It was all going so well... until it went bad.

This evening, I really and truly screwed the pooch on my latest little project. Pissed about it, yes I am. Only at myself, but combination raging/angry and sullen/depressed, all at the same time.

I picked up a decent road bike frame (in my size) a while back for super-cheap ($50, I think). An old Trek 620, no fork, a chain-suck gouge in the drive side chain stay, but otherwise sound. Couldn't really decide for the longest time what to do with it. It had "rideable art project" written all over it, but I didn't have much for inspiration. Maybe I could make gargoyles or figurines and braze them to the frame? Some sort of other metal embellishment? Well, after stripping the old boring grey metallic paint off it,

months of it sitting around waiting for me to be inspired, I finally decided to get off my ass. Decided it would become a touring/commuting (maybe cyclocross?) cantilever-braked road bike, with various handlebar options in the future. I got out the torch, filled in the gouge with silver solder, bought some cantilever studs, made a jig and torched them on. Added some seat-stay embellishment too, and primed it.

Since my new favorite color is orange, the overall theme became orange with details in black...


Black lugs, black Surly Cross-Check fork. I'll rebuild my old road wheels at some point and ultimately they'll be black-spoked too. Chris King headset in orange (ok, "mango"), black stem, orange bar tape, black Paul Motolite brakes with orange-red Kool-Stops, the whole deal.

I had primed and base-coated the orange, spent hours masking off the lugs and details, painted them black, and was ready to take it out to the LBS to have the head tube faced and reamed and headset pressed. The last thing to do before that? Clearcoat. This is where it all went wrong. Little did I know that the clear coat would swell and bubble the base coat, leaving it crackled and raised. Shitfuck.

Maybe the auto plant paint experience should have taught me that you lay down the base, let the solvents flash off, then the clear right after. Maybe letting the base dry overnight was a mistake. Maybe I just picked two different paints that weren't compatible. Either way, I fucked myself.

From having finished and rideable project tomorrow, I'm back to step 2, and multiple days away from it being rideable. Sure, the metalwork is done, but the paint needs to start all over. I'm torn between doing it myself again, spending money on spray gear, or dropping the $180+ for the "professional" paint from Assenmachers, or going half-way and finding a local auto body shop to do a single color for around $100.

Ain't shit happening tonight now. I'm pissed at myself about the whole fucking thing. It's time to drown my sorrows in some beers and more beers.