Rocky Mountain Reloaded.....finished

[Tootyred]

Now its fully dry its time to flatten and cut the clearcoat. Even if your a good sprayer, painting with rattle cans is hard work.....controlling pattern, thickness and droplet size is far far harder than with a professional rig. You will have a degree of " paint cellulite"!
But thats why i do 6 coats....that way there's plenty of depth to play with.....you dont want to sand through the clear.....especially over leaf!

Basically, ive used 1500 grit wet and dry over it all, followed buy a medium rubbing compound.

Remember to soak your paper really well, you want it soft and bendy. Clean the water regularly.....and wash out the paper in the bucket every few passes. Grit = scratches....

Once flattened with paper, i move onto the compound. Soft cloth, just work your way over it.

Then wash the whole thing down. If you have it right it should look pretty good by tjis point....smooth and very glossy.

Pictures are during the process

 

[Tootyred]

And here it after......but its still not finished! Oh no.

 

[kingoffootball]

Lots of helpful tips here, since I'm in the process of trying painting with rattle cans for the first time in 25 years.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

Person cave, i think you will find....

Must be pc these days

It doesnt matter who you are, you will by default identify as a male homo sapiens of middle age by the mere act of possessing a man shed.

Watching the build with interest.

 

[The History Man]

From now on I wish to be known as Rocky THM as I identify as a schizophrenic binary ptarmigan.





That makes two of us. Or is that four?

 

[Tootyred]

That's 4.....but surely your forgetting the days when you wish to be non binary....so that's 5......or is that 6....

 

[The History Man]

So whose cave is it?

 

[Tootyred]

We share it...kind of......my tools.....its stuff!

 

[Tootyred]

Decals....

Some were left intact on the frame, peeling edges were re secured prior to clearcoating, but the main ones were lost.

I thought about asking the fabulous Gil, but decided to have a go myself.....as the rest is custom, why not the decals.

Fortunately, the other ones place of work has just invested in a new bit of kit for making vinyl signs ! Well it would be rude not to give the guys there a bit more "practice" with their new toy.

I decided to go for "haunted native American burial ground" type face.

They guys did pretty well, they hadn't quite got the cutting depth quite spot on so releasing a couple of the letters was a bit of a bugger.......(now i know why i pay gil!).

But they are on and they have had another 3 coats of clear to protect them.

The final bit was to rub back that clear and give the whole thing a couple of good coats of polish. Which i did yesterday. All the knicks, dents, rubs and blemishes are gone and its lovely and shiny again.

So here it is......im happy with it....its not for the purists or catalogue guys, but as ive never owned one of those....

Plus its got an old "tired" ( yes, that's a good word) frame back from the dead. Its always a problem; old frame, not worth much, too nice to bin, too roughed up to be happy with, too cheap to spend serious cash on.....so hopefully somebody might take a bit of inspiration and have a go themselves at upcycling.

As for the design, well its not for everybody, but then what a boring world it would be if we all wanted the same thing.

Now, im just awaiting the forks back from the powdercoaters on tuesday and a batch of stuff from the cerakote guy too.

Then onto the build..

 

[Tootyred]

Ive started sorting parts. Most are coming from the Marin....with a few exceptions.

I hate brifters! Is there a group i can join? The lack of trim on the front drives my ocd nuts. So ive always avoided them. Problem is most of the kit for the bike is xtr m900 and there are no separate brake / shift options for this model.....so ive been runnimg ritchey levers and xc pro shifters.

Now whilst im not changing the shifters.....they are gods finest creation...the levers are pretty blurrrr.....not my style.

However, i might be able to part fix this problem. I came across some broken xtr m900 brifters. The pod mounts had snapped off one and the other lever body was a mess. £15 posted......ok.

So i took them to bits....did a bit of fettling, cerakote with a huge batch of parts bought the total cost to £21.

The net result m900 brake levers.....not one for the purists, but hey..im calling it a win.