Monday, December 29, 2008

Day 13:: Starting Assembly

Although I am missing a few parts, I started putting the bike back together tonight. I was able to assemble the bottom bracket along with the front forks, headset and handle bar stem. Earlier today I ran across a great deal on some Oury grips for $5. I also purchased some single speed chain ring bolts so now I am ready to get to work on my custom modified crankset. 
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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Day 12:: Painted!

Today I was able to get the remaining coats of paint onto the frame. I spent about an hour last night putting on the painter's masking tape for my Serotta "sprint" paint design. I am so glad that I spent the time carefully cutting and wrapping the tape because when I removed it after painting today, the job was absolutely perfect! I am extremely happy with the results of this paint job. This picture makes the blue look a lot lighter than it really is. It is more of a navy blue. Granted, it is not professional powder coating, but for an under $100, recycled fixie conversion, it is fantastic. Let me know if you need any tips on how to paint yours :-)
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Friday, December 26, 2008

Day 11:: 1st Coat of Grey



This is the first coat of grey paint that I sprayed over the white primer. It looks great! I plan to put a second coat on, remove the tape and then spray 2 coats of blue in the front creating what is called a "sprint" paint design. I haven't had much of an opportunity to paint because of the cold weather here but I hope to finish this up by the end of the Christmas holiday.
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Saturday, December 6, 2008

Day 10:: Primed

Alright. After overhauling the front wheel today, I spent some time priming the frame and I have to say that it looks totally sweet! I'm not exactly sure how long this took because I sprayed two coats in-between sledding sessions with the kids, but I estimate that it took about 2 hours. If you do this, make sure you wear a mask and spray in an open area with the doors and windows open as well. I opened up the garage and hung the frame from my garage door with a bungee cord. This worked great and allowed me the flexibility to spin the frame while it was being sprayed. This produced the required result - 2 nice looking, even coats of primer. I can't wait to get some color on this lean machine.
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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Day 9:: Fixed Wheel Overhaul

The weather here has been bad with windy and snowy conditions so it may be a while before I can get back to painting the frame.

This evening I took about a half hour and overhauled the hub on the "swamp thing" wheel. I removed the nut on one side of the axel and then was able to pull out the whole assembly. I removed the barings and then cleaned all the parts with some Pedro's citrus cleaner. After cleaning, I put everything back together and made certain that there was plenty of grease on all the moving parts. With a fixed wheel this procedure was pretty simple and it went a lot smoother than I thought it would.
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