Bamboo Bike #2

Step 11 House of Color Apple Red Candy

Taping off is a real pain - but the better the prep the better the paint job.  I took alot of time taping off each piece of carbon from the bamboo. 

I hit the rear rails of aluminum that I left in tact from the original frame with Shimrin White/Silver Decorative base coat - marbilizer.  Took a plastic bag and dabbed the paint as is dried into the tecture I liked.  This just added to the look and matched what I'd already done with the fork. 

I peeled the tape from the rear rail after allowing some time for this coat to dry.  I mixed the Apple Red Candy with some Cosmic clear to get an even more translucent red (to make sure you could see through to the carbon) and added the reducer and hardner per the instructions and plugged in my air compressor.  This is the moment I've been waiting so many weeks for!

As I began to shoot the paint the carbon lugs began to show their form...  It is beautiful!  Better than I'd hoped!!!  Don't get over zealous here though if you chose to color your carbon.  This paint is like all other clears - it WILL run if you go too thick.  Plus, you really don't want a deep color layer as it will inhibit the view of the carbon beneath with the pigment in the paint.  Again, this is why I added clear to the candy, to reduce the pigment. 

Here are some photos - I will clear it tomorrow and then next week add the final stain coat and satin poly finish.

OK - That was a bad idea...  House of Color specifically states that the Candy Coats are to be followed immediately by clear, after only a flash dry period.  If it dries completely, you must wait a full 12 hours or more and sand/scratch the surface or the candy will wrinkle/crack and ruin your project!  Stressed as I was to find this out, I sanded lightly with 400 grit wet paper so as not to remove too much of the red, dried it, and taped off again for clear.

After one coat of clear, I untaped again, sanded with 2000 grit paper to get out some small particles, I don't have a proper paint booth...  I then cleared one more time, with Cosmic Clear.  Wet sanded again with 2000 grit paper and polished to a shine with a chemical cutting (non-abrasive) polish.


 

Comments

[bicycletechnocrat]

This color is amazing! Nice way of building a Bamboo-Frame without the need for a frame jig!

[BAMBOOBIKER]

Thank you. Proper Jigs are expensive! And I felt pretty confident I could retain the original geometry, or at least come very close, using this method. It has worked very well to date. That said, I am going to a jig set up. This way I can accommodate custom geometrys and speed up the build process. With a gig I can take any size bike and resize it, or, what I intend to do, start from scratch.

[jwilliamsen]

Bamboobiker, you are definitely "focus challenged" - lol.

[BAMBOOBIKER]

Yeah - I know...  The camera I was using just sucks!  It goes in and out of focus and it's only a 3 Mega Pixel I think.  Very soon I'll have some good pix.  I'm working on it.