Things have been a bit quiet, too quiet, on my front with the build. That’s largely down to me doing an about-turn on the paint job.
Momsen STR 29 fresh out the box
My frame of choice was, and still is, a Momsen STR 29. The idea was to strip it down and do spray it a mint/celeste colour and match that with silver kit, brown saddle and brown grips to complete the ‘classic look’. I bought a Nukeproof stem, handlebar and seatpost from the kind folks at Dial’d Bikes along with some finishing kit from Cycle Factory to complete the look.
The original idea/inspiration
I managed to track down the spray painter who does all Vespa’s work and was about to go ahead when I realised that I’ve been wanting to go with racing colours for a while and that this was the best opportunity to do just that. After several nights spent on Google Images I narrowed it down to Martini Racing or Gulf Oil paint schemes. I’ve always been a fan of racing cars in their colours and quite like the bright look.
In my search I stumbled upon a Martini Racing Specialized Shiz and got a lot of inspiration from the effort and attention to detail that went into it. The guy had custom decals made and went through a lot effort to get the exact look he was looking for. Full details can be viewed here.
Slick custom Martini paint job on a Specialized Shiz
Unfortunately with the narrower round tubing of steel I had less profile to work with. During this time I was looking around The Hub to try and find a spray painter who is a resident Hubber that I could ask to help with the project rather than just a random company or guy. It was at this stage that Wayne posted a thread to auction one of his bikes for a worthy cause. I amazed to see the detailing on the frame and the quality of the work. Imagine my surprise when I made contact only to discover Anton (BogusOne) works and stays around the corner from me. One phone call later and the ball was rolling
Picture of the custom spray job Anton did for Wayne and was being auctioned here.
I emailed him pictures of my two ideas and after a conversation or two we decided it would be best to go with the Gulf colours. I was just happy I found someone who was almost just as excited as me to work on this project. Anton collected the frame from me one Friday afternoon after work and by the Monday he emailed me the first updates. Inspiration for the look comes from a track frame that was resprayed in the Gulf colours.
Gulf racing inspiration
At this stage the frame is in his hands and updates on the progress of it has been coming through thick and fast. In terms of the other custom jobs, the saddle and grips will still be covered by Velo Brien, but now I need to replace what I had in mind for the build kit with matte black items. I have bought a Surly Karate Monkey fork from Grant Usher, but I’m thinking of replacing that with a carbon fork as I’m not going with a classic look anymore.
The frame is in the middle of undergoing the transformation, and has made some considerable progress.
Paint stripper applied, no going back now.
Close up of the work of the stripper
Frame stripped down to bare metal
Epoxy primer applied. Looking clean and ready for some colour.
From left: The first colour laid down for pin-striping; the frame sprayed white agin to cover the excess blue, the masking visible in the photo is for the logos to come; base layer for the orange. It will receive a much brighter orange over the base layer. The reason for that is the orange is a bit transparent and does not cover too well if sprayed on its own. If you look closely you will notice the vinyl stencil laid down for the pinstripe.
Check out the other instalments: The Idea, The build kit part 1, The frame part 2.
The Vespa colour you were originally after - it's called Baccarat.
A pic of my 2003 ET4