The Story
This is it: My first ever bike painting experiment. I took Tec-GNAR's 80's throwback fade and what I learned from Oldshovel videos about vinyl decal masking to try out the paint job of my dreams on a 1991 GT Outpost, not coincidentally, the exact model and colorway of my first-ever mountain bike I got when I was 11.
It took me months and months after painting the frame to find the parts to build it back up, I was super intimidated by building up such an old bike. I ended up doing a bit of a restomod with swapping for V brakes up front and a modern Shimano CUES 1x9 speed drivetrain. I got stuck figuring out cantilever brakes on the rear while at the bike co-op, but they helped me finish it up and get it ready for its new owner.
One thing I learned from this build was that Spray.Bike is pretty good stuff, but requires extremely specific technique and creates an enormous amount of dust. Their clear coats are not so great, though, and after this I switched to SprayMax 2K.
Gallery
