# How To Schwinn Lightweight Show Quality Paint Job Start To Finish



## momo608

I thought this might be a fun project and informative for those that are interested in how it's done or for those that are thinking about doing it. From what I gather, guys are spending over a $1000 to get their Paramounts painted. I couldn't tell you for sure how much it costs because when I ask for the total they are apparently embarrassed to give me an exact number. A $1000 dollars is enough to buy the equipment and the paint supplies to do it yourself. After that you can do as many bikes as you want for the cost of material.

There are as many variations on painting as there are guys doing paint jobs. Here is mine.

This will be a running project weather permitting until completion. I have an unheated homemade paint booth and will not shoot primers in temperatures lower than the mid 50's or top coats lower than the upper 60's. If temps are expected to drop significantly, I'll take the frames once they start to cure inside the house for the night or however long is desired.

With the exception of the red oxide primer, I will be doing this project with base coat clear coat modern  materials. The Sierra frame will have the decals applied the Schwinn way on the surface of the paint. The Superior will get a clear coat over the decals.

#1 The first thing is to locate where the decals go before you strip the paint. The orange Sports Tourer has been converted to Schwinn Superior specifications so this does not apply. Just a couple photos for examples.

#2 Chemically strip the paint followed by an immediate going over with red scuff pads drenched in lacquer thinner. Garden hose the mess off the frames and blow dry. Touch ups with the stripper and lacquer thinner are usually needed followed by another water bath.

#3 Sandblasting is only used to clean areas that are very difficult to get at and for rust pitting that has occurred from exposed metal caused by scratched and missing paint. I do not want to create a texture on the metal so use a fine white silica sand blast media at pressures not exceeding 70psi.  I use a pressure blaster because I have it. An inexpensive siphon blaster would be excellent for this also. Of course you can spend the extra time doing this by hand to avoid the cash outlays.

#4  After the blasting I thoroughly sand the tubes by hand with 80 grit. The idea is to remove as much of the texture you created with the blasting and further clean the frame. You do not have to worry about texture in the tight areas like the BB area because it will not be a problem. Just sand what is easy to get at, mainly the tubes. A heavy texture in the metal will come back to haunt you in the final finish of pearl and metallic paint jobs. This is not a problem for solid colors.

#5 Priming. Wipe down with lacquer thinner, let dry, then wipe down with wax and grease remover and dry with a rag. I put a fan on it  and blow it off to make sure it is absolutely dry and dust free. The first primer coat is mainly used to keep the frame from rusting and provide a good base for the coming top coats. It also highlights any dings or gouges that need to be fixed. Let this dry a couple weeks before you start sanding on it. If it's warm and sunny, let it sit outside and bake in the sun and you can shave a week off of that time. If your sandpaper gets clumps of paint on it when you sand, you have not waited long enough. There are other catalyzed primers that cure faster but this is cheap and it works well. If you are in a hurry I recommend PPG K36. I use that on car projects where only the best will do. For this Sherwinn Williams Kem Kromic thinned approximately 4 to 1 with xylene.

http://www.paintdocs.com/docs/webPDF.jsp?SITEID=STORECAT&doctype=PDS&lang=E&prodno=B50NZ6

4/15/16

#6 Sealing. The sealing stage is optional in this case because there are no compatibility problems with fully cured Kem Kromic primer and the base coat. I do it because I usually sand off too much primer smoothing out the frame and looking for imperfections in the metal. Bare metal should be primed so instead of applying more KK primer that will add more texture,  I use a sealer that by design goes on very smooth. It also is tinted so it closely matches the base coat. Medium gray is a good color for any light to medium dark top coats, especially silver which is the intended first base coat on this job. Two coats of silver base coat will easily hide it.

#7 preparing to seal. The KK primer cannot be wet sanded so dry sand the tubing to remove texture with 400. You only need to do the easy to get at lengths of tubing on the frame. Hard to get at areas like the BB use a red scuff pad. If you find dings or burrs, now is the time to fix them. File off burrs and fill dings or gouges with bondo. Make sure any filler work is cross hatch sanded smooth with 400 on a block. You can see the one I use. It was a full size rubber block I sawed to make a narrow block. This works great on bike tubing. You will also need this for final wet sanding of clear coat.

