Project: Mongoose

Yup, another glorious sunny day so onwards and upwards.... Time to get some paint on this thing....

Quick and simple Painting Frame

I wanted to be able to get to every part of the frame in one go, so I put this together using junk laid around the place and the frame I bought a while back to hold up a background sheet for when I was taking review photographs.

Rear Brake mounts masked off

Front Brake Mounts masked off

Almost, but not every bit of metal needs paint. The brake mounts were quickly masked off and the part of the forks which goes inside the frame too. There's be no real harm in any of this getting paint but every coat adds thickness and I need them to still work at the end of this.

Detail Spray Gun

My current weapon of choice. This is a cheap and cheerful mini gravity-fed HVLP spraygun. The only real difference between this and a full size gun is the pot capacity. The small pot is more than big enough for the kind of painting I do so I don't see the point buying a bigger gun yet. I actually have two of these - the other one, in silver, you may see later. I only use that for clearcoating. This blue one is the real worker lol.

On another point, I've been referred to as "The Gentleman Modder" in the past here on TBCS. This is mainly down to the fact that I used to do most of my Modding when I was at work on security, so white long sleeve shirt, tie etc.... Time to blow that name out of the water!!!

And off we go

Spraying spraying spraying

Um, yeah, still spraying

More like beachbum modder!!!

Full Etch-Primed Frame

Aaaaaaaaand we're done. The frame (and forks - photo came out crappy) are now well coated in a good coat of Etch Primer. The Primer I used is actually produced by Manor Coatings and requires equal parts of the Primer, and a specific thinner to be mixed. I probably used, at most, about 250ml when mixed, so about 125ml of each product, on the whole frame and forks. Where I work we sell this stuff for about £16 per litre, so I figure properly etch-priming the whole frame and forks, with a quality etch primer, has actually cost less than £2. Not too shabby.

Mongoose Pro engraving

On the very back of the rear forks, there are the works Mongoose Pro Stamped/etched/engraved. Jack wants to try to keep them so I made sure to go a little easier with the primer on those areas. So far so good - lets just hope the next coat of primer, the 2 or 3 coats of colour and the clear don't end up obscuring them...

More details on the frame

I have about an hour now before I can put the hi-build primer on. The etch requires 2 hours to be overpaintable and MUST be overpainted within 24 so there may be another update later today. Having said that, as I'm going to be covering Grey etch primer with Grey hi-build primer - it probably won't look a lot different after the next stage....

So I went ahead and pushed on a little more. Actually I didn't really have a lot of choice in the matter. The etch primer needs to be overpainted within 24 hours of initial application which meant today as tomorrow I'm at work and I think the neighbours MIGHT object to my 93dB compressor going at 5am if I tried to do it before work.

First things first - prep prep prep...

Soapy water, 600grit Wet n Dry, and a tack cloth

A quick rub down with some 600 grit wet n dry with warm soapy water. You don't need warm water, or soap for that matter, but they both help.... Then a rinse off with the garden hose, and good blast with a blow gun to get the heavy water off, and about 20 minutes of direct sunlight to utterly dry the rest of the job. Follow that with a good wipe down with a slightly damp cloth, then when it's dry again, a once-over with the tack cloth and we're ready for....

Lechler Green Ti Primer/Filler and Activator

This is the best quality primer we sell at the shop where I work. Very high build, 2-pack primer. I mixed up some at the manufacturers recommended ratio, 5 parts primer, 1 part activator and went to work... After about 10 minutes, maybe less, I started having some problems with the spray gun - spitting instead of spraying, paint volume dropping etc. A couple of minutes after that, it quit altogether, and all I could get out of the gun was air... I stripped the paint gun (a scary moment or two as I'd never taken it apart to that degree before) and found that the primer had actually solidified inside the gun. It dries THAT fast.... After about an hour of cleaning swearing, scrubbing and generally getting sunburnt, I mixed up another batch of the paint. This time I used a little less activator, and was a LOT quicker getting it on the frame. A few minutes later and...

Forks in Hi Build primer

Frame in Hi Build primer

Remember those two dents? They are no more....

Area where dent used to be - 1

Area where dent used to be - 2

Between the repairs I did with the Bonda FEW, and the etch then two coats of Hi-Build, they have, as expected, utterly gone.

Oh one other thing.... I mentioned before that my son wants to try to preserve the Mongoose Pro lettering on the back of the bike, so a slightly different approach was required. Before I started with the Hi Build, I used some basic aerosol primer on those areas. The quality isn't as good but I had no doubt at all that the Ti Primer would utterly obliterate the lettering. I then made a point of not getting the Ti on the letters, instead fading it out as I got to that area. Here's hoping it looks ok after it's all been sanded down.

Two-tone primer baby!!!

This is supposed to be a collaboration between myself and my son, so I'm on a down-tools now until he's next able to help with it. This wednesday is Guitar lesson so it may be next weekend or even the following wednesday before there's any more progress....

Until then....

Little experiement with the colour...

This is a coarse silver groundcoat, with several coats of semi-transparent hi-pearl purple. Quick and dirty job - no sanding or prep - I just wanted an idea of how it'd look. It looks absolutely stunning in direct sunlight because there is some next-generation xyrillic pearl in there....

I'll try to get a better pic in the daylight soon....

If anything, I don't think the purple is quite transparent enough - I'd prefer it to take more coats to get to the colour I want - the effect will be much deeper that way...

Ooooooooooo pretty color!!!

bumpdate

LOL - I need to re-prime this because I went a little too far when I rubbed it down. Only problem is, I also killed a spraygun priming it up the first time so I need to buy a new one with a bigger needle before I can get back to it - hopefully soon (ish)

That colour looks awesome! The bike will certainly be eye-catching with that paintjob!

any done pictures of that, did you shoot the color over a black.. that will give you a more dramatic look on the pearl

Might be getting passed on without being completed. My son has lost interest in the project and the guy who is letting me use his paint booth is looking for a bike project for his son. Real shame because I was really looking forward to seeing that paint on something other than a test card.

I'll have a word with Steve and see if I can get some pics of it when it is done - but I can't promise anything unfortunately

I love BMX's, this is an awesome thread.

I want to sugjest a pro comp sprocket and chain set, looks mean as hell and the chain will almost never fall off even if its looser than the $2 hookers downtown. Plus the chains are for lawnmowers and are rated to 20HP or something crazy like that.

You need to get a 2 piece sprocket set with an extra outter ring. Double stack the outter rings. Ditch the BMX single stage sprocket screws and find a mountain bike tripple stage sprocket set and use the screws from that. They have deeper thread guides on the nuts and longer threads on the screws. Then go down to the mower shop and get the appropriate length of chain. The rear sprocket has a chain race build into it that is wide enuff that the chain will slide from side to side but will remain on the chain race. The chain is really beefy and cant flex enuff to fall off the race.


Depending how easily you can get the 2 piece sprockets it shouldnt cost more than $20, Looks fly, and the chain will never break or fall off.

Double stack the outter ring