Mark Grant
Acting Captain of The St Annes Jombulance.
- Location
- Hanworth, Middx.
A few weeks ago I was at a car boot and picked up a 70's ladies Triumph Trafficmaster. It was pretty rough with no front wheel but I gave £7.77 for it as I had a spare front wheel in the garage.
I decided that I would 'do it up', trying to spend as little as possible and not going too mad with the labour either!
I knew my daughter fancied a red bike (she already has a gold Coventry Eagle) and I had a couple of rattle cans of red in the garage so red it would be.
It was completely stripped down and prepped for paint. The trailing 2" of the front mudguard and the leading 2" of the rear were rotten so were cut off. Consequently the rear mudguard has been rotated forward a bit and the front got a mudflap made from a milk bottle.
The rims were badly rust pitted so I decided to colour code them! I striiped the wheels, ordered new spokes and went at the rims with a wire brush on a grinder! A coat of etch primer then a couple of red.
I know that the red will soon go from the braking surfaces but never mind.
Most of the chrome cleaned up OK so it was then reassemled with new white brake cables, chain & whitewall tyres. Amy decided that she liked the look of a Raleigh head badge instead of the Triumph so that was stuck on. Vinyl stickers from ebay and now I'm just waitng for a white pump and a vintage style chrome dynamo light set to arrive.
More pictures http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o299/MarkG_05/rooster/
After painting it I remembered why I had not used the red before, it's just not very good paint. It stays quite soft so I haven't tried to polish it up, also I didn't go too mad with the wet and dry so the 'can finish' helps hide the imperfections.
I decided that I would 'do it up', trying to spend as little as possible and not going too mad with the labour either!
I knew my daughter fancied a red bike (she already has a gold Coventry Eagle) and I had a couple of rattle cans of red in the garage so red it would be.
It was completely stripped down and prepped for paint. The trailing 2" of the front mudguard and the leading 2" of the rear were rotten so were cut off. Consequently the rear mudguard has been rotated forward a bit and the front got a mudflap made from a milk bottle.
The rims were badly rust pitted so I decided to colour code them! I striiped the wheels, ordered new spokes and went at the rims with a wire brush on a grinder! A coat of etch primer then a couple of red.
I know that the red will soon go from the braking surfaces but never mind.
Most of the chrome cleaned up OK so it was then reassemled with new white brake cables, chain & whitewall tyres. Amy decided that she liked the look of a Raleigh head badge instead of the Triumph so that was stuck on. Vinyl stickers from ebay and now I'm just waitng for a white pump and a vintage style chrome dynamo light set to arrive.
More pictures http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o299/MarkG_05/rooster/
After painting it I remembered why I had not used the red before, it's just not very good paint. It stays quite soft so I haven't tried to polish it up, also I didn't go too mad with the wet and dry so the 'can finish' helps hide the imperfections.
