My Triplets: Cervelo R3, P3 and S5

25 Nov 12-

The title of this blog might surprise you, but a lot of people were interested in the process of the summer project.  This is a little over due, but now that it is the "off" season I actually have some time to write about it.  It all started with a crazy idea to make all of my bikes match.  I was heading home during the summer and luckily my dad paints for a living.  He paints cars at a body shop during the day and has occasionally taken on side projects of race cars, Harley's, and hot rods.  He had mentioned painting the bikes from time to time, so I figured this was a good time to take him up on it.

I was going to have all 3 bikes at home due to a huge race schedule.  I had Armed Forces Triathlon, 2 stage races, a few crits and a road race on the schedule so having the extra road bike around as a back up was a wise decision plus the TT bike for the stage races.  Also, to get all of them painted was the other reason to have them all at home.  I was talking about it with my buddy Elmer a few weeks before heading home while out in Korea.  We were talking about paint schemes and he came up with the idea of painting the R3 and P3 like my S5, it would mean only painting 2 bikes instead of 3.  I really like the S5's paint scheme so thought that it would work out.  I wasn't sure how well the lines would work on the other bikes, but I knew we would make it work.

I had a pretty tight schedule to get the bikes painted and didn't think it would be all that big of a project, little did I know.  I started out by taking the bikes completely apart.  I then took them to the local bike shop (Fun Sport Bikes, Modesto Ca) to use their Park Tools Bike scale.  I took the pre weight of just the frame, as I wanted to see how much weight was going to be added after the fresh paint.  I then removed all of the stickers on the frame, most of the stickers/decals are cleared over on the bikes however there were a few that were not.  Once those were removed I was told to take 800 grit sand paper to the frames, per my fathers instructions.  I used that for a while, but it didn't seem to be doing the job so I took some 600 grit and it worked a little bit better.

Here are the pre weights of the bikes:

 2008 Cervelo P3 56cm Frame, 1.3kg

 2009 Cervelo R3 58cm Frame, 0.96kg

He only wanted me to scuff the frames and not completely remove all of the paint, so I just did as I was told, other than using the rougher sand paper.  Eventually I thought I had the frames to where they should be.  The following day he looked them over and I told him what I did, all he could do was shake his head at me, needless to say he wasn't happy.  They were not completely done and we spent another hour or 2 getting them ready.  After they were completely prepped and cleaned we took them into the spray booth.  The first step was to put the base layer of white on, it took 3 to 4 coats of paint.

The R3 and P3 in pure white

After the base layer was applied we then taped out the red stripes, below are pictures:

 The R3 prepped for the red stripe

 The P3 prepped for the red stripe

Once the red stripes were sprayed we waited for it to dry and then removed all of the tape and paper.  We then laid out the black stripe over the red paint and sprayed it.  The taping process was the most time consuming and spraying 3 different colors made the process quite long.  But don't worry it was the middle of the summer and hot, so of course we stayed cool by having a few beers ;)

 The R3 with the black stripe painted

 The P3 prior to the decals being applied (With my grandma in the background who is a proud supporter of Team RWB :)  )

The R3 prior to the decals being applied

After all 3 colors were sprayed on we let everything dry over night by baking it in the booth.  I believe it was set on a slow bake for 60 minutes.  We then wet sanded them the following day to prep them for the clear coat.  Before the clear coat though we applied all of the decals.  I had the decals made at a local vinyl shop.  The guy did a great job, however it was fairly expensive (see complete cost for project at end of blog).  The decals went on pretty easy, however we had some problems with the front nose section of the P3 where the "e" design goes.  We couldn't get the decal to bend around the nose section like it does on the newer P3 model and how it is on the S5.  We had about 5 decals to mess with and just couldn't get it to work, so after 3 failed attempts we came up with the below.

 

 We put the decal on the right and left side of the frame, as you can see above where it is above the fork.

 Here it is located in the front of the fork on a newer P3 model.

 Here is a picture of the R3, P3, and S5 once they were completely painted

And the man behind the paint gun, my Dad

Now that the paint and decals are complete back to Fun Sport Bikes.  I wanted to get post weights, so below are the results.

 Cervelo R3 58cm Frame, post fresh paint job: 1.01kg = .05kg added, so 50 grams.... not too bad

Cervelo P3 56cm Frame: post fresh paint job: 1.35kg = .05kg added, so the same as the R3, 50 grams.

Technical Details:

Paint: Standox Stando Blue Water Based

Clear: Standox PFC30

Sand Paper Used: 3M 600 Grit / 3M 800 Grit

Scuff Pad Used: 3M

Paint Gun: Iwata Organge Cap

Clear Gun: Iwata W400

Masking Paper: 3M

Tape Used: 3M Fine Line 1/4", 1/8" Fine Line, 3/4" Masking Tape

Total Time Spent: 18 hours

Painter: My Dad, Rex Williams

Cost: $125 for Decals, 4 cases of beer for painter ;)

If you are interested in having your bike painted please email me at: airforcebadbrad@yahoo.com.  Estimate would depend on how many colors and how technical of a design.  You would be required to send any decals that you would want installed and cleared over, and you would be required to pay shipping round trip.  However, if you are local obviously that is not included, and by local I mean willing to drop off and pickup in Modesto, Ca.  Expect at a minimum $300 if just a single base color and no decals, sorry it is quite time consuming ;)

Overall I am extremely happy with how the bikes came out.  The whole process was very time consuming and I wouldn't say I had a great time doing the actual work, but being able to spend that time with my dad was great.  It is very rare that I am home and I am normally on the go while home, so being able to spend 18 hours with him just working was a great time.  Well we drank some beer as well, but for the most part we worked our rears off to get it done in a timely manner.

Below is pictures of all 3 bikes, including a picture of the S5 on the scale.  Sorry I did not get total weights of all 3 bikes, I did not have the scale available to use after putting together the P3 and R3.  The R3 was actually just built back up 2 weeks ago upon arriving to Texas.

 The R3 in race setup for the winter crit series here in DFW, the S5 is still in shipping from Korea :(

The P3 all setup for the TT at Cascade Cycling Classic

The S5 at the Lodi Crit