#8 Sealer. I use PPG K36 reduced as a sealer. It is also great for use as a primer surfacer . This is not as thick as polyester spray filler so its use lays somewhere in the middle of regular primer and spray poly. The good thing about it is that it can be wet sanded and it provides excellent adhesion on almost any cured surface. This job will receive two coats of sealer for more sanding in a couple days. This is what separates show quality VS very good. It could all be done at once sealer to top coats but I do not want texture in the pearl coats.

http://www.myrv10.com/N104CD/paint/p-169s_k36s_Sealer.pdf

Spray gun. You do not need to spend a lot of money. This is what I use sealer to top coats for bikes. You can prime with it also, I have another gun for that but you don't need it. Line pressure 60 psi. Pressure at gun 25-30 psi trigger pulled. Keep it clean and lubed and you can get a lot of paint jobs out of this $37 spray gun.

http://www.amazon.com/Grip-HVLP-Air-Touch-Gun/dp/B000GFIB8W

4/22/16
#9 Wet sand tubes and other easy to get at areas with 600 to remove texture. Use a block on the flat parts of the tube and hand in tighter areas. Avoid sanding edges. Avoid sanding through to red primer. A little exposed primer is OK. Rinse frames thoroughly to get rid of powdery residue from wet sanding. Towel and blow gun dry to remove all moisture from crevices. Use a gray scuff pad dry to remove any shiny areas. I only scuff around the BB, no wet danding. Wipe down with wax and grease remover and dry with a clean cloth. Tack rag and it is now ready for paint. Re-mask any compromised masked areas you do not want painted. You do not want paint build up in areas like the BB, headtube, kickstand tube and cable stops. These areas should have the first coat of red oxide primer only. If you get paint in these areas it will need to be sanded out for components to fit and not chip the paint installing or removing them later.


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## momo608

4/23/16
#10 Three coats of silver base. Allowed 40 minutes dry time for tape off,  followed by 4 coats Flamingo. Wait 30 minutes and applied first mist clear coat to entire frame surfaces. This stuff sets up fast so as long as you give it 5 minutes between coats you are good to apply more clear. This will have clear over the decals so the idea is to put enough clear where the decals go to wet sand without going into the base coat. 3 medium to heavy coats The rest of the frames only needs a couple of medium coats of clear, enough to scuff. The entire frames will be clear coated again when the decals are installed and allowed to cure themselves. About two weeks, at least one for the clear and then a few additional days for the decals. The longer the better. BTW, that trouble light you see is to look for missed or thin spots in the base coat and clear coat. You have to spray these frames from every angle imaginable to get things evenly coated. Use tack rag in between silver base a top base coat and before clearing. Sometimes I use it between every coat other than the clear. Dust equals texture and you are going to have lots of it from the spray mist.

http://www.axaltacs.com/content/dam/NA/HQ/Public/Cromax/Documents/TDS/CX-TDS-HC-7776S-Eng.pdf

4/28/16
#11 Preparing for the clear coat decal sandwich. Tape off areas a few inches larger than the actual decal so you know where to concentrate your efforts. Wet block sand in a cross hatch pattern these tube areas with 2000 until all the shiny specs are gone from the clear coat. Extreme care is called for by constantly wiping dry areas after you sand to avoid sand through's. You will avoid over working areas that are already sanded flat. Touch up can be done with sanding with your fingers but always be conscious of the cross hatch sanding technique.  All clear coats need to be scuffed after setting up to apply more clear. You don't want to sand decals and their edges obviously so the decal will be installed directly on the sanded surface. 2000 works good for this. Any tiny pits in the clear coat will probably end up as a air pocket so make sure you get them all out. The time to decal with the clear I'm using is 24 hours. A few days is better. I should also add that it is important that you get the appropriate hardener for the temperature you are working in. I make it a habit to get the next higher temp hardeners and reducers for my projects. For example if you are working in the 60's get your hardeners and reducers for the 70's. The reason for this is your finish will flow on smoother because of the increased dry time. Too hot a reducer will get you runs in the paint. The idea is to have the clear go on as flat as possible to make your cut and buff way easier. Areas like the BB NEED to go on wet as possible because you want to avoid wet sanding completely. You just can't get in there without sanding through the clear.

