Working through some lockdown projects, one being restoring a 1980's vintage road bike with a rare 63cm XL sized frame... worth spending the time to get it right.
Stripped off all the paint, and carefully hand rubbed back to bare steel... but how to refinish it without having to resort to rattle cans?
They say 'necessity is the motherhood of invention'... was stuck in lockdown for 112 days and being restricted to within 5km of home meant I couldn't borrow my mate's air compressor
Eyeing my two 15L SCUBA tanks... both full... hmmm.
Patched up a hose by cutting the end off an old LP hose and crimping it onto a 250psi air tool hose fitted with a standard Nitto QD connector. Old Aqualung unbalanced piston reg pressed into service reduced tank pressure to ~125psi, secondary inline adjustable regulator at the gun got it to 30psi.
Back of the envelope calculations said a 15L 240 BAR fill should get me around 12 mins air with the gun fully open at 277L/min... but of course painting a bike frame is very different to a car panel, lots of short bursts and angle changes. One 15L tank was just enough for 2 coats of etch primer and 3 coats primer surfacer. The other one handled 4 colour coats with 20 BAR left after cleaning the gun.
Zinc rich etch primer first coat in state-of-the-art spray booth
Top coats done, colour is 70's vintage Land Rover Series 2A Marine Blue
Reg iced up even in 20C ambient temperatures with longer spray bursts on top coats!
Now for the re-assembly... in keeping with the vintage style I have sourced and rebuilt a classic Sturmey Archer AW 3 speed hub, currently being built into a wheel using 27" Velocity alloy rims
Stripped off all the paint, and carefully hand rubbed back to bare steel... but how to refinish it without having to resort to rattle cans?
They say 'necessity is the motherhood of invention'... was stuck in lockdown for 112 days and being restricted to within 5km of home meant I couldn't borrow my mate's air compressor
Eyeing my two 15L SCUBA tanks... both full... hmmm.
Patched up a hose by cutting the end off an old LP hose and crimping it onto a 250psi air tool hose fitted with a standard Nitto QD connector. Old Aqualung unbalanced piston reg pressed into service reduced tank pressure to ~125psi, secondary inline adjustable regulator at the gun got it to 30psi.
Back of the envelope calculations said a 15L 240 BAR fill should get me around 12 mins air with the gun fully open at 277L/min... but of course painting a bike frame is very different to a car panel, lots of short bursts and angle changes. One 15L tank was just enough for 2 coats of etch primer and 3 coats primer surfacer. The other one handled 4 colour coats with 20 BAR left after cleaning the gun.
Zinc rich etch primer first coat in state-of-the-art spray booth
Top coats done, colour is 70's vintage Land Rover Series 2A Marine Blue
Reg iced up even in 20C ambient temperatures with longer spray bursts on top coats!
Now for the re-assembly... in keeping with the vintage style I have sourced and rebuilt a classic Sturmey Archer AW 3 speed hub, currently being built into a wheel using 27" Velocity alloy rims
