A magic trick. Turning lemons into watermelons....

[Midschoolfool]

OK so a few years back I got "burned". Note it was a minor burn and down to my own drug induced stupidity, but yeah....

So one night I was in bed and my brain was on a restoration high. I had just finished two bikes, and felt invincible. So I figured I would look for something else to build and restore. I had a Sunday AR EX back in about 2016. I don't really know why I bought it, and soon got tired of looking at it. It wasn't one of the ones that people go lala for, it was boring and I never rode it. Actually thinking back I ordered a completely different bike. I ordered a Gary Young EX which was based on a New York fire engine. So gloss red with gold flake, gold parts and transparent gold pedals. Sadly they didn't have it, so I settled on the AR and yeah, bland.

Any way, let's talk about my mistake. I had taken all my sleeping meds and was lying in bed. I saw this.



And thought I would restore it to the tune of the grape soda model. Again, any one who knows these early Sundays knows they were and are iconic. They had wild colour schemes unlike anything since the 80s. And the more wild the more money they now demand (a lot, dude).

However, when it arrived the bubble burst. See, not only was it spray bombed in a disgusting manner, it also was not a Funday. It was an Aaron Ross EX ffs. Fact was though I paid practically nothing for it as you can see, but I was so angry I just buried it in the loft and haven't been able to bring myself to even touching it since.

Yesterday though that all changed. I recently completed and recommissioned three bikes to be moved to my flat. That doesn't mean I can build another bike and TBH? I really don't want to. That is not what I am going to do here. However, a mate on another forum just found a Wave frame (they are all practically the same these early Sundays) and I asked him if he knew any one making decals. He sends me to a US seller who wants 60 dollars plus 35 dollars shipping. Add on VAT and import fees? and.... 

Yeah, right. That would mean that even the base price of those decals would cost me more than the frame. Again,  it would also cost more than a 2k paint kit for the frame, so let's have another 

However. It then occurred to me that I have been using AI recently. Firstly to create my custom stickers for the Jane build, but also to upscale things. See, AI will not pop out a decent sized image for some reason. IDK why, but they are limited to small images. I then found out you could upscale images using AI, to 8x the original size.

And that is how this came about.



Yup, Jane got turned into a framed poster 

OK, so let's take this measly little image the seller of these massively over priced decals put up. Feed it into AI, and, et voila.



UP YOURS GREEDY BOLLOX !



That is the mess of a frame there. For some reason I thought it was this. Doh, pills for the lose 



Now the point of difference with this build is it is not a build. I want a frame only. Amazingly I have the wheels for this bike.



But like I said, I need another bike like a hole in the head. So, I am going to crack out the drill and wire brushes, rip all that nasty paint off, and then......



Now that is even more lairy than the original. However, all of those era Sundays suffered a fatal flaw. The pigments in the bright paint turn white. And so does the pink on the decals. So no one has a pristine one. Stock it looked like this.



But the decals I have the art for are for the aftermarket frame only. Perfect. BTW the green is MUCH brighter than it appears in that photo as you can tell from the neon pink parts.

Talking of parts. I don't need any. However ! Recently Odyssey released some limited edition pink stuff. So.



I don't even want to remove it from the card. What I am going to do is build a box from 9mm MDF, and build a display box with lights in. I will line it with one of these.



And then keep it far away from the sun and UV.

[Midschoolfool]

Just had an idea. I will put a "break glass in case of emergency" sticker on the plexi glass on the front. That way if I ever get so bored and want to do a build......

[Midschoolfool]

OK so I started work on the decal art. The one downside with AI is that if it can't see something clearly it tends to smudge it a bit and make it fuzzy, and destroy small details. As such the 41 was a bit off, the "Thermal" part was pretty much gone, and there were a couple of odd black smudges that should have been ants, as well as it ruining the two ants that are supposed to be there. Also the "Sunday!" bit was smudged and blurred.



So I fixed all of that. I need to replace a lot of ants next, but that will be tedious (easy though).

[Midschoolfool]

OK good and bad news.

Bad news first. As I mentioned before this frame (and the other neon colours, and Orange Soda, and Grape Soda) frames were all prone to turning white over time. That is why you can't find a perfect one. Well when I read the small print in the paint listing on their website it said -

Please remember to pick your application of this product carefully, it has limited lightfastness. USE WITH DISCRETION.

In other words what they are saying is that as soon as UV hits it it dies, and turns white. I know mine will be under LED lights, but even those emit some UV. I do not want it turning white.

As thus, I am going to get this.



A paint that uses pigment and not dyes.

[Midschoolfool]

Ok so the paint is ordered.



Apparently the slime green is a base coat, but I want to put it over white so it is as bright as possible.

I also had a look for some of the OG parts from the bike. Not because I want to build it, but to go into the display cabinet at the end. More pink stuff, basically. Just to offset the green.



Those came on the bike, which was a great find. The original keyboard grips are no longer made so I got the next best thing. They are Aaron Ross sig V2 keyboard grips.