5/5/16
Got the SIERRA final clear coated but had decal problems with the SUPERIOR, they're mostly wrong decals. Too big or wrong design. Waiting on Velocals to straighten this out. I'll give more details on final clear coating with the Superior. In the meantime, check out the Sierra. Quite happy with the way the seat tube decal worked out. This is done with paint and homemade decals. I do have Office Max laser print these from my copies. A slight change in plans, I ended up clearing over all the decals on the Sierra. Had to do the seat tube anyway. The Chromax snap dry is great for this, love the stuff!

5/11/16
#11 Ready to wrap this up. Final wet sanding and hand buff. I'll back up a bit on the final clear coat. The idea is to apply as wet as possible final clear coat. Always start with a couple very light coats and then really lay it on. You want to get places where wet sanding is difficult or impossible like around the BB. Areas like this are hard to run the paint so this is fairly easy to do. You want to shoot the rear drop outs very wet, where the seat tube meets the seat stays, you know places that are hard to get to with sandpaper. You want to lay down glass! I did get one run near the seat tube seat stay area so we'll fix that. The rest of the tubing should be laid down wet as well but obviously it's easy to get at wet sanding so a little dry over spray on these is not a problem.

Wet sanding. You should only need to concentrate on the main tubing if you did the tight spots right. Use the block when you can and your fingers on areas where the tubes meet the head tube for example. Stay away from edges or and protusions on the frame. Keep a good eye on things by wiping dry after some wet sanding so as not to over work, ie, sand through the clear. Sand a little wipe dry, sand a little wipe dry. The idea is to eliminate the orange peel that will appear as shiny pits when sanded and wiped dry. I give the decals a light once over and nothing more. No reason to get these flat smooth perfect. To risky to over work them. They buff out great doing it this way.


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## momo608

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Try to locate areas like these marks before you prime, a couple extra coats of primer will usually take care of minor flaws like this during the block sanding  



 Re-chromed fork. Masked off a line and sanded with 400 hundred, wax and grease remover and re-masked with the Frog tape in areas of paint edges. 




 Clean with wax and grease and dry with another painting rag. Blow off, better to let sit a while to make sure all the WG remover evaporated before sealing. The fan helps a lot. Notice the test spray poster board in the back. Always test the pattern before you spray the frame. These received two coats of sealer.


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## momo608

The start to finish will be a two part pearl, this is a solid color job I happen to have going for comparison.  I sprayed this last fall and just did the cut and buff on it. On solid colors like this I do it quite a bit different. Sealer to clear coat all at once. Sealer one coat, wait 30 minutes. Base coat, 4 coats of blue to fully hide the gray sealer, apply as many as needed to hide sealer, wait 30 minutes. Finally 4 coats of clear for decals on top of clear coat.



 

Ready to be cleaned with wax and grease remover and painted  

That fly swatter is crucial. Ready for base coats followed by clear 

  Silver base applied. Optional. If you need silver stripes or any other color two tones. Allow at least 30 minutes dry time to tape off.  



Flamingo 

 Get the hard to spray places first

Base coats done, 3 coats of clear where decals go and 2 coats on the rest of it. Clear coat decal sandwich. 



You got to get these areas absolutely flat with no pitting for decals

Done.The other areas of the frames will be scuffed with grey scuff pads up to the decals prior to final clear coat. I assume you know how to install decals. I'll be using three kinds for this job. 1 mil vinyl self adhesive Velocals decals, home made laser jet water slides and Bicyclebones reproduction water slides. 

Ready for clear after a thorough scuff up to the decals. Don't scuff the decals or their edges. The previous wet sand with 2000 took care of that. Get all the shiny spots and be very careful on the edges. You only need to get the shine off. The Superior is on hold, some of these decals are already gone. 


