Malvern Star

[Zsteve]

Does this count as Machinery? A 2 star Malvern Star?

marked BSA on the frame under the bottom bracket, with BSA chainring, bottom bracket and cranks. Paint has mostly had it although theres more there than I first thought after a quick clean. currently trying to put a date on it.

ANy suggestions

[Zsteve]

also got this one at the same sale, but cant find any info on it yet. at a guess maybe 1960s?

[Stewey]

Is there much evidence of the old hand striping/scrolls left on the bike frames?
I'd love to see some closeup photos!

[seanz]

Nice score. What are your plans?

I'd leave the Malvern Star 'as is' but the Supreme could be made into a good shops bike.

Here's a 70's Healing (NZ brand) I mucked about with last year.

..........and I'll post some pics once I figure out how to get them to come up as a thumbnail and not a full screen.
:(

[Zsteve]

Not so much of the scrolls but more the "spears and dagger"as someone described them - I am told which are typical of the midto late 1930s. Too bad theres not more paint left on it.

Yes will be keeping the 2star as original as possible (thats how I like them), will just give it a gentle clean to see how much original paint is left and then give it a shellac and wax. May even try and re leather an old seat I have.

I had a bike officionado check it out and the frame is exceptionally straight, with almost no damage (tiny mark from a generator) he said the frame is straighter than some Pinarellos hes seen. not bad for a nearly 80 year old bike.

I'll clean them up but I may need some new rims

I like the idea of the Supreme as a shop run bike.

Steve

[Stewey]

Thanks for the photos-that is fairly typical of many designs- but nice all the same.

(I'm a signwriter & have striped around 300 horse-drawn vehicles over the past 31 years, and am slowly cataloguing what I can re old painted schemes of stripes & scrolls on bikes, too, while there are remnants of paint still to be seen!)

[Zsteve]

Stewey, what sort of paints should you use if you wanted to repaint some decoration or pinstriping?

any tips for painting?

[Stewey]

Thanks for asking, Zsteve!

Generally when I get to stripe a bike, people have already painted it and I'm stuck with doing it over whatever they've done.

5-10 years ago, powder coating was all the rage. I guess because it was easy-send the bike away for sandblasting & get it back smoothish with minimal sweat except that which earned the cash to pay the invoice.

20 years ago, a few were done in 'acrylic enamel' ( a kind of automotive lacquer) which was set in a heat booth.

The trend today is 2-pack urethane paints. Poisinous to apply, but tough and glossy.

My preference for striping is to do it in enamels. That's because that's what I've always used & they work well. It's also the traditionally correct material.
You cannot put a 'clear lacquer' over that as the lacquer thinners will blister the enamel striping. You can put a clear varnish over it, or a 2-pack urethane clear if you are careful, and you know your brands.

Protec clear 2-part line 604 urethane is good, but take it slowly, and work with a respirator, space suit, etc or get a pro to do it in a spray booth. It must be sprayed, and not too heavy at first.
POR-15 is another 2-part urethane which can be sprayed or brushed or rolled. Great stuff but NOT over enamel. It'll rip it off like paint stripper (ask me now I know!) Really good over waterbased acrylic housepaint s type stuff, but you wouldn't use that on a bike. (I do use it on 3D signs & sculptures though)
Clear automotive lacquer, and touch-up fiddly-bits spray cans from Supacheap etc are a No-No. That'll blister everything off.

If you are getting the parts powder coated, then ordinary enamels will have difficulty sticking to it and can be easily chipped off. I've had to wet-&-dry sand the P/C parts with up to 800 grit paper to degloss the surface to give the enamel somethng to 'key' into. That works well, but you have to clear over all of it, to bring the gloss back afterwards to the rest of the sanded surfaces. See above re using 'clears'.

You can get striping urethanes these days-costly but good- but I have not yet had any experience with them, and they are different to 'work' with I'm told.
They don't need clearing over afterwards.

Actually, in the old days, enamels were used, over an enamel substrate. No problems. No clearcoat needed.

You cans till do it that way today- spraying enamels, with or without a bit of hardener, for the base colour, and enamels for the striping. With or without any clearcoat over the top.

I think I'm rambling & have probably repeated myself. Please excuse any of the boring or duplicate bits, I'm going to press <submit> before this vanishes!

[Stewey]

Any Tips you say...?

Well, I've been striping horse-drawn vehicles for 30 years, and it's easy to stuff-up a bike.
There aren't any flat surfaces, they're all curved!
Bike stuff is generally much finer and of a different 'mentality' or thought process or style from HDV's, though some of the same fellows did do both.

There was some truly classy bike striping in the old days. That's why I'm trying to document what I can- to write a book, one day, about it!

The main tip I can give is document as much of the original stuff as possible-trace it onto greaseproof paper or tracing paper & photograph it as well. Take your time & get it accurate. Use sticky tape to hold the paper still if needed.
You can also wet ordinary light paper with mineral turps to make it more transparent, and trace through that with a soft (HB or 2B) pencil. Then take it off & let the turps dry off.

1.Striping or lining (I don't like that common, more modern word 'pin-striping' though everyone knows what you mean by it) is done using a sword striper, or a dagger liner (brush).
2.You need lots of practise.
3. refer to #2
4. refer to #3.
5. You know what I'm going to say:.."ditto!"

Most commercially available striping brushes will be too fat or do lines too thick for the old styles of bike lining. Trimming them to size is a skill, and it's easy to wreck $35 worth of brush by being over-keen and inexperienced with a razor blade.

The old bike striping brushes I've inheroited werealmost all West-German in make, and in later years the Alligator brand. They seem to get really fine. Mack brushes (USA) make a huge variety these days. Probably the finest Excalibur would work OK, in my opinion. Skip the rest if you want to do bikes, except somethng for the broad lines.

Another tip-(my opinion only): do NOT use masking tape or striping tape.
On this historical stuff it leaves a dead-giveaway edge to the paint that tells everyone you've 'cheated', and it's even harder to stripe beside it.

A lot of old bike work was one colour for a 'panel' or wider area, and another contrasting colour as a fine line 'edging' the panel or broad lines. This means the fine line runs hard along the edge. If there's a ridge left by using a masking material, it'll make your job so much harder to get a neat edged line.

There's an appreciable difference between taped lines (which I call "Junk in Perfection") and hand-painted lines (which have a bit of an organic hand-done 'real' flavour or life to them, even if there's a bit of a blemsih or minor error of deviation in the course of a line.

Hope that helps!
See if you can find someone to watch & grab a brush & practise!
(Trace & photograph what you can & please email me any old lining & scroll pictures too, please!)

ian-at-traditionalsigns-dot-com

[Zsteve]

thaks for the tips.