More Progress on Raleigh Dawn Tourist

Another grey, rainy weekend day means more time in the Bike Shed, and means more work on the Raleigh Dawn Tourist.

Today's jobs included patching up the white paint on the rear fender, finishing up the front end, adding the lamp bracket, installing the rear reflector, and cleaning up the fender braces.

 As you may have noticed from the shots the other day, there was a big spot of missing paint in the upper right portion of the white of the rear fender. I got to patching that today. I used some basic Testor's oil-based enamels for the patch. My process is to: (1) thin the base paint [in this case semi-gloss white], (2) mix colors until an acceptable matchi s made, and (3) apply the paint in thin layers thereby building them up to match the stock paint.

 The match isn't bad, though it's not perfect either. Ideally, I would take the part to a paint store, match the paint with a machine, then purchase the paint. For the green, that's not a bad idea because there's so much green on the bike. Furthermore, the chain case will need to be sprayed green. However, if I did that with the white, I'd have way too much left over. It's basically a huge waste at that point. So, I settled for a home brew match. The reflector is the original and shows a little age.

Here's the overall shot of the bike today. As you can see, I added the lamp bracket and re-adjusted the brakes. The front part of the bike is basically done, aside from small adjustments and tweaking as I ride it.

Here's a little better shot of the front end. I do have a lamp set for it, though it's not in the best shape. I also have a solo, battery-powered bullet lamp that captures the look of the originals, but in a pure battery format.

However, the more I think about it, the more I may just leave it as-is. None of the lights I have do a great job, and I'm not really interested in spending a lot of money on modern lamps/retro lamps to add lights. I don't ride when it's dark because there are just too many potholes and places to damage the front end of the bike. The bike also looks fairly nice in its stock format, without lamps.