I final clear coated the Sierra only.


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## momo608

cut and buff supplies. My eyes aren't what they used to be so these 2.5X reading glasses help a lot. I could shave a fly with them. You could get by with only part A buffing compound but since I have both I use both. Part B is a swirl remover and it does bring things to a higher gloss but quite frankly I'm not seeing much difference on bike frame tubes. A car hood is a different story. Always remember, it's the wet sanding that is supposed to get out the scratches, not the buffing compound. I use a different buffing pad for hand buffing, one for A, one for B. Wash these pads and scrub them down with a plastic bristle brush hot water and soap after every use and they will last  a long time.



Got a run in the paint. I made this small steel sanding block to fix these. Wrap a piece of 1000 around it and carefully knock down the high spots on the run touching nothing else. Get it flat or close to it. It's common practice to put a few drops of dish soap in the water you use for wet sanding. It acts as a lubricant.



Done. You can see these areas look nice shiny and smooth with no prep work before buffing, that's the goal with the final clear coat.



Good enough sanding on top of the decals. No need to go any further.



after buffing






Very important to sand these out prior to installing bearing cups and seat post. If you don't you run the risk of chipping the paint either removing or installing the cups or seat tube. I did mask all this off before painting but there is always a vulnerable paint edge that builds up that needs to be sanded down. I use this rod or my fingers to create a smooth contact area for the mating parts. Exposed ribbon of bare steel just inside the tubing edges.




Finished Sierra frame, came out great. Should have the Superior frame finished next week. The decal problems are hopefully resolved.



Finished at last! I give the paint at least 30 days to cure before mounting components but the longer the better. If I could magically give them 6 months to cure I would do it. Like getting things done and behind me. On to the next project!









more repaints


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## Dale Alan

Excellent,thanks for sharing the info . I have not moved past spray cans due,and I only paint as a last resort .I have the equipment but have never used the gun . One thing you pointed out will sure help me. I have been sandblasting at way too hi of a pressure . Thanks for taking the time,I will be watching this closely.


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## Intense One

Interesting series building here.....watching with open eyes.   Always looking for ways on how to make things easier or just how to do things.....that's why I love my CABE family!


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## schwinnman67

If only you were in CO... I need to paint and decal my 81 Continental....


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## OhioJones

Great tutorial. Many thanks. Will be back to this one to re-read more than a few times.


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## momo608

How to repair your show quality paint job.

I had a light spot where the silver base was showing through too much on the backside of the head tube. It bugged the hell out of me.

When painting with pearls, ie the Schwinn translucent colors, thin spots can go unnoticed because of shadowing and the sheer amount of coats required for color matches, at least 4 - 6 coats . I have had to do several spot repairs like this on various frames so even I with experience repeatedly make this mistake. These techniques can also be used for damage as well, you have to replace all the layers of paint to do it right and you have to do entire frame tubes, spot repairs would produce halos of darker shades. Thin spots like this repair are easily blended in. This bike is painted with Pete's HP Schwinn sky blue. I have done several frames with his paint and I can tell you it takes A LOT of coats to achieve a color match to Schwinn. This is the nature of pearls in modern materials. BTW, very happy with Pete's paint. If you can't get a color match it's on you, although I believe he should up the recommended amount of final base coat to do the job. The gun I use has a .8 nozzle set which is about a small as they come for touch up guns. Smaller than that and you're getting in air brush territory.Most touch up guns have 1.0 nozzle sets which makes them big paint wasters on bicycle frames. I love this cheap little gun, miserly with the paint, applies a nice even finish and it's going on its 15th frame set and still going strong.

Hard to see but there is a noticeable light spot on the back side of the headtube



Scuff this entire exposed are with a gray scuff pad. You do not want a hard tape line in the new paint, they are almost impossible to get rid of. First tape off the frame a couple inches from the repair, TOP, then make a shirt collar type masking job to block as much over spray from getting on the area you do not want to repaint. On the bottom masking job you can see it has a tiny air space but is not touching the frame, do the same to the top.



ready to spray



You do not want to spray straight into your shirt collars if you can help it, from the side is also OK. A couple of light coats over the thin spot made for a perfect blend job.