That should be enough pink to go in the cabinet.

[Midschoolfool]

OK so I worked on the decals for another 10 hours. I decided the smeared ants (AI caused) needed to all be replaced. One by one, and an edit under them to clean up. There were 190 of the bastuds.



There were another 90 to the right but I don't have a shot of them finished. TBH I am a bit wary about uploading the pic so some slit eyed git can make them and sell them for stupid money. They are finished, though, which was nice.

The paint has arrived at mum's. So have all of the pink parts. I am going to do one of them diarreah rama things or whatever they are called. I also found these.



So if I fancy any more water torture at some point I can zone out putting them in it.

[Midschoolfool]

OK so I found another OG part. One of these.



Cost free. A little while ago I supplied some decals to a guy (art, scans of the Jane decals) on a group. I put up a wanted thread for a stem, and he had one. Wicked  like I said, cost = free.

On the OG bike it was painted green to match the frame. That would look a bit weird in the display case, though. I wanted it neon pink but don't want the cost just for a stem. So I looked for a cheap way out. The good part is I have the white base (crucial with bright neons). I stumbled across this on Amazon.



400ml can was a fiver delivered. It's worth a go. If it is total pony I can just paint it green with the good paint. Nice thing is it will get 2k clear, so I just need a uniform coat of the pink.

If the pink is any good I will paint a conical headset spacer too.

Odyssey sold these parts in pink BTW, but not on the complete. They were parts for the "AM" model. You may note that Sunday call some of their stuff "AM". Well it means Aftermarket. IE, only sold as single parts. The decals I am using (the ones I have been working on) are only for the AM frame. The complete had a more basic decal set, with no Funday part, just "Sunday".

[Mikku]

I'm not quite sure where this is going (all those bright colours are giving me a headache) but I'm curious to find out!

[Midschoolfool]

I am going to build a display case out of 9mm MDF. So think rectangular wall mounted display case. Frame, plus about 10" wide (with the frame side on). So about 3ft wide. Depth about 8". Enough to fit the frame in, and have some depth to display the parts. Larger parts will go on the right side under the head tube area. It will be lined with a picnic tablecloth. I will then fit ants crawling around the parts.

So this will include.

A green painted frame with decals on. The brake posts and all of the insides of the tubes will be polished. I will then clear over all of it (including the brake posts, as it can be removed one day if it ever gets built).
The original pink brake (the Springfield). With lever.
The V2 grips in pink (the bike had pink V1 on the AM. IE Aftermarket, if you built it in parts)
The original Freeze stem, painted pink.
The original neon pink Twisted pedals.

I also found a headset conical spacer in black. I am going to paint that pink too, grab some bearings and display the headset.

As mentioned I have the original coloured rims. Only mine are Gsport, so would have had to have been made custom and put on the AM parts. I do not want to build the bike though. I want it on display in the case, with a plexiglass front on. These are UV resistant. I will also fit LED lights inside to luminate the case.

As I mentioned, you can and will not find one of these frames in the green with the decals on that has not been destroyed by UV. The pink in the decals turns white, and the frame also turns white as the dyes in the paint fade and turn transparent, showing you the white base coat.

So basically? a mint one of these will not exist unless it has never ever been used, and has been sat in the box far from the sun.

And that is why they are so rare.

[Midschoolfool]

OK so finally after dealing with all of the horse poop I can get on with this.

I arrived earlier. Had a drink then got straight up into the loft. Dug the frame out and could remember why I was so god damn angry with myself for buying it.



I mean seriously look at the friggin state of it.





However, it did turn up two very good results.

Firstly there was a seat clamp on it that was not pictured in the photo of it I had. When I got into the loft I did so with a torch, as it saves me a load of messing around plugging in the lights. When I shone a light on the seat clamp I immediately got very excited. It has an original logo Sunday seat clamp on. These are impossible to find. I then noticed it had two of the letters gouged off *sigh*. I lobbed it down through the loft hatch in disgust and then came down with the frame. Once down I chopped off the chain with my Dremel as I broke  a chain tool on the sodding half link crap that was on there. However, I was relieved to get it off.

Well when I picked up the seat clamp and looked at it in daylight I realised that it was not a gouge on there. It was a big blob of black paint. So I gave it a soak in some isoprop, then used a plastic scraper, and.



Amazing. I then tried to figure out exactly what the frame was. I mean, obviously it is a Sunday. That goes without question with that down tube. However, I was beyond stoked to find that not only was it indeed a Sunday, but it is actually a real Funday.



The answer laid in the "AM" part. The AM was the more affordable Sunday before they all turned into EX. I could have sworn I saw "EX" on the serial but I think I was thinking back to my old Aaron Ross EX. Why does that bother me? well, the Funday was the much earlier model. They are also very, very rare. The EX, once it got to 2012? were absolutely bloody EVERYWHERE. And they still are. The Fundays? are now extremely hard to find.

So that was awesome. Any way, onto some parcels.





