I thought I would test fit the new rear fender prior to the start of painting.  The mounts are in perfect position and I will be able to run 25 mm tires with good clearance.  The fender strut mount uses a washer as a backer on the underside of the fender.  Being flat, it wanted to cut into the fender a bit, so I shaped it to fit the curve of the fender.  Hopefully, this will reduce the potential for cracking in the future.

Fresh out of blast and ready to prime after a blow off and solvent clean. I will start painting in earnest Jan. 2nd, just too many holiday festivities!

Time to glass bead blast for paint.

 The bottom bracket is lightly faced and chased.  I like to let the tubes protrude a bit into the BB so I get that nice reverse fillet.  Structurally, it doesn't need it, but I just like it.

 Aligning the head badge on the head tube.  I like to have the center lines intersect the badge equally.

The newer head badges are aesthetically too wide to fit my 31.8 mm head tube.  So I used one of the older ones withe trebuchet font, but cut the logo off as I will use the new custom font on the down tube. I don't want conflicting fonts.  I will blast and prime the frame next week, then call it quits until the new year. Just too many parties, etc.

A couple of pics of the finish work starting to come together.

Just finished reaming and ball honing the seat tube to a snug 27.2 mm.  That's an ugly seat post, but it's very light and comfortable.  Maybe I'll Color sand and buff the graphics off. 

Pilot hole for the relief.

Cut the slot with a fiber wheel after drilling the 3/16" hole.  Now to flat file the slot and smoothly break all the edges.

As I thought, I didn't care for the seatstay fender mount from a previous post.  So I bent up this new one and it looks much better.

The frame is complete through braze and soak.  It weighs 3 lbs  8 oz  with a fair amount of clean up to go.  I'm really tempted to replicate this frame with lighter dropouts and racier pipes just to see how light I can get it.  3 lbs. 2 oz.?  Maybe, I can save 3 oz. on just the dropouts.

The eyelets are on.

 Here is the chainstay fender mount bridge.  I spaced it so I can run a 28 mm tire if need be.  It was fashioned out of a piece of 4130 3/8" scrap tubing left over from Ians seatstays.

I almost forgot the rear derailleur cable stop.  This is a beauty from Paragon Machine Works.  It's stainless, I don't know if I will paint or polish it.

 I cut and faced the head tube.  The top lug was cut down to have a 16 mm point to match the lower point.

I ground a  little pocket for the fender stay eyelet to sit in to give it a little more contact area.  And it will look better too.

I glued and screwed some exterior plywood together and routed a groove to bend the 3/8" 4130 for the fender mount.  Looks real good.

 This will be the only location for the rear fender stay mount.  I'm going to run some hammered aluminum fenders that only require one stay.

I'm thinking that this radius is a little too tight visually and I might open it up a little.  I'll cut and fit it and then decide.

 I got a job in on this fine old Rivendell with a dented top tube.  The nature of the dent wouldn't allow it to be just filled with bondo because of high spots in the deformation.

 So I took the appropriate precision tube block from Paragon Machine Works (not related) and slowly clamped it down after applying some grease.  I would tighten, rotate and repeat a number of times.

This pulled down the high spots and removed all but about .010" of the dent.

 Then, I laid down a puddle of 56% silver at very low heat.

 A little filing and sanding and it is as good as new.  Ready for powder coat.

The goats were benevolent and I will be replacing the bar end shifters on the new rain bike with these Retro-Shift (again, not related) units.  IMHO they are the ideal rain shifter.

Both seat stays are now on and look great.  Next, I need to fab a mandrel to bend the 3/8" X .028 wall tubing I have for the fender bridges.  

 I finally got a couple of pics of Dougs finished bike.

Even though I obsessively measure, check angles, and other frame alignment metrics, I always do a visual fit up.  I gotta see it before the second seat stay goes on..

The final shape of the seat stay at the seat tube junction is close.  I'll finish it up today when the ambient light is better.  So far, the rough weight of the frame is 3 lbs. 8 oz. which is lighter than I originally predicted.

The company is gone and most of the repair work is done, so back to frame building.  Here, I'm fitting up the seat stays to the dropouts.

This disc brake conversion is all but finished.  Only a little brightening of the metal and a coat of etch prime left to do.  I've already mocked it up with the wheel and caliper and the length of the slots allows for plenty of axle travel.

Little by little, sneaking up on perfection, thanks to Don Ferris' fixture.  There will be a brace between the two tabs.

 The fork is done, including prime and rust inhibitor.

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Obviously, the first thing I will do is remove the eyelet.

When the pads are centered on the disc, the slots go out of parallel with the dropout.  Also the slots are too long and too far apart.  Unless I can find a better tab, this is going to be some project!

I took in a side job to mount disc tabs on this Surly 1 X 1 single speed.  First thing was to strip the offending paint.

 Here's the first fit check with the Phrunt Sheui ISO fixture.  Lots to do.

Getting closer and doing a visual mock up for my own mental well being.