Pull back your collars or make new ones like I did to overlap the clear onto the old clear. You don't want to sand and buff base coat. All base coat MUST be clear coated. I did re clear the entire headtube but put an extra coat on the base coated area first. Mist coat the entire area, few minutes dry time, medium wet coat, wait ten minutes, heavier wet coat, wait ten minutes and one more heavy coat. If you do a nice job you won't even have to sand and buff the repair, only the blend area.



Here you can see about a 1/2" band of scuffed and slightly oversprayed original paint. No hard tape line. Carefully wet sand with some 2000 and buff out. SEE previous buffing and wet sanding.


 Sanded and buffed.
300watts of halogen light and my 2.5X glasses and I'm seeing paint perfection. One more irritant gone from my life forever.



I use PPG reducer with Pete's SW with excellent results. I am a stunt driver, just ask my wife.


 
These paints are expensive. I use measuring spoons to only mix what's needed for these small jobs.


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## WetDogGraphix

Good job describing the process. A lot of people don't realize why people charge what they charge. Step 5 makes me realize why I don't use Urethane Enamels. 2 weeks to cure and you still might get paint balls when sanding. Good series.


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## momo608

When you live in the frozen tundra you got to get creative. Thought I'd show my inside the house paint booth, the work never stops!

Simple kitchen exhaust fan, max cfm for its size, crudely but solidly mounted to the ceiling in a partitioned off 8.5' x 4.5' work space plastic lined with a card board floor. Lots of ceiling hooks too. In my early days I did the same thing with plastic sheet walls and a fan stuck in the window blowing out, worked pretty good. This is about the minimum size room to paint bike frames, the 4.5' is adequate but that's all I had to work with. The prehung 36" door has about a 1" space at the bottom which worked out perfect for air intake while painting. Just painted this frame today.

This set up keeps my house fume free and boy do I hear it if the house stinks like paint, although they do seem to like the smell of the clear I use on these bikes, good stuff until the headache comes into focus.  I've done so many paint jobs in this room I have lost count. Every couple years I change out the plastic and cardboard and vacuum between paint jobs.


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## bikecrazy

Super quality work! It pays to have the proper equipment.


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## momo608

How to pin stripe lugs when you can't hand pin stripe worth a damn. Needed to get this done and had to come up with a way to do it myself. My ask for no outside help policy. It kills me to pay people to do stuff I should be able to do.

Offsetting the pin stripe about an 1/8" away from the lug was killer. If I could use the lug itself as guide and stripe along the braze shore line it would have been much easier. 1971, last year for this on factory frames as far as I know. This is a 71 paramount.

I made these different shaped guides out of bondo spreaders and used that measuring spoon. The neat thing about the bondo spreaders is you can heat them with a heat gun then hold the shaped curve while hot, run cold water on it and it keeps it shape, change the shape for approaching the lug from the other side or different location. Great for going around bike tubing. I did about 5 lines a day spread around so I would not mess up other lines I just finished, eventually as things progressed the lines came together. Some of these lines took about ten attempts before I could live with the results. If you don't like it, clean it off with wax grease remover and try again, mineral spirits works good to.


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## Schwinn499

Looks purdy legit to me, nice work as usual dude.


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## bikecrazy

I wonder how they did it at the factory.


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## Metacortex

bikecrazy said:


> I wonder how they did it at the factory.




According to the 8th paragraph of this post on the Waterford site the pinstripes were done by Adam Smith and Joe Brilando (father of famed Schwinn engineer Frank Brilando http://waterfordbikes.com/w/culture/paramount/classic-era/

According to The 1972 News Flash #5 dated 2/22/72 the pinstripes were done by hand on bikes up through at least most of Feb. 1972 production:

PARAMOUNTS - Effective at once, the pin stripes on Paramount models are being eliminated. Elimination of these stripes (which is hand work) will expedite production and we do not feel that this will detract from the overall appearance of these models appreciably.​


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## momo608

Ebay nos half pint paint.

