Hi all.
Purchased from GT-Steve as a frame and fork sometime ago - Progress on my Alpinestars AL -Mega DX has been painfully slow.
The frame and fork had been painted in a green airbrush fade that I could only describe as an 'A-Level design project'.
First thing was to hand strip the paint using nitromors to reveal the condition of the frame and fork. At some point in it's life, there had been a small lengthways fracture in the top tube that had been repaired.
Unfortunately, to get to the bare metal, they'd taken an angle grinder to a localised area and had ground several flat spots on the tube. This would have thinned the wall thickness in this area. :cry:
The rest of the frame was sound and straight though so I decided to continue with a full 'original spec' resto, although when finished it would be a garage queen rather than a 'rider' like my previous Aluminium Orange projects.
Next up was a full sand blast of the frame and forks followed by an etch primer. The damaged area had a filler repair then frame, forks and stem were given a coat of pearlescent white ( the same as the Iosis X showcar! )
Using Sinnett177's Cro- Mega resto as a guide to colour break-up, on went the Flurorescent yellow bands. 3 cans of Halfords safety yellow went into achieving the depth of colour. When applied, this came out as a 'powedery' finish that had to have a 'clearcoat' to be able to handle the frame.
Achieving the correct colour break-up for the 'ripped' dividers has been the hold up on my project. In the end, I chose to opt for Flurescent pink vinyl cut and hand picked out the black bits from an identical cut and applied them to the pink. A very labour intensive choice that I would not want to repeat again! :evil:
Thanks to GT-Steve for the frame to start with and the 'kick up the arse' to get it anywhere near completion!!
Getting it ready for the neon special BOTM seems like a massive task at the moment. Wish me luck!!
Here's some start off and progress pics!
Cheers.
boy"O"boy
Purchased from GT-Steve as a frame and fork sometime ago - Progress on my Alpinestars AL -Mega DX has been painfully slow.
The frame and fork had been painted in a green airbrush fade that I could only describe as an 'A-Level design project'.
First thing was to hand strip the paint using nitromors to reveal the condition of the frame and fork. At some point in it's life, there had been a small lengthways fracture in the top tube that had been repaired.
Unfortunately, to get to the bare metal, they'd taken an angle grinder to a localised area and had ground several flat spots on the tube. This would have thinned the wall thickness in this area. :cry:
The rest of the frame was sound and straight though so I decided to continue with a full 'original spec' resto, although when finished it would be a garage queen rather than a 'rider' like my previous Aluminium Orange projects.
Next up was a full sand blast of the frame and forks followed by an etch primer. The damaged area had a filler repair then frame, forks and stem were given a coat of pearlescent white ( the same as the Iosis X showcar! )
Using Sinnett177's Cro- Mega resto as a guide to colour break-up, on went the Flurorescent yellow bands. 3 cans of Halfords safety yellow went into achieving the depth of colour. When applied, this came out as a 'powedery' finish that had to have a 'clearcoat' to be able to handle the frame.
Achieving the correct colour break-up for the 'ripped' dividers has been the hold up on my project. In the end, I chose to opt for Flurescent pink vinyl cut and hand picked out the black bits from an identical cut and applied them to the pink. A very labour intensive choice that I would not want to repeat again! :evil:
Thanks to GT-Steve for the frame to start with and the 'kick up the arse' to get it anywhere near completion!!
Getting it ready for the neon special BOTM seems like a massive task at the moment. Wish me luck!!
Here's some start off and progress pics!
Cheers.
boy"O"boy