my first custom build.

sarm34

Im a first time poster and i would like to tell you about my first custom build, which im in the throws of doing.
I bought a GT chucker frame, mainly because i liked the look of it, (see pic below) and ive stripped it and resprayed the frame red , im also going to add all new parts as i dont have a single thing to put on it yet.
I had the frame sandblasted and rubbed it down with 600 wet and dry, then 800 before putting on the first coats of primer, which were grey about 4 coats in total, until i decieded i was going to have the frame red, and was informed that red primer is best for this so i rubbed some of the grey primer back and added the red.

In the next day or two i will be getting a bucket load of stuff from chainreaction, and im waiting for the decals to be made. i will update as i go along.

mar_k

Grey primer is fine for a red top coat.

red primer is used to protect metal from rust.

personaly I would use a good etch primer on bare metal then grey primer,
a good rub down with very fine sandpaper then your colour ontop,

sarm34

yeah i sanded it back with 1500 till it was nice and smooth, ive already put on the red gloss, i just dont have any pics of it yet coz its hanging up in my shop were none of my kids can touch it, so will post some pics on tuesday, i must say im very pleased the way the paint has come out, its taken me the two week xmas holiday just to spray and sand back several times till i was happy with my final coat, just waiting for some custom GT decals to be made then i can get some lacquer on it.

sarm34

Im on a limited budget, so the forks i went for were the marzocchi bomber DJ2, i wanted white, and managed to pick up a mint pair, but the 20mm bolt through meant that i had to find some custom built wheels because the front hub had to be a 20mm, and i want the rear ones to match as well.

tom_howard

sarm34 wrote:

the front hub had to be a 20mm, and i want the rear ones to match as well.

A man (and bike tart) after my own heart! You wouldnt go out in odd shoes, why do people do the equivalent on their bikes??

sarm34

Back to the grind today after a 2 week rest, and back to see how my DIY spray job has hardened off, now im just waiting on decals, then lacquer it up, plus ive had new bearings put in my specialised rear hub, 15 quid from the local bike shop, so im pleased with that. more pics to come

naffa

Looking forward to seeing more pics and reading more details

sarm34

some goodies arrived today, along with a crane creek headset that is too small for my chucker frame, does anyone know what size headset i need for a gt chucker the head tube is wider than most.

FSA maximus crankset

THE Grips G-4 Thin Line Bolt on Grips White

Nukeproof Seat Clamps Warhead Seat Clamp 2011 28.6mm Black

Shimano Cassettes - MTB Deore Cassette 9 Speed HG61 11-28
Shimano Chains HG93 Chain 9 Speed
if anyone could give me some links etc to the right headset i would be chuffed to bits. :-)

jay12

i think most gt frames are zero stack? which means that the size of the headtube is 44 not 34mm

sarm34

Got my wheels back today after having a new rear bearing fitted, I fitted them out with some new Schwalbe racing Ralph evo's, and new tubes, overall i think i did pretty well with the cost for the whole set up, £130 for the wheels and hubs a bargian on ebay and the tyres from my local bike shop for £11 each !! , SO add £2.50 each for the tubes
£15 for a new bearing grand total being £177.

tyres fitted.

racing ralph tyres, DT swiss E540 rims with specialised hubs.

Fitting the brake disc's the wife wasnt to impressed with me doing it on the lounge carpet though :oops:

hobbitsharley

looking good

MountainMonster

sarm34 wrote:

Fitting the brake disc's the wife wasnt to impressed with me doing it on the lounge carpet though :oops:

The thing hasn't even been ridden, so no chance for it to be dirty, and she's already complaining. Man you picked a good one!

sarm34

Over the weekend, i wanted to see that my brake set fitted ok to my forks , but soon realised that i needed a post to post 185mm adapter to make it work (thx very muchley members ilovedirt,nicklouse, for the info supplied in another post).
so off to the local bike shop for one of those , and while at work was able to fit this and works a treat.
Got home and the right headset has arrived, so spent the 1st hour at home cleaning out the headtube to make the guy in the bike shops life a bit easier when fitting it for me ( would have a bash meself but id balls it up completely ).
The guy who was making my custom graphics was taking too long so i have found a local company that will have them ready by friday job done for 20 quid, that means that this weekend i can get my lacquer on then leave to dry for a couple of weeks

finaly brakes fit

new headset

hope this will be clean enough

sarm34

Had the headset fitted today by my local bike shop, to the grand total of 4quid!!, plus i managed to pick up some white outer gear cable 2m for just under a fiver. happy days

HarryK

looking good! nice to know that the headset only cost 4 quid, hopefully I'll be able to get mine done for free/ very little.

sarm34

The headset cost me 26 quid from chain reaction, the guy at the shop charged me 4quid to fit it.

