Best Commuter Bike Ever Project, Part 2

To get the bike ready for painting, I cleaned everything off with aerosol automotive brake cleaner. I figured this would be good for cleaning off grease and dirt. After it dried, I used a file to clean off the nicks that had been raised by chain suck by the previous owner. He had been a distributor of these frames, and this was his last frame, a demonstrator model. I then removed the derailleur hanger. I used blue painter's tape to mask the brake posts, bottom bracket threads, head tube openings, and seat tube opening.

I screwed in one of the bottle cage screws and balanced the bike on my bike stand with all of frame supported by this screw. Having painted my fixed gear commuter in the basement, I knew how to get the painting done without killing everyone in my house with the fumes. I open a window in the basement and aim a fan out the window and turn it on full blast. The bike stand is set up only a foot or two from the fan. All of the fumes are carried directly out the window. Two or three coats of primer, and it is good to go. So I painted it this way.

The resulting finish was a bit rough because the primer it came it was rough. I coated it with two coats of gloss clear, and this seems to have created a really nice finish. Kind of a hammered texture.