A few months ago we got a mountain bike donated to the Bike Exchange that had a spatter paint job. Although the paint was somewhat faded I was very impressed with it and decided I would like to try something similar. A few weeks ago I found a bike that I thought I could practice on. It was a cheap black fixie with a serius dent in the seat tube and I figured it was destined to be parted out so I could do what I wanted with it. Having stripped everything off the frame I thought I might as well see if it could be straightened. The shop has quite a few frame tools that rarely get used and I wanted to practice using them. I used the Park Tool ( Ffs-2) frame and fork straightener, then frame/tube blocks to roll out most of the dent, filling the remaing pits with spot putty. A couple coats of surfacing primer and the dent was gone.

Already feeling a sense of accomplishment, I sanded the original black paint and applied a new topcoat using Rustoleum Automotive Black. Now it was time to aply the splatter. Using a touch up brush dipped it red paint a flick here and there and I got the effect pictured below. The hardest part was using self restraint . It was so much fun I could have easily overdone it. as it was I managed to get paint on my shoes and also my ankles. Oh well, anything for Art.