Kyle's paintjob

The spare-parts bike I built for my good friend Kyle awhile back has been treating him well mechanically, but, as always, there's just one problem: inadequate rust protection. So I picked it up from him yesterday.

Here it is in his driveway, resting against his deceased Pontiac. I also nabbed a wheel I had left at his place using the bike's newest feature: a handy basket!

Most parts came off with small metric wrenches and hex keys; no fancy tools, no cable-cutting. Here, all that remains is the bottom bracket, crankset, pedals and headset. With some careful taping, the bike could be painted at this point. It wouldn't be the prettiest coat, but it would protect the steel from water.

Here it is totally bare, after using some bike-specific tools. I laid out all the parts in a rough formation of how they mount on the bike with respect to one another, creating an invisible bike, of sorts.

As you can see, the euphemism for this frame would be "paint-ready."

After sanding, I hit it with some stripper-in-a-can (no, not that kind) and laid down some primer. By this time, I had to head off to my new favorite waffle-and-coffee place for a hot date, and left it to dry. Final paint will have to wait until the weather clears up, as Eugene is back to its gray, moist self after yesterday's gloriously UV-saturated day. Wait 'till you see the colors he picked.