So long as it does not piss down I shall start tomorrow. I don't think that purple bullshit is going to put up much of a fight tbh.

[Midschoolfool]

Dear lord. I have never seen such a rusty frame.

I really can't work out what happened. Like, forensically it looks like the kid basically removed all of the original paint and then ran out of f*cks to give on the wave tube. Talking of which, it was so rusty it had lost definition. Most of it just literally wiped away with the wire brush in the drill but dear god  the rust. The BB was completely seized bearing wise, and when I removed the bearings a load of orange powder came out.



I spent around three hours on it today. There is no paint left, and I sanded for about an hour removing rust. I then realised it was filthy and greasy.



So after that pic I made up a bowl of soapy water, sanded the F out of it and then cleaned it thoroughly. There are still some bits of rust I will tackle tomorrow, but overall it looks a lot better than in the pics now.

I just ran out of time. Tomorrow we have my brother coming with his new puppy, so I will get back on it tomorrow afternoon. I am also a bit deaf after running the drill for two hours  I got all set up and then realised I forgot the ear plugs and carried on like a div without any.

Hopefully by this time tomorrow it will be in etch.

[Midschoolfool]

I have been working on this for two more days. Nothing much to report, just lots and lots of sanding. It was beyond rusty. Probably the rustiest modern frame I have ever seen. The chain stays were absolutely awful. Pocked something rotten.



All you can really do is sand. However, due to said pock marks it just eats sandpaper.

The wave tube was also terrible. Looked OK, but if you ran your finger down the ribs you could feel tons of bumps that were all hardened rust. So that is done now too. I reckon one more session of filth and I can start laying paint.

[Midschoolfool]

Wow what a headache.

So I finished the sanding yesterday. TBH it was one of those deals where you could have gone on forever, but I had to call it. Any way, I put the first coat of etch down and it started going pink and patchy. WTF? my first thought was that it might have been some of the lavender paint left, but there just wasn't any. At all. My next thought is that it might have been rust. TBH the only way to get rid of all of it would be to bath it in OA and that is not practical for me.

I let it dry for about an hour, then switched to a more aggressive and much darker etch by Upol. This worked, and sealed it. Phew. I then switched back to the lighter etch, and gave it a really good wet coat or two. There are a couple of drips from the Upol (that was why I stopped using it before) but that is easily sanded.









It is now raining hard for the whole day. At least it won't do any more rusting, that is for sure.

[Midschoolfool]

Right. Wet sanded the frame out earlier. Also unblocked the gyro tab holes which were rusted shut. It is ready to paint now.

I also found this.



It would have come with an Evolver. IE the high end brake, which the Springfield is not. It was, however, the perfect test subject for....



It is now very very pink, if a little whiffy 

[Midschoolfool]

Decided to use the cheap acrylic clear coat on the hanger. No point in using 2k.





Finished.

I also put primer over the areas on the frame I had to sand yesterday so that is ready for base coat one now  (white). Hoping it stops raining tomorrow.

[Midschoolfool]

White.

[Midschoolfool]

[Midschoolfool]

Next job (when I return in a week and a half or so) fit decals and then clear coat.



I also painted the seat clamp after finding another clump of  touch up paint on it. Masked off the face and painted the rest. This needs clear now.

[Midschoolfool]

Man this thing looks AMAZING.



I've not even done the clear coat yet. I got a lovely surprise too. The stem came today. I was expecting this.



But he messaged me yesterday and said "I sent you a special one". I got this.



An OG one !



I will paint that pink when I return.

[Midschoolfool]

[Midschoolfool]

Wow. Epic fail. Tuesday was one of those days you want to forget, fast.

So I had a look at the stickers. They looked incredible. I figured I would have a go at layering the main decal over the white funday part. That was where it all turned sour. Because my mate uses a non optically clear laminate (it is satin) it blurs the view. So basically you can't see. That wasn't what almost ended the entire project though.

The pink is so transparent that as soon as you take it off of white? yeah. It would end up maroon over the green. I was absolutely gutted tbh. So, I figured I would sleep on it. Glad I did, because I almost threw it all in the bin.

When I awoke I had a memory of seeing a watermelon Funday with different decals. It then hit me....



See, I reckon that the ones over clear are screen printed. I say that because apparently it is impossible to print bright pinks on clear without it washing out. So I reckon Sunday changed it on year two to the above for cost reasons.

Any way, very long story short I spent the entire day yesterday starting from scratch on the TT decal. And.



You may be wondering why I did not do anything about the ants and Aaron Ross ones? well.





That is because those are perfect. So I will shoot the art over to my mate today and get him to reprint them over white.

I also worked on the stem. Filed out the dents and damage and gave it a coat of etch.



That should be white by the end of today.

[Midschoolfool]

[Midschoolfool]

Right, just needs some clear. Unfortunately my decal guy is away for two weeks. Ah well, gives me some time to work on the Goose.

[Midschoolfool]

[Midschoolfool]