A weeks worth of stripping...no poles involved ;)

Hey folks, welcome to the sexy world of refinishing. Here's a weeks worth of stripping for ya, now I'll have a full day running them through the blast cabinet prior to paint work. Y'all recognize any of these frames/forks? As a fabricator, I find the nude shots to be the best...they tell the story of the builder. So here are a few porn shots for your enjoyment...

Tom Ritchey's fillet brazed fork;

We've gently touched on how a steel frame can rust under powder coat. Here's an example of that; one of the original tig'd Fats that received black powder coat instead of Imron to save money. A total rusty mess under the powder. This will be a tough one to clean up and look smooth again.

The box crown fork has a solid patina of rust all over it. Hard to believe all this was lurking beneath what looked like a solid finish.Some fillet work on this oval tubed Deluxe, nice :)

Here's First Flights "cunt" bike, so named because of the serial name stamped on the bb. Take a look at all that brass on the bb, wowsers! This frame has had some serious changes made to it through the years by diversely skilled fabricators, some good, others not so. Now I'll get to add my work to the story before it heads to the museum, cool.

Can you see the brazed join lines where the headtube was added to the top and down tubes?

That's it for the nekid shots. I continued work on Kevin's bullmoose bar. Kevin had sent along an Ibis "handjob" key chain emblem to use as his canti boss hanger for the bars. These were used on the frames and were a unique feature and we both agreed this would be a cool addition to the bar. I ran into some serious trouble though. While pre-heating to braze the piece into the bar, I ran the flame across the "hand" and it literally disappeared before my eyes. The Key chain "handjobs" were evidently cast out of simple plumbers solder...a far cry from the cast steel pieces used on the frames. With the handjob destroyed, I had no choice but to recreate the piece out of steel. Don't let anyone accuse me of letting down a VRC customer!

The original piece and the stock for the new handjob in the vise...

Starting to file in the fingers...

The roughed in hand with the lathe turned wrist tacked on...

Silvering it all together for final detailing...

Fresh out of the torch, the new steel handjob in place on the bullmoose bar...

The final fabrication ready for soaking to take off the flux. Next step, blast and paint!

This is the type of work that I really enjoy...it pushes me to explore new parameters, expand my skills, is frustrating and incredibly rewarding all at the same time. I hope Kevin likes the bar, it was definitely a labor of love.

cheers,

rody