# Bare/gun metal Colson Project



## Monarky (Jun 17, 2014)

I have a 1938 Colson Project where the paint is all gone and was thinking of going with the bare/gun metal look.  Does anyone have any pictures of their projects with this same similar look?  If so I would like to see them to get some cool ideas.  Please share any pictures or any tips on how to proceed with this type of project would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks Monarky


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## rollfaster (Jun 17, 2014)

*Here ya go....*

My 37 rollfast motobike. No original paint left so I stripped it to bare metal then added two coats of semi gloss clear. Please post yours when you're done please.


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## Monarky (Jun 17, 2014)

57 spitfire said:


> My 37 rollfast motobike. No original paint left so I stripped it to bare metal then added two coats of semi gloss clear. Please post yours when you're done please.




Nice bike....it looks great thanks for posting it.  I hope to see others just like it.  Thanks Monarky.


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## mike j (Jun 17, 2014)

Nice bike & look. Have been using gun blueing on spokes & other parts, but not a frame. Working on an aluminum Silver King, where all the steel parts are going to be browned, will post soon.


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## rollfaster (Jun 17, 2014)

*Not quite bare metal but..*

My 46 schwinn dx again had no good original paint under the layers, so this was stripped too but I did a faux rusty patina by letting it sit out in the rain for 18 hours and spaying it with a salt water mix. A nice alternative to bare metal.


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## hoofhearted (Jun 18, 2014)

Monarky said:


> I have a 1938 Colson Project where the paint is all gone and was thinking of going with the bare/gun metal look.  Does anyone have any pictures of their projects with this same similar look?  If so I would like to see them to get some cool ideas.  Please share any pictures or any tips on how to proceed with this type of project would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks Monarky






*Great Thread - Monarky .... this is the chassis of my mid-late 1917 Flying Merkel ... 

Washed  mild-soap / water ... Denatured-Alcohol Prepped ... Visible-Steel Oxidized with a Brass-Antiquing 
Chemical (search google) ... Birchwood-Casey Plum-Brown (search google) and Cleared with Krylon Matte-
Finish Clear Spray.   Currently working on fenders and other bolt-on pieces.*




































*More to follow .....*



...........  patric



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## hoofhearted (Jun 18, 2014)

*Continued from previous Entry within this thread .....*................
















...........  patric



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## rollfaster (Jun 18, 2014)

*Wow....*

Patric, that bike looks freakin great.


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## hoofhearted (Jun 18, 2014)

57 spitfire said:


> Patric, that bike looks freakin great.




*Thank you .. 57 spitfire ... that Krylon Matte Spray does not reveal that there actually is a clear coat. 
For me .. 5 to 7 layers, twenty-minits apart.  This stuff slightly deepens and intensifies what's already there.

If you get a scuff on the machine ... apply First-Aid --- those chemicals that i use for metal oxidation .. and 
a soothing layer or three of the matte spray. *


...........  patric cafaro



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## fordmike65 (Jun 18, 2014)

hoofhearted said:


> *Continued from previous Entry within this thread .....*................
> 
> 
> View attachment 156389
> ...





Wait a minute Patric...are you telling me that is all faux patina??????


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## rustjunkie (Jun 18, 2014)

Looks great Patric. Share a "before" shot or two?


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## hoofhearted (Jun 18, 2014)

*NOT Faux Patina ... just oxidation-enhanced and matte-clear coat preserved ...*



fordmike65 said:


> Wait a minute Patric...are you telling me that is all faux patina??????




*fordmike65 ... when I got this FM frame (and this is what I started with) ... the orange paint 
(EARLY-FM Orange paint) was hardly preserved. i removed the crusty handlebar stem .. 
followed by the "some-time-in-the-past" replaced fork ... and a non-Miami chainring.

Went to my personal boneyard ... grabbed a 60-T Miami, star-chainring .. same condition as the FM 
chassis ... a correct Miami / FM / Hudson motorbike truss-fork and a nicer  motorbike, stem.

When i buttoned it all up ... the fork had a slightly-different oxidation in the flaking, rusted areas.
The frame-rust color did not match the fork-rust color.  This is where my use of steel / brass oxidation 
chemicals come into play.

After i manipulated the rust areas of both fork and frame with that chemistry... washed with dish soap .. 
rinsed well with warm water .. toweled dry.  Waited 24-hours ... rewashed with denatured alcohol to 
remove any soap film that may have been left.  Waited about four hours and applied 5 to 7 coats of 
that Krylon Matte Clear Spray.

