I agree: Oh my God! You folks have topped yourselves!

At some point I might. This was a lot more work than I thought it would be.

Testors enamel, yep!

That place in Cayucas was awesome. Clerestory windows, and big windows facing the Pacific Ocean on a cliff. One of the local wineries uses it for events, from what I could tell looking in.

Only a small amount of photoshopping:

Looking forward to progress on this Competition very much! I was admiring that old repair shop in Cayucus a couple of weeks ago. It's just down the road from my aunt and uncle's beach house, and I wondered that if he ever decided to move his business out that way, it would be a perfect location...

https://doublezhotrods.com/

John, is this the bike that the brakes I sent you are going on?

Hi Tom, Those brakes are going on one of my seven other projects (sounds like exaggeration, but that's the length of the queue (only keeping half of them). gugie put canti posts on this one because I want to run 650b's with 42mm red Hetres and fenders. The calipers you sent will go on my wife's gold Lenton Sports.

gugie, I had been working out in my head the order of painting the colors on those badges. Had no idea you were going the extra mile there, but glad you did. Excited to get the frame back and prepping/painting. Weather is getting ideal for it. Rims and tires should be arriving in a couple weeks. I have hubs and spokes and lights, so everything will soon be back in my court.

Fantastic so far.
[MENTION=381793]gugie[/MENTION], you got a new repair stand! What’d you do with the other one?

The devil made me do it. You still may have a chance to paint them, masking the tiny details won't be easy!

I still have the other one. I got the Feedback on eBay for dirt cheap, and having two stands is real handy sometimes.

Despite being off for the week, I have essentially underperformed with progress on the build, having only managed to clean the remaining paint off until today. The forecast had 0% chance of rain, so I thought I would get a few supplies (an oil sharpie, decent painter's tape and accent spray paint) do some masking and get started. No sooner than I got home and took my purchases down to the garage, the skies opened. Fortunately, about an hour later it had all cleared out. I did stage one of masking and initial spraying of the head lugs, seat lug, and bottom bracket. Forecast says no rain, and hoping they are right. Here's what it looked like at twilight.

Can hardly wait for the finished product!

Same here. The rims and tires have been held up by customs. Hoping the distributor can get that cleared up soon. Also have a query in to Velocals - which may help to delay the final painting. Probably a good thing actually, so that I don't try to rush the process.

It is a rare project that goes exceptionally smoothly, and this is not one of those rare projects. Between some reconsiderations, weather, and poor eyesight, I've had a couple delays.

Last week my rims and tires arrived. I am beyond pleased with both choices. I acquired 650B Grand Bois Papillon rims, and red Grand Bois Hetre tires.



Especially impressive (to me) is the part of the rim you won't be able to see when tires are mounted.



Who wouldn't be excited to get them laced up? Here's where the bad eyesight comes in. When I had done the spoke length calculations, I came up with 268mm for the front. Unfortunately, I somehow found that I had a wheel full of 263mm spokes. I made the discovery as I laced the 28th spoke. So that aspect of the project is on hold for the moment.

On the positive side, I have sources Specialized 650b presta tubes of appropriate volume, and found out that Vittoria rim tape in the 18-571 size works beautifully with my rims.

As I took a look at the paint colors I was using, I realized that I didn't like the very low contrast between the lug color I had chosen, and the color I had chosen for the non-chromed portions of the frame and fork. Soooo... a little bit of rework was in order. Initially I had in mind something close to the orangey-copper that Raleigh offered Internationals in. As I'm now fortunate enough to have one in original paint for a reference, it was painfully obvious that my first choice of rattlecan was very far off the mark, and that the more i looked at it, the less I liked it. Here's an idea of where I'm going with this.



The color on the fork is what will go on the frame tubes. I think it will make a nice contrast to the lug colors. The "eyes" on the head lugs, and the lug lining will return as nearly as possible to the original gold. Gugie suggested Sharpie oil markers, and from a test usage, I can tell that the lining will be a breeze. Obviously, I made a bit of extra work for myself, and the paint job has a long way to go. Fortunately, I have learned from past mistakes that paint is not something you want to rush.

Initially, I thought I wanted decals. Then I changed my mind, because I had an idea (not going to spill that one here yet). Unfortunately appropriating the desired decals is proving a bit more difficult because apparently the current license holders for Raleigh have decided they neither want to offer replacement decals, nor permit others to offer them commercially. If I said what I think of that, you wouldn't be able to read it. (word filters). Anyway, there has to be a way to outsmart a corporate MBA, and I'm still pondering the situation.

So that's where it stands for the moment. Hoping to lace the rear wheel and make painting progress over the coming weekend.

No apparent shortage of Raleigh decals at Cyclomondo:





The "gold and bronze" looks great, but if you're still after an orange metallic, I had a frame repainted with Ford "Orange Crush" a few years ago:





While a tad more reddish than Raleigh's classic color, it's very nice to look at. Color in this photo, on my computer, looks a bit more red than it appears to me in real life (frame hanging right next to me now).

Love that color, Charles. That said, as I'm doing the painting myself, and sticking to what Rustoleum offers (before applying a 2K clearcoat), think I'll continue down the present path.

Good to know o n the decals. I may have something in the works, so it's good to know there might be some hope still. Velocals and Lloyd's both seemed to have become shy about offering Raleigh decals.

You know that you can get automotive colors as "touch-up" in spray cans, including clear-coat, right?
2007 Ford Edge Colors of Touch Up Paint
I just used that as an example, because I looked up the Orange Crush Pearl.


I like what you're doing, color-wise, but you had expressed a yearning for the old International copper . . .

I actually didn't know. That said, I do think I'll be happy with the color scheme I'm partway down the road with. Definitely going to keep this in mind, as I suspect my wife's Miyata 1000 is in line for a repaint within the year, and she does like "pretty" colors (even though I did just get her a copper International with rather good paint).

Thanks

Got the right spokes. Wheels laced, but not yet trued.


Almost done masking over the lugs so I can start the bulk of the painting. Hopefully can get coat #1 on today.

Looking forward to seeing this all finished up.

Weather was perfect here today for this. First and second coats down. Need to let it dry a couple days and wet sand with 1000+ grit. It definitely needs at least one more coat of color before a week of drying, and then lug lining, applying decals and 2K. After that, it needs to dry and get a good final rubbing and time to cure.

Update:

I received the decals I wanted for the bicycle, and am close to the en on painting. Following are shots of it after main and contrasting colors have been laid down, and the after lug lining. I still need to go over the frame thoroughly with Ultimate compound and soft cloth to make everything as smooth as possible before clean-up, decal application and placement, and spraying with the 2K clearcoat. It is obvious that I am not a professional painter (would describe myself as marginally competent), but I'm willing to settle for something that looks nice from 5 feet.










... and after lug lining







Crossing fingers for good weather this weekend to permit bringing this through clear coating. Will have more pictures as things go along. Hoping the slow motion aspects of the build are almost behind me.

Nice work! I like the glow when it's in the sun.

Looking good!

What do you use for masking?

the more expensive blue painter's tape.