon. Then I can print them at full scale etc.

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #19 on: August 03, 2020, 08:04 PM »
Quick 'n' dirty assembly of said test print.



Mini boy !  :LolLolLolLol:

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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #20 on: August 04, 2020, 02:26 PM »
And that's it. No more being held to ransom. Total materials cost? about ?2, and some ink.





I did poop a little. The printer could not get hold of the vinyl because it's so shiny. It said it had jammed twice when in reality it hadn't grabbed it. So I helped it along...


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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #21 on: August 04, 2020, 02:59 PM »
Well that sucks. It completely escaped my mind that I have left my 3M squeegees and scalpels at home  :uglystupid2:

So I had to do a S just to see how this 3M film is.



I can confirm, it's good shit.


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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #22 on: August 04, 2020, 04:29 PM »
No success without failure.



It wasn't totally my fault. When you buy stuff like this on the cheap they fold it to save postage.



And the crease caught me out. Once this stuff hits anything it isn't coming off, so those went in the trash. It's OK, plenty more where that came from lol



I had printed the unrevised sheet too, so I needed those sprocket decals.



Those are ready to go now. So are the rest. Just the head tube S to laminate.


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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #23 on: August 04, 2020, 04:43 PM »
Finally, after over a year I can finally do this.





BTW. I am aware of the decal starting about 1" back from the head tube. At first I was like "WTF did I do?!?!?!" then I realised it was totally deliberate. Otherwise they would not have fitted on an A3 sheet, even chopped. So I am not as stupid as I thought I was  :LolLolLolLol:


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Re: Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
« Reply #24 on: August 05, 2020, 05:30 PM »
Right today was the day. I had a good long think about what I should do about getting it ready for paint. I decided on wet sanding. Sounds pretty mad, but other options would have been far far longer. Like, stripping it with chemicals would have taken all day, then more messing around later. As it stands the paint on it was pretty decent, apart from the million scratches and scuffs. So after two hours I had this.



Hose down, wash with gunk and soapy water, white spirit, then gegreaser and a tack cloth.







Noticed there is a small dent in the frame underneath. Not going to do anything with it, no point (I just think it's honest)



Quick wet sand in a couple of days and it will be painted.

RADBMX.CO.UK  |  Technical & Reference Section  |  Tech and Restoration  |  Fat bugger - I hope you like essays.....
 

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