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Custom Stratoliner Saddlebags

Now that I had finally caught up with my projects it was time to finally start on my bike. I had stripped it last fall to paint but paid projects took precedence.

I was planning on a biomechanical theme bike with artwork similar to Geiger. One of Geiger's famous art pieces was the starting point for my design. From there I had no idea where I was going.

The first thing that was for sure was that I wanted to strip the vinyl covering on the saddlebags. The vinyl was getting ratty and I wanted more space to paint. Space that would demonstrate my skills.

 

I had no idea what I getting into and wether I was destroying the bags. I was going to find out.

Stripping the Stratoliner saddle bag was a little more effort than expected but well worth the effort.

With a Xacto knife I first cut the stitches. I was not sure what to expect when I stripped the vinyl. I was expecting glue but to my surprise there was none. The vinyl stripped off fairly easily and within the hour I had the bag stripped.

Once stripped I realized I had work to do. A primer by itself would be enough.

The first step was to sand the surface with 80 grit to give the surface good tooth for the primer.

Here you can see the bag after a good saning. I then cleaned the surface and sprayed the bags with SEM Plastic Adhesion promoter and when ready primed it with SEM Flexible Surfacer. When dry I sanded the surface lightly. I was going to reprime so I was not worried if the surface was smooth. I only wanted to create tooth for the body fill and high build primer.

 

I used SEM No Swell Plastic filler to smooth out the surfaces. The one thing I was not expecting was the stitching holes that had to be filled. The previous owner also screwed a license plate bracket into the bag so I had to fill those holes. I sanded smooth and it was back to the spray booth for more primer. This time I was using Evercoat 2:1 high build. This stuff works great and covers well.

I used 220 grit to sand the primer smooth. I was getting pretty tired of sanding these bags but it would all be worth it. Once cleaned off it was back to to booth for basecoat and clear.

Here you can see the saddle bag ready for artwork. I wetsand the bag with 600 grit to give me a perfect surface. The green tape defines where I will create the ripped metal effect and the biomechanical effect.

 

 

Using House of Kolor white. I start the design. Working from the front to back I airbrush Geigers skull artwork to the bag.

 

Here you can see that I've started to shade and add detail. I am using House of Kolor Black and have slightly over reduced it to give me more detail but you have to be careful not to blow out. I also used Airsick Stencils to create the textures and grunge effects.

 

 

 

I continue with the black until I have painted the entire design. Using House of Kolor white I go back and add highlight to the design.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the final bag all cleared and on the bike. The work was worth the effort and the bags turned out great. You can check out more pictures at kustompaint.ca or orangepaintfactory.com

I will blog the rest of the bike custom paint process for the entire Geiger Theme Stratoliner Custom House of Kolor Bike.

 

1 comment:

  1. UnknownOctober 1, 2013 at 9:06 PM

    WOW ! Incredible job I like Giegers work and you nailed it

    ReplyDelete

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