Watching the Indian guys pinstripe the tanks on Royal Enfields. Fucking magic -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
These guys were bloody amazing. Quick as lighning and millimetre perfect which was nevcessary because the quality control bloke looked like he wouldn't accept anythng other than perfection. After the lines in these were painted, they were lacquered and buffed to a more than good finish. Brush lines are always visible unless you use sable brushes and I don't think the ones the Enfild blokes were using were. Some clumsy cunts about though, as evidenced by that rather nasty looking spillage right in the centre of the tank. Nitromors should remove it if you're quick though. -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
Beav wrote: Wotcha. I remember seeing the old guy who did the Triumph tanks back in about 1984 or so, at Meriden. Three perfect lines, two thin, one thick . . . . . yet his tea cup had his name painted on it, and it looked like a three year old chimp had done it. You can definitely see that the line on my Enfield tank was hand painted. http://www.moonshiners.org.uk/tank.htm Still far better than I could do though.
I remember watching the German Madchen do it at BMW's factory in Spandau. Magic, as you say. One brush, dip it into the paint pot, and then... Fooom! One sweep of the hand, taking all of two seconds, and there was a pinstripe. On a similar factory tour, before my time (I must admit), a certain British bike hack, years ago, who happened to own a naked BMW, saw an RS top fairing set to one side and asked what it was doing there. "Reject" he was told. His eyes lit up and he said: "Oh, if you don't want it, can I have it?" And BMW could hardly say 'No', could they? And he clattered about with the thing for two days before taking it on the plane home.
At Aberystwyth (where we still has steam engines) there was an old ex-Swindon painter who would line out coaches and engines by hand, perfectly. He told a funny story of when he left school at 14 his Mum immediately sent him off to Swindon works (it was still GWR then) and he asked for a job. When the foreman asked him what he'd like to do his reply was the predictable, driver. It was decided he was a bit too small as it was heavy work as an engine cleaner (the first rung on the ladder). Next was the wages clerks department (wasn't very good at maths and his writing too scruffy), then onto the fitting shops via the P/Way and S&T departments but he couldn't reach the machines or carry the tools. The foreman now losing patience "What were you good at school?" "Art" he replies, near to tears. "Right, paint shop for you. Start tomorrow." ....and that was that.
Well, if you don't ask, you don't get. -- Dave GS850x2 XS650 SE6a "It's a moron working with power tools. How much more suspenseful can you get?" - House
My oldest brother got his garden shed (well - workroom. It's about 30ft long and 15ft wide..) that way - some British Rail types were dismantling it for burning when he drove past with his tree surgery lorry one day. So he asked them to dump it on the back of his lorry instead. He keeps his woodworking stuff[1] in one part and partitioned off the other end (and fitted some nice second-hand (free) windows) to make a summerhouse overlooking the pond he'd just dug. Phil. [1] Lathes[2], bandsaw, home-made sawdust extraction unit that dumps it all into a bin that he can then take scoops out of to burn in the old wood-fired stove he also blagg^Wsourced and plumbed in. Oh - flatbed power-plane.. [2] Sort of like a WUN-for-wood. Two *reeally* nice lathes that he got for peanuts second-hand. And all the wood comes from his tree-surgery activities.
That's what the ndian blokes were doing, but they were holding the tank with one hand and moving it every which way while the brush was getting on with the job. 'Kin hell. I should've asked that when I watched some bloke **** up the pinstriping of a Roller at Crewe years ago. -- Beav VN 750 Zed 1000 OMF# 19
