Almost...

Well, as I mentioned earlier...tonight was the night for the final coat of color paint on the tank. I dry sanded everything...then wet sanded everything to make it as smooth as possible.  There are a couple/three imperfections in the tank...I left them.  The reality is, I don't want it to me "flawless;" I want it to look as authentic as possible, so the imperfections add to the character.  Anyway, I think it turned out beautiful!

I'm very pleased!

So for the next 48 hours I will let the paint dry.  Friday afternoon (night) I'll go see Kurt so he can pinstripe and put the "Mallin" graphics on the sides of the tank.   Then the tank will get a coat of clear enamel...then 48 hours after that I will reassemble everything and take a few glamour shots of the bike and call it officially "Done!"

Almost there!

Preparing for the final detail...

I found someone to paint the graphic and pinstriping on the sides of my tank. The guy is a professional artist who does this sort of thing all the time...and he’s giving me a pretty sweet deal to do my tank. I'm going with what most of you suggested: old-school gold letters in an "Indian style" font with a black outline around the letters and black and gold pinstriping around the tank.

So given that his work is professional, I wanted my tank to look just as nice as his work. I’m not the greatest painter, but my frame and fender came out great. Unfortunately my tank had a few fisheyes in it, so before I drop it off with Kurt, the pinstripe guy, I decided to strip the tank down and redo it. I don’t consider myself a perfectionist, but clearly I have issues.

Here’s today’s work...

Step 1...(kinda looks like Eddie Van Halen painted it)

Step 2...

Step 3...

In 48 hours I’ll sand it down one last time and give it one final color coat before it goes to Kurt. I figure I’ll sand it and do the final color coat on Tuesday night...48 hours after that it can go to Kurt...so probably Thursday or Friday night. Then once I get the tank back I have to hit it with a coat of clear...then 48 hours after that everything will final be dry so I can put the bike back together and officially call it done!

"Mallin" ???

So one more (multi-part) question for you guys...

A. Do you like a graphic on the tank?

B. If the yes to A. above, which do you prefer from the choices below:

Choice 1 (gold):

Click to enlarge

Choice 2 (silver):

Click to enlarge

Choice 3 (silver with a black and silver pinstripe):

Click to enlarge

Choice 4 (gold with a black and gold pinstripe):

Click to enlarge

Thoughts?

Beginning to end...

Since it's a little challenging to see the progression of pictures throughout the build in this blog, I made a little slideshow...

:-)

All Done!

Well... I that's that.

 All done (sans some minor little things...but it's 99.9% done)!!!

I see red...

I didn't do a lot today on other than lay down a base coat of blood-red paint.  I got all sorts of pieces and parts hanging and drying...

That's where it stands right now.  I have to wait 48 hours to give everything a good sanding then lay down another coat of red.  I imagine I'll have to do this at least three times...then a similar process for the clear.  Then reassembly, blah blah blah...

I also need to decide on lettering.  In my original mockup, I was going to put "MALLIN" on the side of the tank...but I don't know.  Here's a look at the original mockup again...

A friend suggested "MALLINATOR"  I dunno...

And, here are two pictures...I'm looking for input on the seat-post color, the seat-post-clamp color and the conduit brackets that hold on the tank...

I'm using simple conduit straps to mount the tank (four of them).  I was thinking of leaving them bare metal, but maybe they need to be red as well?  I guess I could paint them silver?

Basically, I originally thought I would do the seat post the same color as the frame...maybe leave the clamp chrome...the seat rails and springs are black...and leave the rear bracket I fabricated black...

Like this...

But the more I look at it...well, I dunno.

Here are a couple of other choices...

I like the back bracket being the same color as the frame like this picture...

On most original bikes, you cannot see the seat post or clamp, so it's not an issue...

WAIT!!! (I just though of this)... what about leaving the seat post read and making the clamp

Yeah...I still dunno. Maybe I'm brain dead from all the paint fumes...?
I'll think about it over night and see if any of you have opinions in the morning...
Decisions decisions.  I'm sure it will come to me sooner or later...
If you have thoughts on any or all of the above, I'm listening...

More details...

Today I got a chance to work on the bike a bit.  I spent a lot of time sanding sanding sanding...then Bondo Bondo Bondo...then more sanding sanding sanding.  Here's a shot of the frame at some point during the process...

At some other point I got it to a point where I could put down a coat of primer...

Here are some of the other bits and pieces with the first coat of primer...

Clearly everything will need to be sanded again...probably a little more Bondo...then some more sanding...then another coat of primer...then more sanding...then the first color coat...and so on...

And even better...my wheels are done!  I mounted the Quick Bricks on them today...NICE!

I was able to get the white letters off of the side using some MEK.  Here's a close up of the tread...

Retro!

So that's it for today.  I'll probably piddle a bit tomorrow with sanding and primering...

I'm in the home stretch!

No more Rat!

I'm to the point now where I'm ready to grind, sand, Bondo, sand, primer, sand, and paint. My new wheels will be ready on Tuesday…but that's no reason to hold up the finish work. So this is final picture as a rat bike…

After taking snapping that shot, I disassembled everything and separated the parts that need to be painted and started doing some test sanding. Here's where the project is right now…

The painted parts…

The non-painted parts…

My new tires are here too (forgot to take pictures of them). I used some MEK to get the white writing off the sidewalls…all black…they're going to look awesome on the new wheels.

Hopefully over the course of this week, I can take some time in the evenings to grind, sand, Bondo, sand, primer, sand, yada yada…

It's coming along...