Lug Lining

Robbied196

Senior Retro Guru
Thought I'd post this for anyone who fancies doing their own lug lining :) Like most jobs, its much easier with the right tool! Its natural to assume lugs are painted with a brush, which they can be, but its much more difficult. The best tool for the job is a lining pen which you can find on Ebay for a couple of quid.

Humbrol enamel will work well with a lining pen (although, oddly, not very well with a brush). Adjust the pen so its a bit less than 1mm. Dip the pen about 6/7mm into the enamel, then wipe the excess paint off the back of the blades. Then do a little test on paper to get the paint moving. Its better with small amounts of paint loaded into the pen and line about 10/20mm each time as you work your way around the lug. If it goes totally wrong you can just wipe off and start again. If its not quite right you can correct it by going back over with the pen.

The pen has a flat blade and a curved blade, its best to have the flat blade against the lug, obviously the lug makes a natural guide for the pen. I do one side then turn the frame over and do the other. Some lugs are much easier than others and so are some colours. I like to make life difficult so I lug lined some Nervex lugs with red on black :)

Get the tunes on, open a bottle of whisky and take your time :LOL:



Load up the pen around 6/7mm deep



Wipe off the excess paint from the back of the blades



Test on some paper each time, sometimes it takes a couple of goes to get the paint moving



On the seat lug I start in the 'V' of the lug and work outwards, then turn the frame, pick up the end of the line and work into the curve



Any little mistakes can be removed with the end of a cocktail stick
 

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My previous encounters with lining pens have been in the world of model railways, with little success. I'm not bad at lug lining with Humbrol and a fine brush though, but haven't lined any frames in years. My touring bike has a sufficiently old-school look about it to maybe benefit, however.

David
 
Cyclo used to make a box-lining tool:
cyclo_pinstriper.jpg


Paint pen with 2 wheels either side of the pen to keep is running straight along the tube.

I remember seeing a documentary about Jack Taylor (or was it Hetchins?) where he used one. Stunningly quick and skillful.

I'm tempted to try a Beugler Pinstriper. Nearest thing I can find like it:
37024action.jpg


All the best,
 
Thanks for showing this..

I've recently made a botch of this job myself, :facepalm: with Humbrol and brush. I've also got one of these pens... at least the business end of one... which I never thought of using. Now, having obliterated all trace (I hope) of my amateurish lining, I'm resisting the temptation to try again with the pen. :| I thought I'd share one observation, derived from my attempt, which is perhaps so obvious to seasoned lug-liners as to be not worth mentioning, but may be useful to novices like me... Someone should call me out if this is wrong information..

Don't try to paint in the corner. painting in corners just makes things messy and difficult. Lining on one surface is hard enough.. don't make things impossible by trying to paint on two at once. Lug-lining should be on the tube, up against the lug, and doesn't touch the lug at all.

It's always useful to have an example of how not to do something, for comparison, so compare Robbied's good example of lug-lining with my bad example of 'filling the shoreline with paint'..
017.JPG
 
Ian Raleigh":2mb9dtuv said:
Is there a 'thanks' button for any such threads ?

Rob...Thank-you for showing us this fine attempt.


+1

I have thought about lug lining though I don't have a suitable frame, but I'm sure my first attempts would have been worse than Torqueless'!

Thank you for showing a very nice job. :cool:

btw, what is box lining?
 
firedfromthecircus":21e9l37f said:
btw, what is box lining?
Box lining is usually seen on old bikes, not much seen on a road bikes unless its a Mercian or Bob Jackson or even a Hetchins.

On the tubes of the frame square/long rectangular box's would be painted in for that 'glam look'

http://www.josiemorway.com/jmo_portfoli ... -frame.jpg
http://www.josiemorway.com/jmo_portfoli ... -frame.jpg
http://www.josiemorway.com/jmo_portfoli ... remont.jpg
http://www.josiemorway.com/jmo_portfoli ... remont.jpg
 
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