HarryK

Sorry I meant 4 quid to fit!!! unfortunately my head set is going to cost considerably more *cough* hope *cough*

sarm34

Decals came Friday , and 20mins later they were on, I was very pleased by how the frame looked, instead of doing the lacquer myself I've taken it to be professionally done and will get the frame back on Monday and because I've done this I won't have to wait a couple of weeks before I can build the bike. So I'm told I can start building on Tuesday I will have some piccys of the bike frame up on Monday Evening. Now I know the frames "only a chucker" but it's the frame I wanted to build the bike around, an it's "my" bike and I had a budget, I'm just over that budget at £1030 for the total spend.

sarm34

Got my frame back yesterday, lacquered and nice and shiny, within a couple of hours I had fitted the bottom bracket and crank, and by the end of yesterday evening had pretty much most of the bike together, lots of stuff to sort out over the next few days, I will upload some pics of the frame later this evening and by Saturday the bike will be finished , then off for my first ride in many a year. I can't friggin WAIT !!

sarm34

nice and glossy frame

sarm34

[/img]http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4103/img0849yq.jpg[/img]
crank fitted and BB

forks stem and bars on.

Ashweee

Nice one! that looks really good!

RyanWilson

lovely looking bike! good work! where did you get your custom decals from? im after some myself

sarm34

Its a company called "the image works" in Ilkeston Derbyshire , they do decals for just about everything, cars bikes MTB I don't know if I'm allowed to link there website ( don't want to break forum rules) google it and it's there

HarryK

Great looking frame, the red/ white looks good. It should be a quality bike when its built up.

sarm34

HarryK wrote:

Great looking frame, the red/ white looks good. It should be a quality bike when its built up.

Thanks, I will have some pics up Saturday , it looks the dogs dangly bits in real life so I will try and get some really nice pics up. I'm really pleased by how it's come out, I had a picture in my head of how I wanted it to look like, Chuckers get a bit of a bad rep, the frames are light and bomb proof but but when GT sell em as a complete bike they chuck aload of crap parts on it and flog em to kids , which is a shame coz the frame looks nice, I just wanted to be different and show what can be done with a little time and money.

mar_k

looks like you got a nice finish on the frame, I like it

phil_pompey

sarm34 wrote:

HarryK wrote:

Great looking frame, the red/ white looks good. It should be a quality bike when its built up.

Thanks, I will have some pics up Saturday , it looks the dogs dangly bits in real life so I will try and get some really nice pics up. I'm really pleased by how it's come out, I had a picture in my head of how I wanted it to look like, Chuckers get a bit of a bad rep, the frames are light and bomb proof but but when GT sell em as a complete bike they chuck aload of crap parts on it and flog em to kids , which is a shame coz the frame looks nice, I just wanted to be different and show what can be done with a little time and money.

Nice looking bike mate. Can be nosey and ask where you got the sandblasting done and how much? I'm doing up a bike for my daughter and need it stripping. I'm confident with doing the respray but want the sandblasting done properly.

Thanks,

sarm34

Out of the yellow pages mate, local bloke, I rang him up, he said drop it off at my lads burger van and I'll give u a ring when it's ready , week later frame back , no paint ,15 quid lighter and I'm a happy boy, I would recommend one thing though, spray it yourself by all means , but take it to any spray finishes to have the lacquer done best 30 quid I ever spent

phil_pompey

sarm34 wrote:

Out of the yellow pages mate, local bloke, I rang him up, he said drop it off at my lads burger van and I'll give u a ring when it's ready , week later frame back , no paint ,15 quid lighter and I'm a happy boy, I would recommend one thing though, spray it yourself by all means , but take it to any spray finishes to have the lacquer done best 30 quid I ever spent

Thanks for that. To be honest I don't think a 4yr old would know the difference but I will look into it.

1mancity2

Looks really well, what length is your stem? looks long