Harley Project

I finally finished quick proofs on my latest project and the client is happy with the proof. I picked up the parts on Sunday and with the client sign off and deposit, I am ready to go.

The client decided to have a design painted on the current paint, so I do not have to repaint the bike. A good Westland and I will be ready to start painting. 

The client gave me the skull design that I will use as a guideline and I searched the web for graveyard ideas. He wanted true fire but not bright fire. The color will be on a metallic grey and should look great. The paint should compliment all the chrome and accessories that he has added and make this bike a show bike when complete.

I will start prepping this week but will not paint till I get back from Florida next week. 

LATEST HELMET

It's been a while but I finally got back to painting after taking the summer off. I spent the summer riding around the maritimes and did not have much interest in being in the shop painting.

One of the riders that come out with us, wanted a helmet painted. Jim Bishop is a Elvis impersonator and wanted a Elvis themed helmet. After a few layout designs, we ended up settling in on a design. He dropped off the helmet and I was on my way.

The paint is a mix of Elvis design and pictures that I took of Jim doing a local concert. I have about 20 hrs in this job and I am pretty happy with the final product. The entire job was painted using Autoair paints and although these paints take a while to get used to, they work well.

I ended up using my new redsail cutter and it worked well. I used the cutter to cut the lettering, the lights and Elvis for the front. I ended up cutting Elvis's signature by hand using a photocopy and frisked film.

I should have kept painting to keep my skills up. It took a little while to get back in the groove. I had to get used to fine details, accurate spot touching and getting used to mixing the right paint consistency. Not as easy as you would think.

Tomorrow I clear the helmet and will post final pics.

New Tires for Bike

190/60/17                    210/50/17

I woke up early today, I had a appointment in Moncton today to get new tires. I had taken the day off and the weather was looking good. I had probably taken a chance and put a little too much milage on the rear tire. It was getting pretty flat and I was a little worried with the thinness of the rubber.

Moncton was only another 150km to the tire. The ride would probably take 1.5 to 2 hours to get to Motoplex. I was told just to show up but I wanted to get there early so we didn't have to get the work split by lunch. 

We were to meet Bobby at 8:30 at Smythe Street  Tim Horton's but by the time we left the house and filled up, we were late. We enjoyed a quick coffee, talked to a few locals and hit the road. I wanted to get there as quick as possible so we took the highway. We stopped at McCready's Irving for a quick break and ended up driving in to Motoplex at 11:15am.

I had decided on Metzler tires for the front and back. Unfortunately Metzler does not make a tire that is same size as the stock. I had searched the web and after a lot of searching without a confirmed solution, I did find a few riders putting 210/50/17 on the back of the Stratoliner without modification. There were a few bad reviews with the Metzlers on the Stratoliner but there was not many success stories. I did find a Metzler tire chart and recommendations for the 210/50/17 tires for the back. That was 2 sizes up and even as I was sipping on a coffee while they were installing the tires, I was still unsure they would fit and was expecting a phone call with bad news. I eventually got a call and the tires fit. As we were waiting for the installation we checked out another bike shop and I bought transitional glasses and a new half helmet.

We drove in to Motoplex and I saw my bike. I was impressed with the new look. I was a little shocked when I got the bill. I had expected the $205 for the rear tire and 145 for the front but was not expecting the $90 per tire install fee. Add tax and you watch $600 leave your account. I was also happy to stop driving Lois's bike with her on the back. It felt like a moped.

The proud owner of new tires, we had decided to take a scenic route back. We we going to take the back roads following the ocean coastline through Shediac, then to Bouctouche. We stopped at my parents place in Bouctouche for a break and carried on to Richibucto for a Tim Horton's coffee and A&W spicey burger.

With a full stomach and another dose of caffeine we started off towards the Salmon River road to get back to Fredericton. Its about 60km of woods and not much else but a scenic shortcut. You do have to watch for animals. The road was in good shape and it didn't take long before the coffee made its way through our systems. We pulled over at a old church and after a quick bathroom break, we made our way to Fredericton.

We filled up in Minto and instead of stopping in Minto for yet another coffee, we cept on driving till Fredericton for a coffee.

We just started sipping out coffee and the thunderstorm they were calling for was starting to kick in. We could see lightning strikes on both sides of the river and it did not look good. I was about halfway through my coffee when we started to feel a few drops. 

It was time to head home or get soaked. I quickly downed my coffee and it was a race home. We could see the skies darken even more and the lightning strikes were becoming more frequent.

