Painting the CX Bike - Part 6 - Decals and Clear

With the color on the frame, I checked over everything and it looked pretty good. I pulled out the extra decal set that came with the frame when I bought it. I then trimmed the edges of the decals to get rid of some fuzz they picked up and pulled out the measurements I had done of the frame before I stripped it.

I took my time installing the decals and they still came out a little crooked. Measure twice and stick once is the rule here!

Stickers in place, its time to mix up some clear and shoot it. As you can see from the pics, I shot the bike outside. Clear is dangerous nasty stuff. I did not want the fumes anywhere near myself or my family. I shot one misty coat and followed it shortly with a wet coat. I followed that with a wet coat 15 mins later.

The results are pretty doggone good. The clear laid down well and the finish is nice.

There a few too many places with an eggshell look to them, so I'll wetsand this down with 1000 grit paper to knock off the highspots and then spray it with 2 more wet coats. The results of that will be a glassy finish.

Painting the CX Bike - Part 5 - Color

After all that prep work, it was time for some color. This is when the paint job starts to look like a paint job!

I shot the white of the main tubes first. I used the touchup gun to lay the color and it went on very well with 40psi and approx 10% reducer.

Masking for the blue was the next task. Intially, I masked with standard green masking tape and used an Exacto to cut the shorelines. The result was terrible. I was beyond dissappointed with my results......

So I started over. This time I used 1/8" blue polyurethane 3M masking tape. This tape pulls and stretches around the shorelines very well. I then put the green tape around the ends of the tubes and cut the tape back from the blue tape. This gave a nice masked line. Finally, I sprayed a line of white AutoAir around the blue tape to seal its edges. This ensures the next color does not bleed under the tape.

Finally, I sprayed blue on the frame to finish the color. I used the touch up gun for the main body of work, and followed up with the airbrush for the shoreline areas.

Painting the CX Bike, Part 2

So I posted below what the final product should look like When completed in the prevous post.

Here is what the bike looked like to start.

The bike did not look terrible before, but there were some issues with the original paint.

1. There were several rust spots on the frame where the paint had been rubbed away or chipped and rust had started to form. Not good on a CX bike, and something that is hard to stop once started.

2. The transfers on the frame were all coming off and looked pretty worn. 80's stickers were not the best quality.

3. I did not love the color of the frame, and it had a pearl clear coat on it which was peeling off in sheets in different places. 

New Paint For the Cyclocross Bike

Well, I decided a couple years ago that I wanted to re-paint my cyclocross bike. I'm now well into the process, but I thought I'd show some of the process here....

To start, I had to decide what I wanted the bike to look like. I pulled up BikeCad and had a go at putting together the paint scheme.

Here is the result......

Next up, I'll show some detail of the actual work......