Had good luck with this. Regretfully I didn't take in process photos but I can tell you what worked. This bike started off as an OK original paint bike but it had some really bad scratches on the seat tube from loose water bottle brackets sliding up and down and minor chips and scratches everywhere else. The intent was spot repairs but it turned into so many I decided to do the whole bike. I did not strip the paint, sanded it down with 400 dry, filled chips with bondo, blocked those down with 400, spot primed with Kem Kromic red oxide thinned with xylene over the repair spots. Gave it a week for the primer to dry. Scuffed the whole frame and fork with gray scuff pads. Did the final painting. I used the same silver/aluminum base coat I used in the other paint jobs, any silver base should work as well. I'm not recommending spray can paint, recommending reduced base coat because of the ultra fast dry time. It becomes an inert surface fast that usually does not react badly to top coats. Since I have never heard of anyone using a translucent alkyd paint over modern reduced base coat, this might be a first.

For the final painting I sprayed the red oxide repairs only with the first coat of silver base. Let that dry for 15 minutes. Then sprayed the entire frame with silver base with a medium heavy coat. This was enough to blend the whole thing together but I still could see a hint of the old lime in spots, not a problem. Gave the silver base coat an hour to set up with a fan on it and then shot two coats of the NOS Schwinn lime paint. Very impressed how well the Schwinn paint brought up the desired final color. The half pint is more than enough to do a complete bike. I gave the frame a month of dry time before decaling but this paint following the instructions on the can 5 to 1 thinned with xylene dries fast. Make sure you strain the paint a couple times before it goes into the gun, there were some solid bits probably from sitting for 40 years. Hand buffed the frame, no wet sanding, then decaled. I give those a week to dry before assembling the bike as well. Better safe than sorry on dry/cure times.


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## Schwinn499

momo608 said:


> Ebay nos half pint paint.
> 
> Had good luck with this. Regretfully I didn't take in process photos but I can tell you what worked. This bike started off as an OK original paint bike but it had some really bad scratches on the seat tube from loose water bottle brackets sliding up and down and minor chips and scratches everywhere else. The intent was spot repairs but it turned into so many I decided to do the whole bike. I did not strip the paint, sanded it down with 400 dry, filled chips with bondo, blocked those down with 400, spot primed with Kem Kromic red oxide thinned with xylene over the repair spots. Gave it a week for the primer to dry. Scuffed the whole frame and fork with gray scuff pads. Did the final painting. I used the same silver/aluminum base coat I used in the other paint jobs, any silver base should work as well. I'm not recommending spray can paint, recommending reduced base coat because of the ultra fast dry time. It becomes an inert surface fast that usually does not react badly to top coats. Since I have never heard of anyone using a translucent alkyd paint over modern reduced base coat, this might be a first.
> 
> For the final painting I sprayed the red oxide repairs only with the first coat of silver base. Let that dry for 15 minutes. Then sprayed the entire frame with silver base with a medium heavy coat. This was enough to blend the whole thing together but I still could see a hint of the old lime in spots, not a problem. Gave the silver base coat an hour to set up with a fan on it and then shot two coats of the NOS Schwinn lime paint. Very impressed how well the Schwinn paint brought up the desired final color. The half pint is more than enough to do a complete bike. I gave the frame a month of dry time before decaling but this paint following the instructions on the can 5 to 1 thinned with xylene dries fast. Make sure you strain the paint a couple times before it goes into the gun, there were some solid bits probably from sitting for 40 years. Hand buffed the frame, no wet sanding, then decaled. I give those a week to dry before assembling the bike as well. Better safe than sorry on dry/cure times.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 414760



If I ever find a thrashed early superior frame, im gonna harass you to paint it flamboyant lime for me, just so you know .[emoji4] great work as usual.


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## momo608

Waterslide decals, MOTHER F-CKING waterslide decals!