As I drove up McLeod hill behind Lois, I could see the strikes at the top of the hill. I pulled out my camera to see if I could catch a shot but had no luck. By this time I was starting to feel the drops again. I rolled in to the yard and put the bike in the shed. Lois covered her bike and as we walked in the house the skies opened up and for the next 6 hours we suffers severe thunderstorm and rain. I managed to sleep through it all but parts of Fredericton woke up to no power. 

I now have two new tires and am ready to ride. The tires have good grip and I am curious how long they will last. I am tracking it and will decide wether I will buy them again based on their life.

Random photos

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Clear coated and ready to go

I finally got to finish clear coating the two helmets and tomorrow I will drop them off at a local bike shop for advertisement.

I had to put a little extra effort wet sanding because I had a couple dust specs in the clear and  a clear run. It was good practice and I managed to detail the helmets to a great finish.

Skulls and Fire

It may seem that all I paint is fire and skulls but practice makes perfect and the quicker I can paint them the faster I can create designs.

The new airbrush I ordered came in last week and this is the first job with it. I bought my last IWATA HP-C's about 20 years ago. Mind you there was about 10 years where they sat and collected dust.

I finally decided on the IWATA HP-C Highline and it is a great airbrush. This helmet was my first attemt with the airbrush and I am hoping  to get at it again this week but so far, I like it. At some point this week I will have to clear the helmet.

The new airbrush has what is called a mack valve, It allows you to adjust the air flow and I think this will serve very useful when it comes to fine detail with autoair white and black. I tend to dillute them more than recommended to help stop spitting and tip dry.

After prepping the helmet, I basecoated the helmet with Autoair black and then clear coated it. After wet sanding the helmet I was ready to start painting.

I started by lightly spraying the skull template with black. This will give me a guide to freehand airbrush the skulls.






Using a moss green color mixed with white, I started freehanding the skulls. Here I am adding basic detail. I will then go back and forth with black and the moss color mix to get the effect I am looking for.







The paint work took me a little over ten hours. Probably longer than I should have but I was playing with the various controls of the airbrush and paint consistancy. I still had issues with the tip dry and had to constantly clean the tip by pinching the needle end and pulling off the paint. You have to keep a close eye on this or you will get ugly spitting.

I also got the chance to use another one of my Harley logos cut with my Redsail cutter. The logo is about as small as I think I can cut but is a good size for helmets. It is a pain to strip the removable masking but I am so happy I don't have to cut it out by hand. So here are pics of the various sides.




Overall I am happy and picked up a few new tricks.


This was also the first time I painted barb wire. It wasn't as hard as I though and turned out pretty clean. I used 2 masks to create the effect.

First I cut a wavy cut through a piece of masking film separating it into 2 pieces. I layed them down on the helmet separating the pieces the width of the barb wire. I then sprayed the gray. I then replaced the pieces in a different formation so they criss crossed and sprayed the color.

I then cut the small barbwire tab and placed it over where the wires crossed and sprayed white to cover the surface. Using black and a curved template I sprayed the coil with two light passes. I then moved them to the other areas and did the same. I used diluted black to create the shadows and white for highlights. Pretty simple! Hope this works for you!

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Harley Helmet

 I picked up a few novelty helmets to paint and display at a local bike shop. I wetsanded the helmet, paint a black base coat with autoair black and then clear coated to protect the black. I wetsanded the helmet after it was completely cured.

Using my new Redsail RS720 plotter I cut out the Harley logo on a removable mask material. I stripped the mask and centered it on the front of the helmet. I was now ready to start the flames.


Here are a few more pics before final clear coat. The logo masking worked out well and was really crisp. I worked on the colors for the true fire and still find it to be an effort to get the right effect.

Autoair vs Autoborne

Autoair black test

I just received some autoborne colors and wanted to test the difference between the two. Reviews claimed that the Autoborne had less tip dry. Tip dry is a common Autoair issue. I spent the evening testing the airborne and found it to be a little better than the autoair for tip dry.


The autoair black was a little warmer than the autoborne black. I also found that I was able to dilute the autoborne a lot more than the autoair, which allowed for a better spray or atomization.

Autoborne black test

So far, I only tested the black and the white for highlights and found the autoborne black to also be very deep black. Spraying both paints take a little practice to get the right consistency so that the paints spray smoothly. I did get a bit of spitting once in a while and had to make sure I cleaned the airbrush tip with my fingertips on a regular basis. I will go back at it so that I can get the detail I am looking for.

I also recieved Autoairs new transparent Jet black and I will be testing tomorrow.

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