No pigmented paint was added to either the frame or the fork.  The only paint used was that Krylon Matte Spray.

Cleaned the badge (authentic) ... attached a copper 'bottle-cap' feature (to the badge) .. cap is 3/8" wide 
and same height .. used high-temp silver solder ( 1150 degrees F ) ... re-prepped the half-inch hole in the 
headtube .. this time targeting only the hole, inside and out with lacquer thinner on a moist .. not drippy .. Q-Tip.

You really do not want that stuff drippin' and leakin' all over that headtube. The headtube is The Throne 
of The Head-Badge ... and The Head-Badge is The Soul of The Machine.

Look .. i needs a break ... makin' a cuppa coffee then goin' outside to spark a decent forty-five cent cigar .. 

Back ...   Applied JB Weld to that area where the bottlecap feature is silver-brazed to the badge ... and to all areas 
in and outside of that hole in the headtube.

The Head-Badge is now placed .. it's relationship with the rest of our known universe is fussed with and dialed-in.
Certainly there are others that have a strong aversion to placing a head-badge up-side-down OR .. a wee-bit 
crooked and maybe off-center.  And it's no secret that i am prescribed Prozac so that i don't make a career 
outta fussin'-with and dialin'-in that badge's placement.

Blue, painter's-tape is used to hold the badge in place.  24-hours later .. i am masking the headtube around 
the badge ... re-cleaning the front of the badge .. manipulating badge patina with chemistry .. aging for a week .. 
soap / water-wash .. alcohol-wash .. and then ... what ?

Bring On That Beautiful Matte Spray ......*


........ patric



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## hoofhearted (Jun 18, 2014)

alw said:


> Looks great Patric. Share a "before" shot or two?





*Absolutely, young man ......and thank you.*


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## rollfaster (Jun 18, 2014)

*Matte clear*

This is what I used on mine. Great minds think alike!


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## hoofhearted (Jun 18, 2014)

*Matte Clear*



57 spitfire said:


> This is what I used on mine. Great minds think alike!





AMEN to that, 57 spitfire !!!

..... p.


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## fordmike65 (Jun 18, 2014)

Ohhh....ok. Thought the whole thing was painted up from a bare frame. It did come out quite superb. Love the way you were able to match the parts & plating to mimic an untouched specimen. Gonna bookmark this thread for future reference. Mike


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## hoofhearted (Jun 18, 2014)

*Those ''Before" Fotos Are From The Seller ...*



fordmike65 said:


> Ohhh....ok. Though the whole thing was painted up from a bare frame. It did come out superb. Love the way you were able to match the parts & plating to mimic an untouched specimen. Gonna bookmark this thread for future referral. Mike






*fordmike65 ... i probably need to clarify an item.  Several years ago, i was offered a bicycle (shown in my 
response-entry to rustjunkie [alw] in Entry # 13 of this thread).  The first three fotos are a few of what I received
from the seller.  That machine looked awesome ... and I wanted it, just like it appears in fotos 1, 2. and 3 of 
Entry 13.  

Told the seller all i wanted was the frame / fork and all the bearing cups.  The seller was very happy as the parts 
i didn't want could be sold again.  I paid the seller's price for the whole package ... let the seller keep what i didn't 
want ... the shipping costs were less ... everybody is happy.

That frame is not bare. Any color you see, was on the machine when it was shipped to me. My particular position 
on this prize  was to do a preservation.  The plated parts are original .. not necessarily to this particular bicycle, 
but original to the period.  They were cleaned and not polished or buffed.  My goal was to have all the parts 
appear to have "grown that way" ... and not look like an accumulation of parts from different eras.

The fenders are currently being worked on, by me.  They have the same amount of orange paint and rust on 
them as the frame and fork do.  They are the ''deep'' variety, introduced in 1917, by Miami Cycle Co.

The fenders came as a set ... they are the Miami-Painted, deep fender ... same steel-product that Davis used.
i got these as a set way back in 1990 at a swap meet at MLC when they were located in Perrysburg, Ohio.*

Try the preservation procedure on an old-beater of a frame.  You don't need to do the whole frame to get an 
idea of the "look".

........ patric



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## Monarky (Jun 24, 2014)

hoofhearted said:


> *Absolutely, young man ......and thank you.*
> 
> View attachment 156437
> 
> ...




Anyone else want to share their pictures of their bare/gun metal bikes?


