Doug.. I understand completely where your at. I've heard of you and your excellent work. I really appreciate you stepping into this discussion to share what you can(the interest in teaching coming out..). Given the depth of what you know, I imagine anything you release to the world is, and has to be, stunning. No doubt it isn't easy to bring your standard process down to the very base level that I'm at. It sounds like you've been doing what you do for about as long as I've been riding.
When I started this I knew I had two bikes, both Lemond Poprads..one recently purchased..(lets call it a rescue from riding the streets of Chicago)..in neglected condition with factory paint job and a second that was repainted at some point for some unknown reason prior to me buying it. The bike was and is in excellent mechanical condition, but it is...ugly. Bikes are fun and should look..fun. Life is too short to ride an ugly bike.
I knew I didn't want to powder coat the frames. I knew I didn't want to go with a hardware store rattle cans. I wasn't going to setup a semi-pro paint shop. So custom mixed and loaded rattle can auto paint is the path for me. I have a reasonable amount of experience painting various things with rattle cans, just not with this level of raw materials. I have no doubt both bikes will look 200% better than where they started. I'll make every effort to make it 300% better. I do like the intermediate clear route as it locks in all the work I've done up to that point and gets to that point fairly fast(weather is so variable here and I can only paint outside). If I can get to the intermediate clear point without messing anything up, the remaining sanding, decaling, and final clear coats should be fairly simple. In the remaining life of these bikes (my life at least) an extra can of clear is minimal.
This is a (rough, Powerpoint) mockup of the first bike I'll paint. White goes on first, then mask the frame and fork up after 2-3 hours and paint the blue. Masking gets pulled off within a few minutes after the blue goes on. Then intermediate clear within 30 minutes or so. At least that the plan at this stage.
