Charity Chopper

This project has been a trialing event. The project came to me and I decided to take it on even though it had a tight deadline it was the project that would bring me huge visibility as a business. I also had a all expense paid hockey tournament on Thursday and I wanted to go.

The custom bike was being donated to raffle off for a childrens charity. It would also bring me credibility with the custom builder and that should bring more work.

I had less than 1 week to paint the bike and it never seems to fail that when I get a rush job, everything else in my life gets chaotic and makes putting a lot of time difficult. The client liked the sketch I made of the bike and although the color scheme was already predefined by the builder, it would look good.

I ended up picking up the paint and it cost mor than anticipated but I got a good price. I was going with Debeers Mercedes iridescent silver and Austin Martin Black with yellow stripes to separate the color. I also went with a harder clear. Although this all sounded good, I had never painted with Basecoat clear. I was using Waterborne paint for my work. I was really unsure of the limitations and most of the experience in all projects is how to fix errors and how far you can push the paint. I would ask a lot of questions and the paint actually gave me a good window for custom work.

I was to pick up the bike on Friday by lunch so that I could start painting. I was checking my equipment that week and noticed that my spray booth fan was not working so on wednesday iBook it apart and tried to clean it up. To no avail I a could not get it working. I checked out a few shops and could not find another fan. I would have to drive to Moncton(2hr) to pick one up. Searching on kijiji I found a spraybooth fan but it was in Halifax(4hr away). He also wanted $475 but I managed to talk him down to $300. I would drive down later today to pick it up, time was ticking and I could not spare the time.

I pulled in to the bike shop to pick up the parts but they were still working on it. It would not be ready till morning. No big deal I had to go get the fan anyway.

I was on the road by 5:00 and I was expecting about a 8 hr drive. I wasn't on the road long and it started to rain, then some freezing rain. The roads were pretty good but it was a little slower. Within 2 hrs the weather had cleared and it was clear sailing till Halifax. I picked up the fan and headed back for home. The weather was starting to turn again and it was freezing rain/snow again. The drive home was much slower and I tucked in to bed at 3:00 am.

I was up at 8:00 am trying to see if the fan worked. I pulled open the wiring box and there were about nine wire. I started to panic, i wasn't sure if this would work. I played around for a bit and got the fan connected to electricity and it kicked in. This one was much stronger than the old one.

I then took off to pick up supplies, and then the bike parts. Now that the fan worked I had to design a new vent system for the new fan. By lunchtime I was sanding the bike. The bike had a lot of custom pinstriping and it all had to come off. My plan was to do some minor bodyfill and prime by Sunday night but it would not be until Monday.

Sunday I spent the day sanding and later In the day set up the fan system. It took over an hour for each piece and my shop was slowly getting dustier. I am not really set up for bodywork or a lot of sanding. I also went and picked up 3 new stands that I had gotten built. They were not exactly what I was looking for but would do the trick.

By Monday night I had the bike primed, this takes a little longer for me because when I built my spraybooth I made it too small. I built it to paint helmets and bike parts but did not appreciate the space required. I do now!

I started sanding the primer on Tuesday and it was taking me almost an hour to do each piece. I probably could have used a heavier grit sandpaper to speed the sanding process up a bit but I did not have a lot of experience in this and probably did more sanding than required.

Wednesday was Basecoat day, I needed to start laying down the color. I had decided to lay down the silver first, then the black and finish with the yellow. I spent Wednesday painting the silver and then let it dry. This can be slow if you can only paint a few pieces at a time. The unluck gods would hit me again, as I was bringing the tank in the spray booth It fell off the stand and after bouncing off my foot hit the ground. The language that came out was not good and I would again use this language a few more times in this project. I had a few deep scratches but no dent. A few hours later I was ready to prime again and sand. It could have been worse.

I also took the time to enjoy my new spray gun that I picked up at the Airbrush Getaway (IWATA 400) and was I impressed. It worked like a charm and with the Kustom lab courses took, my painting skill was much improved.

Thursday I started to mask off the pieces to get ready to paint the black. This paint worked really well, I could mask in 30 min if required. By this point I had already passed the clearing threshold but had learned how to quickly fix errors with the Basecoat. The process was a little slower than I had hoped I was barging through.

It wasn't till after supper on Friday that I started laying the stripes and this took way longer than expected. I worked through the entire night and had finished all the yellow by lunch on Saturday. I was hoping to have this all done by Friday and cleared so it would give me time for issues and or buffing. I did not have a lot of time left, they want the bike on Monday. My clear would have to be perfect and again, new gun, new clear and I was not sure how my compressor was holding out. It is really too small for this work.

I mixed up this new clear and started clearing the front fender, worked great. I then sprayed one coat on the side panels and when i came back to put a second coat, the clear was splatting to create a rough surface and it looked like the the gun was clogged. I quickly grabbed another gun, poured the clear in and tried that one. Same effect and I would soon find out that the pot life of this clear was not 3 hrs like the directions stated. I was just over an hour in. After spending a hour cleaning both guns, I would adjust my batch size so this wouldn't happen again.

I finished clearing the parts by 7:00 pm but I had been up for over 24 hrs, I was a little tired. This was the third late night and errors can happen when you are tired or work too fast. This is something that this job showed me very clearly. I sat on the couch sipping a couple whiskeys with the wife and 2 dogs, something that I had not done in a week.

I was up at 5:00 am on Sunday, I was flying to Kingston at 11:20am and wanted to wet sand buff a couple of pieces. At this point I was Disappointed in the work and figured that after delivering the pieces, my name would be mud. I started with the front fender and took it real slow, I did not want to burn through. I first tried the buffer with a compound but realized I would have to wetsand with a 1000 grit and then compound and finish with polish. At this point I started to feel good about the job and if I could buff all the pieces the job would look great. Before i had to leave for the airport I managed to buff the rear fender and the tank and I was really impressed with the job. I had never gotten this kind of clear before and it was exactly what the custom builder had wanted. He made a point of letting me know and had not found a local painter to paint this way. He was sendings his stuff to Montreal to get this clear.

Again the gods that be hit me again. In my attempt to speed up, as I turned I lightly hit the side and put a ding in the tank. Insert language here!

So I am on the plane writing up my experience with this project and trying to make sense of it all, get a good product to the client on time and decide on my next step. Tomorrow I will call and let him know that the bike isn't read. Not only that but because I am out of town, the delay will be longer. I don't think it's in his best interest to take it now although it is painted and cleared. It just doesn't look profession enough and it needs to. I will get my wife to bring a piece to show him so he feels he is getting a good product and that may help. If I can get the time I am confident that they will be happy and the bike will be sick.

 

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