This is good because this is as close as it gets to total failure. I used to blame myself for waterslide decal installs that went south, no more. Many times the job turns into a rescue mission because the damn decals want to lift or "silver". Sorry but this is an adhesion problem WITH the decal, not my technique. I take all precautions as you will see. So got off to a good start, got both decals on the down tube nice and straight, left mirrored the right in location, perfect. About an hour into it I see the first side I did start to silver, this can be caused by two things, one my painted finish is orange peeled so the decal lifts as it dries and shrinks or the glue on the decal is sh-t. My paint finishes are near perfect, block sanded with 2000 and buffed to high gloss, it's the glue. Once I saw the problem I knew it was a matter of minutes before the other side would do the same, I quickly brushed on Micro Sol, not Micro Set, on the good side and saved it. This stuff softens the decal to the point were you think you're ruining it, edges wrinkle up and so forth. Let it dry, do not touch it with your fingers, it will tear. You can brush it but be careful, better to let dry and hit it again with more Micro Sol need be. I had to go over these several times with the MS.

I have lost count how many waterslides I have put on but I have been at it more than long enough to encounter all the problems associated with them. You can get good decals or bad decals from the same source. Nothing more frustrating than laying down perfectly located and sometimes expensive decals and watch them ruin themselves right before your eyes. I have more anxiety doing this part of bicycle restoration than any other. I have to believe lots of guys doing this have silvered reproduction decals on their bikes, maybe they don't know what they are looking at or have low standards, probably both. I always buy extra top tube and down tube decals for almost every waterslide decal job. Vinyls are way easier and usually much more expensive. The Raleigh Pro was about $80 and the Superior was about $70.

I use distilled water for the installation. Submerge the decal for 15 seconds. Lay the wet decal on the glass table for a minimum of 5 minutes but not more then ten. You can see I have the decal laying on the glass surrounded by water to absorb into the decal backing paper. You should see the decal break loose from the backing paper by gently touching it. If it does not do this trouble ahead is almost certain. Longer soaking time required tells me there is problems with the glue layer. I have seen videos of guys leaving decals completely submerged for several minutes and what looks like washing off much of the decal glue, makes no sense to me. You see I use locating tape lines for the decals. Doing it this way I can usually get the decals on with little to know adjustment required. Sliding the decal around after it's on cannot be helpful to the glue. I brush on Micro set just before a put on the decal, only enough that it separates like water and a waxed painted surface. Too wet I've noticed and it seems to effect adhesion in a negative way. Place the decal and then brush the top surface of the decal with the same micro set soaked brush to work out any bubbles and excessive water. After it becomes more attached I very gently wipe them down with paper towels. Always keep your finger tips wet touching the decal surface.
My opinion on micro set helping make the decals stick better is like having a rabbits foot in your pocket, not sure if it helps a damn thing, I'm sure the rabbits foot is useless. I keep using it for almost the same reasons.

All that is pretty much old hat, now for the trouble shooting. This is where Micro Sol comes in. I put these Paramount decals on almost perfectly right off the bat. Things could not have looked better, no bubbles, wrinkles or bad edges. It takes between 30 minutes to an hour to find out if your good feelings were justified. I suspect most just leave it be if there is lifting. This is also about the time to start using Micro Sol, letting the decal sit for at least 15 minutes after install I would say is minimum. Put this stuff on a fresh wet decal and the whole thing can get way out of hand fast and ruin the decal. If I see a few tiny air pockets form, or slight edge lifting, i'll poke them with a fresh exacto blade and lay a tiny drop of Micro Sol on the offending spot after a wait time. You can repeat this over and over with wait times in between. In this case I had major areas of silvering, i.e. lifting. One side got so bad it was a lost cause. The other side being about 30 minutes fresher just started. Taking a wet brush of micro Sol I covered the whole decal with a wet coat. Thankfully it saved the day. You might ask why don't you just do this step anyway. The answer is you have a good chance of causing permanent wrinkles in the decal. I replaced the other side installing it without micro set and headed off the problem at the pass with the Micro Sol. I really wonder how well these decals are stuck on, this is probably the last bike I do without a urethane clear coat over the decals. I'm not going to give them the finger nail test to find out. This is also why I used Microscale Liquid Decal Film over the cured finished exposed decal. I don't use this for clear coated decals.

more interesting decal info here

http://thecabe.com/forum/threads/sc...removal-installation-and-reproductions.85248/


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## PCHiggin

Beautiful work man. Nicest lightweights I've seen


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## Saving Tempest

Important question for me...the paint I want for Beryl costs about $29 a pint. How much paint can I expect to use on my frame, fork and fenders to come up with a realistic paint budget?


