I finally hit the wall with my Ironman frame touch-up project. My initial goal was to get it looking OK from 10 feet - I told myself not to go totally anal on the project. Just get it ready to ride. Yeah . . . right! After about a month of mixing paint, I feel I got the color at about 98% - you can tell the spots when you’re at 2 feet. Every time I did a spot, my wet sanding (800 grit) would take it down to the primer. I tried airbrushing, but my skills were suspect, at best. Eventually, I returned to the airbrush and got a much better result. I haven’t been able to get out and find the appropriate color to mix for the yellow, yet, but that will be less of a hassle. I just needed to get this bike put together! Today, I installed the bottom bracket, the headset, the brakes, rear axle stops, and handlebars. The cables and housing should be here tomorrow (white braided). I’ll start out with the white saddle and maybe switch to the yellow one once I figure out how to get the leather to wrap around the difficult curves. Bar tape will be yellow/gold. I will likely go back and retouch a few spots, but for now, I just want to get out and ride!
