1955 Columbia *Resto Complete*

[Wayne Adam]

Well, I finally finished a complete restoration on my '55 Columbia. The bike I started with was a total piece of junk ( As can be seen in the first photo). I managed to create a nice bike with all original parts except for the rear rack and reflector which are reproductions. I'd like to thank Wayne ( Maxglide) for the fork, and Shawn ( Freqman1) for the front fender.
I do every aspect of the restorations by myself. I removed all imperfections, primed the bike with Nason 2K urethane primer, the sprayed it with six coats of Dupont Centari acrylic enamel. I custom mixed the maroon-dark red, and the tan is called "light cashmere", a 1979 Chrysler Cordoba color. I then sanded it again and cleared it with three coats of PPG Omni urethane clear. I like clearing over the decals, then they will never yellow of scratch off. All of the chrome is original, used ,from a super clean parts bike. I also sanded all of the rusty chrome off of the rims and sprayed the rims the tan color ( I love painted rims). I then laced the rims with new stainless spokes that I bought from Niagara Cycle. I restored the Troxel seat in a "Palamino" color. The headlight is a late '40's Delta torpedo that I also color keyed to match the tan. Although it's a show bike, it still rides great.
Thanks for looking !.......................Wayne

 

[DirtNerd]

That.

Is.

Gorgeous!


Sent from my garage

 

[Bicycle Belle]

Once again a spectacular job Wayne! I love the colors and your work is just simply top notch!

 

[jpromo]

Paint work looks spectacular--very nice job!

 

[MrColumbia]

Beautiful paint job! I love that you got all the paint trim detail correct. It looks great. Are you going to put the chrome trim piece in-between the tank halves?

 

[Wayne Adam]

Thanks!

Thanks for the nice comments Cabers. Belle...I'm glad you like the colors. as I said in the past, I paint my bikes the colors that I like
even if the color wasn't original to the bike. Mr Columbia...I probably will add the chrome piece eventually. As far as getting all of the details
correct, that is what I actually do for a living. I have been a professional artist and restorer for about 40 years now and I really strive for perfection.
I really appreciate all of the nice feedback..Thanks again.................Wayne

 

[Buster1]

Nice job! I love shiny bikes!

 

[MaxGlide]

niiice!!

Simply stunning Wayne....

Maxglide

 

[bike]

I was taught

not to mix paint system brands- ie go ppg or sikkins or whatever all the way-primer-color-clear- is there a reason you did not?


Bike looks great!

Thanks!

 

[Wayne Adam]

Bike...Paint

Bike... You can mix any brand of paint as long as it is of the same base, brands don't matter. I have been professionally painting
with auto paints for 40 years. Back in the day when I started, I was painting all of my murals on "Hippy Vans".
Back then I would do my murals in Lacquer, then clear them with Imron. The Imron was a urethane and therefore would not ever lift
or damage the much stronger lacquer. Over the years I have painted murals on everything from cars to guitars, to bikes etc.
I still spray with very old siphon feed Devilbis guns. I learned from the oldtimers back in the early seventies and have perfected my finishes.
The only reason I choose to mix brands is due to what I happen to have in my paint room. You can mix any AE with another AE, and any AU with another AU, etc.
On this particular bike, as long as I wet sanded the acrylic enamel color, there is no problem clearing it with urethane. Both Acrylic enamel and Urethane are very closely related.
Since both were shot with activators, they both will cure to the same finish.
What a lot of people don't know is easily read in the name of the product. For instance... they both have two part names " Acrylic Enamel" and "Acrylic Urethane"
The second part of the name is the "Vehicle" which chemically moves the paint to it's ultimate goal, and the first part of the name is the " Finish" which in this case is "Acrylic"
which is of course "plastic". So, as long as final result is the same, every thing will be fine.
I didn't mean to give such a long tutorial, but sometimes that happens when I get going.
Thanks for the compliment on my bike...............Wayne