PaulJensen

I thought about Framebuilders, then flipped the coin and here it is…

You say other bike mechanics can’t fix a frame, maybe they should learn how…???…

I’m just a hobbyist who knows what I can and can’t do… I have the materials on hand, have the time, and have no qualms at all investing my retirement time and a bit of little bit of money on a hobby I love… And I’m having a blast…!!!…

Alas, here I sit once again, a man without a proper sub-category…

I think I’ll just keep it here…

Iride01 

Time is money. Bicycle mechanics that wrench on bicycles for a living probably would loose too much money spending time on the one or two frame repairs they get for any material a bike is made of. So telling the owner the frame is toast allows them to move on to the next repair instead of spending the time needed to properly prep and repair a CF frame. Which is considerably more work than just brazing a steel tube that almost as few bike mechanics will ever do. I don't know about your area, but while bike shops here don't appear to be selling many bikes, they sure are busy with maintenance every time I go into them. Some even backed up a week out or more at times.

There are shops that advertise CF repair for bikes. However their prices reflect how much time it takes to do a decent repair job to fix a cracked or damaged frame. In addition, those shops have the volume of business to keep the skills needed well honed. And also, hopefully, someone with the design and engineering sense to know whether the repair has been done well enough to call it as good and strong as it should be.

PaulJensen

So true…

You don’t get that level of skill set without learning by doing a high volume of work… I was working building wood travel trailers at a company in Seattle, and because of my surfboard background, I was the epoxy/fiberglass coating guy tasked to the teardrop roofs and shower panels… Built 65 of them, about 20,000 sq.ft. total… A lot… Now fixing a hole or two in a throw away bike is not intimidating… It’s fun…

Again, your insight into the economics and reality of bike shops is spot on… A labor of love, support them…!!!…

PaulJensen

(above) A close look at the sanded frame exposed some areas to improve… A pair of small spots that needed to be filled, a fiberglass yarn wrapping of the shifter boss and a patch over the former hole in the frame for internal cabling, and top tube/head tube reinforcement over a small void…



(above) I now wonder the advantage of internal cable routing that introduces a potential breaking point in an otherwise intact frame…???…



(above) Fabric reinforcements in place before mixing epoxy…



(above) The gloves come off and the curing has started…



(above) Over on the left side, it needs a single layer of thin fiberglass to fill a couple small voids in the sanded weave… No Bondo, only epoxy…



(above) Prepped and ready for epoxy…



(above) Left side after epoxy and squeegee…



(above) The head tube / top tube juncture had stranded CF yarn over the seam…



(above) Over on the right side it looks like this… Sanding tomorrow…

zandoval 

Bikes look great with just the 2K Epoxy Rattle Can Primer...

icemilkcoffee 

l would stay away from flat black because it’s done to death by all the generic Chinese open-mold carbon frame builders.

unterhausen

Moved here from bike mechanics.

P.L.Jensen

(above) Wet sanding done… My fingertips are without fingerprints now…



(above) Lots of layers…



(above) Good look at the layering for specific strength…



(above) A few tiny areas for spot epoxy fills are circled…



(above) If I didn’t enjoy this, it might seem like a lot of work…



(above) Layering and sanding is almost done…



(above) There’s a lot going on down there…



(above) One last look before primer…

TiHabanero

Liking the details of the repairs/mods. I worked on a Giant OCR frame that had received a knock on the top tube crushing it a little bit. Enjoyed the repair process, but in the end with paint it looked awful. I am not a finish painter. Anyway the bike is out on the road now and holding strong I presume.

P.L.Jensen

(above) Might do this color scheme…

TiHabanero

The baby blue is a nice color, however it wears the eyes thin in time. Considered a trend color by my friend the artist. I like the original white of the 4000. Classic. The nice thing about your skill level is you can repaint a couple years down the road if you desire.

Andrew R Stewart 

Lately I have been using a previous iconic color pairing from something in my past. My commuter "shooting, brake", bike got a blue/orange job inspired by the Gulf endurance racing cars of the 1960s/70s. The S&S bike will have a Scottish flag med/dark blue and white.

