Some time ago I salvaged an old Univega SportTour from the dumpster at my father inlaw's home. It was dirty, banged up and greasy as a crack-addict ba$tard. I was going to throw it away, but decided I'd do something with it. So...

I stripped it with Jasco (and this is after thoroughly cleaning the frame for the stripping):



Then I primed it several coats, wet-sanded it down and gave it several coats of base color ("Arctic White"). Then wet-sanded it to make it smooth.

Then I gave it to my neighbor's 12-year-old daughter to put a little art work to it. She's no pro, but it was important that I gave her the project because 1) it teaches me to let go of my anal-tendency toward my own project, 2) the girl is battling cancer, and 3) there are things in the world that we do that is bigger and more permanent than us. Letting a 12-year-old put a brush-stroke to a carefully prepared frame is one of those things.



She asked me what iconic symbol I wanted on my bike, and I told her that I don't know. She said, "How about a 'heart'?" I said a heart is very good.



She placed a heart on the head tube and one at the back of the seat tube.

And then she asked me if I wanted to give my bike a name. I said that I don't know what it should be, so she asked me if I remembered the name of my first pet. It was a red-bellied Piranha named "Atrocity Jones." She gave me a long look, the kind that held back what she wanted to say but would rather not. And so she gave my bike a name.



I think it came out pretty good. I will take it in to an auto-paint shop and have them shoot a professional-grade clear coat on it. I had intended this bike to be my beater, but now I'm thinking twice. Where as once it was just an old Japanese frame that was to become another conversion, it now carries a little more sentimental value. I'll ride it, but I'll ride it with care, I think.