Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Not so Shiny Anymore

Now that it's caked in road grime and getting ready for its first spring cleaning, my custom bicycle (hand-built by my little brother) takes center stage here on the blog. Here's the story from welding to riding and a quick how-to for hanging a cycloc.

The color, a very popular subject, is not the actual Bianchi celeste green. It is a color I chose which is somewhere between celeste and Tiffany Blue but it is often mistaken for a Bianchi.
















3 comments:

sherry said...

Can I ask how/what you used to paint the bike? I am currently looking to do the same to a used bike I have, but I have found different information regarding what to use.

Thanks

hbrdshry said...

Sherry-

We used Dupont automotive paint and you need to have a professional do the painting. The best paint is Dupont Imron (http://pc.dupont.com/Phantom/content/imron-dic.html)but I think what we used is a regular Dupont. We found a automotive paint dealer where you could pick either a make and model car to match or pick from a color book. The bike has to be sandblasted, primed, painted, then clearcoated. That said, I think if we were going to do it again we would seriously consider powdercoating as even the automotive paint seems to be fairly brittle or the paint job wasn't quite top notch. Powdercoating is pretty inexpensive and should give you a really hard finish I think the colors are just a little more limited.

sherry said...

Thanks so much for that answer. I was actually considering powder coating but wanted to see what you used first. My sisters fiancé uses powder coating all the time on automotive parts he fixes up and resells and I was surprised at the variety of colors they have. Again, thanks so much for the help, the bike looks great!