I strongly agree with choosing colors you can live with for a long time. Andy

P.L.Jensen

(above) The fork got their first coat of blue… I think it’ll be fine…

P.L.Jensen

(above) Ready for primer…

P.L.Jensen

(above) Etching primer…



(above) Long time coming…

PaulJensen

(above) My shop is all wood, no installation… It’s winter, it’s cold… Painting in the cold is a non-starter… For heat I’m using a 3’ electric radiant heater… To contain the heat I made a plastic sheeting room…



(above) The tented area is about 12 x12… The plastic sheeting is stapled through cardboard squares to the ceiling…



(above) Inside the tent, is another tent for painting and further heat containment… Binder clips are used to join plastic sheets together and add just enough weight at the bottom to prevent them from billowing… Easy and works great…



(above) Looking though the entry into the roughly 9 x 6 paint booth…



(above) The benches and heater are moved easily out of the booth for spraying… The translucent plastic diffuses the light and reduces shadows inside the booth…
With the tenting, it’s easy to maintain about 70 degrees inside the booth while the temperature outside the tent is in the low 40’s…No worries about the paint curing for days, weeks, inside the temperature controlled booth… It took about a half hour to put it together and is a huge game changer…

PaulJensen

(above) For color I’m using this…



(above) I don’t paint often enough to feel that my results will be predictably good… The first color coat turned out better than I expected… I got lucky again…



(above) The time invested in the prep is so worth it…



(above) The shifter bosses coming off and the subsequent replacement, repairs were a blessing in disguise…



(above) Loving the coverage of this paint…



(above) I’ll let the paint cure for a week in the heated tent, then fill the few pits and scratches, sand or Scotchbrite the surface and give it another coat…



(above) I am so glad it’s not black… Not this bike…



(above) Little fills here and there, it’s ok… All part of the process…



(above) It’s crazy how long the stripping, sanding, repair process took, and how fast the priming and painting went… Expectation’s exceeded…

TiHabanero

Nice looking work you have there. 2 color coats, correct? Will there be a clear coat?

PaulJensen

Exactly… Thinking about using a matte or satin 2k clear coat… Not a fan anymore of bright shiny bikes… I could use less glare coming off my bike on sunny days… A little thing, but little things add up…

Edit: I sprayed a 2K clear satin and it didn’t like the enamel underneath… Fortunately I didn’t continue to spray the clear… A day or two later, 400 grit wet sanding resolved the craziness… One more color coat went on without issue…

Andrew R Stewart 

Wait, Sunny days in the PNW?

I've taken two bike tours in Scotland over the years and had only one day of rain, after we were done but before we flew back home. The tours totaled about 14 days all together. I tell my friends this and they ask "which part of Scotland was this great weather? That's where I want to go next year." Andy

PaulJensen

Temperature matters…

I’m ready to paint the second coat but it’s too cold… Inside the paint booth it’s 52F… Outside the all wood/no insulation shop is 7F… Hope it’s back to just freezing soon…

Edit: I sprayed a 2K clear satin and it didn’t like the enamel underneath… Fortunately I didn’t continue to spray the clear… A day or two later, 400 grit wet sanding resolved the craziness… One more color coat went on without issue…

PaulJensen

The wait after the final coat is over…!!!…

Assembly time…



(above) Other than the headset and bottom bracket, everything is only placed on frame and not firmly installed…

Chorus Headset and Dual Pivot front brake…



(above) The removal of the shifter boss and the subsequent frame repair turned out alright…



(above) The work involved was worth it….



(above) Chorus crankset, Token sealed bearing bottom bracket, 42 tooth chainring…

For sure, I’m doing it my way… For the past decade, I’ve been mostly riding a single speed on flat to rolling hills… This bike will have seven speeds on the rear and a single up front… I know what I like and what works for me… Not expecting consensus approval on my choices…

The chainguard ring is something I have on all my bikes… This one is a 53 tooth chainring with the teeth ground off and wet sanded smooth…



(above) C-Record Rear Derailleur - Dura Ace seven speed 13-24



(above) Feeling pretty stoked how this is coming together…!!!…

TiHabanero

That is a proper looking bike, certainly is a looker!

PaulJensen

All the test fitting is done...
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Cables, chain and final settings up next... ​​​​​​​

Getting close, but in no hurry...