I have been stripping the paint off the Rex tank, and it’s really, really on there well. I went through four or five rounds with Citristrip, then stepped up to a couple of applications of Crown Tuff-Strip. It’s now about half stripped, so I wanted to get some paint on it before it got any surface rust. I have some ancient cans of Ford Engine Blue that need to be used up, so I grabbed one of those and gave it a quick coat. Once it was dry, I plopped it on the bike to see how it looked without the Rex graphics. I had been considering a similar color for the bodywork due to its iconic use on Bultaco’s “Jim Pomeroy replica” MX Pursangs. Umm, NO. It looked horrible. So I played around in Photoshop on my lunch hour the other day, and I came up with a design I like. The chosen color I’m attempting to represent is GM Brazen Orange Metallic (66U/WA347N), which was used on the “Aussie” Pontiac GTO in 2006. I wanted paint and graphics that looked somewhat ’70s, but weren’t so retro as to be gimmicky or hokey.
I realize that I have a whole lot of things on the punch list before I need to worry about finishes, but this sort of thing helps me visualize the finished product and keep me motivated. The reality of what the parts look like assembled is (not unexpectedly) somewhat different than what I imagined they would when I first started collecting pieces. But that’s part of the coolness of this little adventure.
The graphics are inspired by the Pursang 370, which is the bike my basic frame comes from.