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## fordmike65 (Jun 24, 2014)

*'37 Colson Imperial*

Frame was stripped down and gone over with a Scotchbrite pad soaked in WD40. Will stay like this for a while til I finish collecting the last few bits and get it painted.


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## militarymonark (Jun 24, 2014)




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## Sped Man (Jun 26, 2014)

57 spitfire said:


> My 46 schwinn dx again had no good original paint under the layers, so this was stripped too but I did a faux rusty patina by letting it sit out in the rain for 18 hours and spaying it with a salt water mix. A nice alternative to bare metal.





Cool finish!


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## rustjunkie (Sep 2, 2014)

no paint, no plating:


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## hoofhearted (Sep 2, 2014)

rustjunkie said:


> no paint, no plating:






*Lookin' Good !!!   

The 'stout' quality of your machine is no-longer bridled by those 3-P's .... 
plating .. paint and pins ...........  oh, yeah .. Daddy Like ........... !!!

But whatta 'bout tha' badge ... gotta be a dandy .... any chance it could 
be fotoed and shown here ?

Thanks - Scott !!!*


................  patric


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## rustjunkie (Sep 2, 2014)

hoofhearted said:


> *But whatta 'bout tha' badge ... gotta be a dandy .... any chance it could
> be fotoed and shown here ?
> 
> Thanks - Scott !!!*
> ...





thanks, Patric, happy with how this one came out. Here's the badge:


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## M & M cycle (Sep 2, 2014)

*Nice*



rustjunkie said:


> no paint, no plating:




that turned out really nice!! good job, M & M


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## hoofhearted (Sep 2, 2014)

rustjunkie said:


> thanks, Patric, happy with how this one came out. Here's the badge:





*Oh, My .......... !!*

*That badge is Totally Insane !!!**

Are these available to the CABE membership ??   Do we contact you ??

Thank You - Scott !!!!!*


.........  patric


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## rustjunkie (Sep 2, 2014)

hoofhearted said:


> Are these available to the CABE membership ??   Do we contact you ??
> ....  patric




Thanks, Patric!  

I made these 2 from German Silver. I don't plan on selling them as they're pretty much hand-made, with a good amount of hand cutting, finishing, and polishing....time consuming.


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## Iverider (Sep 2, 2014)

What's the sheen on the frame? WD40? Linseed oil? Nice looking rust-rider!


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## rustjunkie (Sep 2, 2014)

Krautwaggen said:


> What's the sheen on the frame? WD40? Linseed oil? Nice looking rust-rider!




The metal is dry and smooth, no oil or clear coat, none of the rust is "natural". Mike stripped the primer off the frame and fork (no original paint underneath). I had the parts stripped at a plating shop, patina'd everything with patina solutions, neutralized and scrubbed with baking soda, sealed with sculptural wax.
After stripping:





end result:


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## Monarky (Sep 2, 2014)

rustjunkie said:


> The metal is dry and smooth, no oil or clear coat, none of the rust is "natural". I had the parts stripped at a plating shop, patina'd everything with patina solutions, neutralized and scrubbed with baking soda, sealed with sculptural wax.
> After stripping:
> 
> 
> ...




Outstanding work Rustjunkie.... Thanks for sharing your pictures and work of art.  See you and Ford Mike at the next Colson Invasion.  Stay cool Monarky...


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## Jarod24 (Sep 3, 2014)

*So awesome!*



rustjunkie said:


> The metal is dry and smooth, no oil or clear coat, none of the rust is "natural". I had the parts stripped at a plating shop, patina'd everything with patina solutions, neutralized and scrubbed with baking soda, sealed with sculptural wax.
> After stripping:
> 
> 
> ...




I saw this one posted over on RR and I was trying to figure out how
You got it to look like that. This explains it haha. Such a cool lookin bike. Just curious is that pretty pricey to get done?


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## rollfaster (Sep 3, 2014)

*Wow Scott!*

That turned out great. Been working on the 36 motobike and it looks like it will be another bare metal bike as well. Will post more pics later. Rob.


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## mike j (Jan 11, 2015)

A definite salute to Rust Junkie, 57 Spitfire and all the other patina aficionados here that have positively influenced me. This bike is a compilation of hand me downs & rejects, along w/ four types of patinas. Photo'ed against a low grade iron ore deposit. At least the chain ring is Colson.


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## syclesavage (Jan 12, 2015)

One nice bike you got there mike we need to talk love all that has been done


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