A wizardly Merlin Malt (build - finished)

[corpuschain]

Hey folks,

Following my successful build of my first Merlin Malt, I decided to build another one.
This will be a "use what you have" build, born out of the realisation that I had enough parts to build another bike. I just needed a frame, and so kept an eye out for bargains. Along came another Malt and so it begins.
While the first Malt was sprayed by a professional, for this, I decided to try my hand at spraying. I watched some videos by Old Shovel, and looked into Spray.Bike paints.

The colour scheme had to fulfil 3 criteria:
1) be a colour scheme I hadn't already had on a bike
2) be different to the modern trend of black,white or camo
3) be possible with Spray.Bikes range of colours.

I played around with designs in photoshop, and eventually settled on a purple frame with gold fork, with contrasting stars clustered around the front end.
I have two forks to go with it: one rigid ( a Specialized A1) and a suspension (Rockshox Judy XC).
Here are these parts stripped and primed.

 

[corpuschain]

Next steps!
In order to do the contrasting stars, I needed to spray the star colour onto the parts before adding the masking decals. The front of the frame is now gold, and the bottom of the forks are purple.
My brother made some vinyl stars for me, and you can see some stuck onto the rigid fork here. Amusingly, they're the same colour as the primer, so they kind of just look like gaps in the paint! Haha.

 

[corpuschain]

Next up was spraying the gold on the forks. I also decided to spray the stem I'll be using. It was black, and in nice condition, but I decided it would be fun to get a bit more colour coded with the components as well. My previous build was only really colour-co-ordinated on frame and fork, with black components, so why not take a different approach this time? So the stem will be gold as well!

 

[RickTheUncivil]

Hope it all comes out! This could look superb if it does, I fear if I tried something like this I would end up making a mess and having to burn down the shed to kill it

 

[corpuschain]

Hope it all comes out! This could look superb if it does, I fear if I tried something like this I would end up making a mess and having to burn down the shed to kill it

hahaha! Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[corpuschain]

After peeling off the stencils, the forks look really nice! The stars have come out really neatly. I added the Specialized decals to the rigid fork, so that's done, apart from top coat. I'll probably do most of the top coats at the same time.

I have also sprayed the purple on the frame and peeled off the stencils, and that looks excellent too! I made a couple of mistakes with peeling off the stars, so I will go back and fix that with a paintbrush. A trick here is to spray the paint directly into a small container (such as a lid) and then you can dip a brush in and fix those mistakes.

 

[corpuschain]

Hi folks, sorry I haven't updated this. I didn't really have the energy to do so.
However, the bike is finished now, so here are the rest of the build photos.

Here is the frame after spraying, decals and clear coat.

 

[corpuschain]

Here is the headset and cranks. The cranks look spectacular!
The headset is okay. The lettering was done with letraset (retro!). I kinda just did that so I didn't forget what brand the headset was. Spraying the headset just sort of happened after I realised the spraying was easier than I thought and I had paint left over. Once it was fitted, I really liked the look.

 

[corpuschain]

Building the bike.
Shimano cassette, Avid Single Digit Ti rear brake.
During the build, I discovered the rigid fork was actually a road bike fork! I had no idea until I tried to fit the brake and it didn't line up with rim. I was absolutely gutted, having spent so much time painting it, and it would have look great! I feel like a muppet for not realising sooner. Luckily I had the suspension fork so at least I wasn't without a fork.

 

[corpuschain]

And the finished bike!
The bike was mostly used parts. The only new parts are the bottle cages, grips, valve caps and the bottom bracket.

I'm very pleased with my first paintjob, and particlarly being able to apply the colours to multiple parts.
The ride isn't perfect: it's light and stiff, but the head angle is a little slack, due to the long fork. I am still keen on a rigid, so I will keep an eye out for a decent rigid fork to respray and put on here. Perhaps a Kona Project 2. The pedals are awful to ride, so I need to find some suitable replacements, and I would also like to change the tyres. The orange stripe on the Maxxises doesn't quite work, visually.

Final weight: 12.29kg (1g lighter than my other Merlin Malt! )

Full parts list:

Bottle cage	Unknown	Plastic bottle cage
Bottom Bracket	SunRace	Square Taper bottom bracket 68mm x113mm
Brake	Avid	Single digit Ti V brake
Brake	Avid	Single digit 3 V brake
Brake lever	Avid	Speed Dial
Cassette	Shimano	9 speed 11-32 Mountain Bike cassette
Crankset	Shimano	Deore Hollowtech
Fork	Rockshox	Judy XC
Frame	Merlin	Malt
Front Derailleur	Shimano	Deore XT FD-M770 front derailleur, 3speed
GPS Mount	Lezyne	Handlebar mount bracket kit
Grips	Jitsie	Foam grips with end plugs
Handlebar	Orange	P7 Supercross riser
Headset	WTB	Momentum
Jockey Wheel	Unknown	Ceramic Jockey Wheel 11t
Jockey Wheel	Unknown	Ceramic Jockey Wheel 11t
Pedals	Wellgo	K79 platform pedals
Pump	Two Way	Performance
Rear Derailleur	Shimano	Deore RD-M511 derailleur
Saddle	Selle Italia	Flite Ti
Seatpost	Brand-X	Inline 6061, 400mm, 27.2mm, sku432168
Seatpost clamp	Syun-LP	KC88 31.8mm Alloy QR Quick Release Seat Post Clamp PAT. #34
Shifter	Shimano	Deore 3spd left
Shifter	Shimano	Acera 9 speed Right
Skewer	Shimano	XT Skewers
Stem	Btwin	Upside Down 80 / 0/30
Top Cap	Selcof	Top Cap and Bolt
Tyre	Maxxis	Hard Drive 1.8 Folding
Tyre	Maxxis	Hard Drive 2.1 Folding
Valve Caps	Tarty Bikes	Alloy Valve Caps
Wheel	Shimano/Mavic	XT front Hub / D521 rim / XT skewer
Wheel	Shimano/Mavic	XT rear Hub / D521 rim / XT skewer