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## morton

I am curious to know what your estimate is for cost of supplies only (primer, paint, catalyst, sand paper, etc) to paint 1 bike and *not* including spray equipment or other tools.


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## momo608

morton said:


> I am curious to know what your estimate is for cost of supplies only (primer, paint, catalyst, sand paper, etc) to paint 1 bike and *not* including spray equipment or other tools.




About $250 add another $100 if you want to go the optional sealer route. It would cost about zero more $ to do a second bike, about a hundred more if you wanted the second bike a different color. Trouble with the paint material as shown is they come in far greater quantities than required for one bike.  



Saving Tempest said:


> Important question for me...the paint I want for Beryl costs about $29 a pint. How much paint can I expect to use on my frame, fork and fenders to come up with a realistic paint budget?




One pint should be plenty unless you are using a paint hog spray gun. Try and match the primer color as close as possible to the final color coat, far less waste to get full hiding coverage. Try and save a little for the inevitable thin spot. I always buy more paint than I need just in case, nothing worse than running short in the middle of the job. $29 I assume is for an oil based paint of some sort, return the extra can if you don't need it. That's dirt cheap by automotive paint standards.


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## Saving Tempest

It's an acrylic enamel as I understand it. Since I tried to paint it with a can already, I'm going to be sanding, but it was paint and primer in one and that covered a rust converter/inhibitor.

Yes, it's going to be a chore.


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## morton

momo608 said:


> About $250 add another $100 if you want to go the optional sealer route. It would cost about zero more $ to do a second bike, about a hundred more if you wanted the second bike a different color. Trouble with the paint material as shown is they come in far greater quantities than required for one bike.




That's what I was afraid of, the cost.  Used to work in a body shop and I know the cost of paint, etc. has skyrocketed beyond belief. 

The last vehicle I painted was an MG A and the total cost for paint (acrylic enamel), reducer, and primer/sealer and reducer was about $100. Imagine paying $12 for a gallon of medium dry reducer. Obviously that was many, many years ago.  Today it's not uncommon for paint to cost thousands of dollars before you add clear coats, catalysts, etc.

Last year I did a bike using automotive paint in a spray bomb.  I should have clear coated but was anxious to get it assembled and ride. Result was ok but certainly no award winner.  I have 1700 miles on the bike that's seen many rain rides and it's holding up albeit with a tiny bit of fade.

I would imagine your work would hold up indefinitely with little change and look as good as it did when first painted.


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## momo608

If you spread the material cost over a couple of bikes it's not that bad but these bikes aren't worth much in the first place so that's a drag. I just like mint stuff. I look at it this way, one I can afford it, two in the great scheme of things it's not that much money and I enjoy doing it, at least I have something to show for the money unlike so many other things in life.

I started in the lacquer days of auto painting, modern materials are insanely expensive. I can tell you new modern materials are so much better than they used to be that it is worth it. A properly done paint job on a collector car if cared for i.e. washed and waxed, should last the rest of your life.

Here's my paint bill from yesterday. This is only for the final paint, add about the same for everything underneath it. This is for a small car, add at least $1000 for a caddy.


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## momo608

More tips from momo608 to put your Schwinn lightweight among the best 

Everything about fender rivets, how to do it, what to buy and where to get it
https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/how-to-schwinn-lightweight-fenders-part-s-rivets-tools.97033/
Decals
https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/s...removal-installation-and-reproductions.85248/
Speedometers and drives
https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/s...eters-drives-cables-and-rebuilding-too.90793/
Axles and cones
https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/s...d-and-qr-axles-cones-26-tpi-and-metric.86503/


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