So, without further ado....heeeeere's Jay!
Hey Yall!
It's been a fun day here in Wooster at Groovy Cycles!
The story so far....
Well, I met up with Rody while he was repainting a Monster Fat Chance that I was restoring and was really impressed with his fabrication and paint skills so I asked him to build a bike for me. We spec'd out a fun Crosser type bike with a 14 speed Rohloff that I could ride on the roads to some local double track and dirt roads.
I picked up the bike at the NAHBS show in February and it quickly became my favorite bike. I road it from home, took it on vacation to some awesome rail trails in Virginia and even kept it in my car so I could ride at lunch
As Rody mentioned in the previous blog entry, I have been pushing the cross tires to the limit and have had more aspirations towards some long distance fat tire events. So through Rody's kind heart and lots of correspondence (read begging) from me, he agreed to build a new frame to handle big tires and S&S couplers so I can easily take it on some epic rides.
So yesterday after work, I got in the car in nice warm Tennessee and drove 9 hours to the beautiful (but very cold) town of Wooster.
When I got to the shop this morning, Rody was putting on the final black base coat and was ready to talk finishes. I really liked the black with translucent blue and green paint of my current ride so we decided to keep the colors but pump it up a notch with a bubbly theme but with more of the translucent blue and green.
What I learned today is that a cool paint job is not an easy task. From my naive non bike builder extraordinaire perspective the paint should be a 3 step process:
1. Paint frame black
2. Paint on blue and green accents
3. Some decals and a quick clear coat
It's really like a 28 step process that goes something like this:
1. prep frame for primer
2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7,8 prime frame, sand frame
9. paint 1st coat of black
10. paint 2nd coat of black
11. paint 3rd coat of black
12. paint frame with silver accents - I would get into more detail but have been sworn to paint secrecy on how we got the cool bubble look.
13 -14 - 15 paint top of frame with green accent color
16- 17 -18 paint bottom of frame with blue accent color
19. clear coat frame
20. bake
21. sand frame
22. apply decals
23. clear coat frame
24 - 25 -26 - 27 sand, clear coat, sand, clear coat
28. remove masking and clean couplers
I am sure I probably missed some steps but it takes a lot of work to get an awesome custom paint job on a 29er. I can't even remember how many times Rody had to clean the paint gun.
We are about to wrap up for the night to let the paint dry. First thing in the morning we plan to build it up and go for a ride in the Mohican Forest.
I know this might have been a little of a ramble but I have had a lot of fun and learned a lot about the build and paint process.
Here are some Pics -Enjoy!
4 sanded primer coats on...
First coat of background color, black...
A little metallic silver for color...
Layering on the candy coats...
Two coats of clear on, you can start to see the depth and vividness of the candies now...
Your smiling reporter du jour...
3 comments:
that paintjob is just awesome!
Nice report, it looks great already. So much work, many don't realize.
hey, i know that trip. goto mansfield and turn left. i also know that paint drill--less the special effects (but i am privy to the special process). rody can clean that paint gun in his sleep. it's disassembled and cleaned for every color change. which trails do you ride jay? i'd like to see a groovy on tn dirt. looks great, and you'll enjoy.
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