Just do it! The bike goes from plain to WOW for 6.00.

It's a Park Tools ISC-1 . You can still find them new. I like them alot, have two, one for painting one for working.

Not the best pic of these outlined lugs but it is what I can share right now.

I finally got around to doing the BB lugs on the 720. When I did the head tube and seat cluster lugs, I specifically stayed away from doing the BB until I had the cranks off. Now that I had a reason to take off the cranks, I did the BB lugs and the window on them.







Next, I'm waiting until I have a reason to remove the wheel, fenders and brakes to do the fork brazings!

I think it looks cool too. Draws your eyes to details. I am upgrading most parts on the bike in my avatar, hope to be done in a few weeks after obtaining some unique parts I am awaiting. This will be a last consideration for it once it comes together, probably white if I do.

I originally got the gold paint pen to do my blue 78 Trek, and I'm still considering it. If your bike is similar to the aqua color of Southpaw's bike, that white will look sharp, and so would gold.

When it's good and dry, you can get a Duplicolor sanding tip about the size of a pencil lead. You can then slowly rub off any residue and get clean lines.

When I bought my Nishiki, it had bright blue lug lines, which I thought contrasted with the frame.



So, when I repainted it, I went with a bit more subtle gold lining which is a better compliment to the decals IMHO. I did the lug lining by hand with a thin brush. I think it turned out well for a first attempt:

In a word - YES!

I bought metallic gold fine tip paint pen (oil enamel) & "enhanced" lining already on the bike. My black Nishiki mixte & Univega Gran Rally (shimmer Pearl paint w/gold lining). Super easy.


Careful though, pretty soon you'll be lining all sorts of things.

bought at Blick Art Materials.

The '86 Trek Pro Series 760 came with outlined lugs (not the best pic):

I will check both out. This bike I am doing, I am not afraid if it turns out a little gaudy, so whatever pops most. Everyone should have at least one bike that is just for the eye candy! HAHA

Sharpie extra fine enamel paint pens really work great, although I don't yet know how durable the paint is. Here is an early 50s Metropole, refinished in candy blue over fine silver (as original).

I agree. It can also make a plane frame pop.

Now that's a great job! Beautiful!

Pinstripes as well using he paint pen?

I did my Tempo with a small brush and water-based acrylic paint. That way if I didn't like the results it'd be easy to go back.





The paint weathered surprisingly well. These pictures were about a year after application, and it still looked great.

[EDIT] Whoopsie. While digging for some parts I found the paint that I used and it wasn't acrylic at all. It was Krylon Short Cuts (or something similar). Touch-up enamel in a small bottle. Guess that explains why the "acrylic" weathered so well. haha

Beautiful work! Looks like you touched up the paint too?

Yes - although I have pinstriping brushes and did quite a bit of practising, I couldn't get to the skill level I wanted. I even built myself this little sled to guide the brush in a perfectly straight line:



It was a total failure, for reasons that are probably obvious to any actual pinstriper.

So I tried the paint pens and was amazed at how well they work. The lines are actually a bit too straight and sharp - it's obvious they weren't done with a brush. But I think that's better than wobbly, which was my other choice unless I wanted to spend a lot more time practising. As they say, buy a pinstriping brush and a gallon of paint. When the paint is gone you should be a decent pinstriper. I just don't have the patience, plus everything in my house would end up pinstriped. For the long lines I use pieces of 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/16 aluminum angle as straight edges. They lie perfectly parallel to the frame tube, with the edge sitting just off the surface so you don't get paint creeping under. For the circumferential lines I use a piece of fairly heavy zap-strap wrapped around the tube. I go over the lines twice to get a thicker build (not the lug lining though), letting the paint dry between coats.

That gives me some tips and confidence to give it a try. Thanks!

I found it a pretty simple task after having powdercoat applied to my TREK.
I used a Testors gold pen.


Marc

Here's my '65 Holdsworth Typhoon after powder coating and lug lining with Humbrol metallic gold via brush followed by 2K clear coat. My first job:


And '51 Holdsworth Sirocco after spray paint, lug lining with fine metallic gold pen and overspray with 2K clear coat. Gold wasn't as bright. Don't try after pot of coffee! 2nd job:

I like em lined a lot, for a good lug, it can really set it off.
[IMG]Mercian logo by Matt.zilliox, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Seat lug Mercian by Matt.zilliox, on Flickr[/IMG]

Thanks! It was a total repaint. I bought paint to match the original color, at first thinking I'd touch up the troubled areas. But as I started prepping those problem areas, I kept finding the rust "spiders" were more pervasive than I first realized. So, the entire frame got stripped, followed by oxalic acid bath, and repainted, plus new decals from Velocals.

The original pinstriping was a bit sloppy in places (note the point of the top head lug).

My medium blue '75 Fuji S-10S has gold outlined lugs. I have always like that look.



There was no accent delineation at the chrome sections, so I used old-school pinstripe tape in white over black.

Sorry, but no close-up pics of that but you can kinda see it on the front fork in this photo...

I've used Testors "Metalizers" Brass paint, works out well, it is thin but it is lacquer and dries fast and is fairly durable. They are made for airbrushing mostly but Ive always brushed it.

They make plenty of other metal finishes that Ive used.

I used a pointed brush and One Shot sign painters enamel