Laying Down the Pearl

José De La Cruz of ID Signs is the man I entrusted paint to. José has painted tons of bikes and I knew he'd be able to offer some good advice when the time came. He didn't let me down. From the first photos he ever saw of the project he knew what I wanted and had great suggestions - such as convincing me to paint the tank which I was very hesitant to do. Here José is taping the tank and deciding just how much of that gorgeous aluminum we're going to cover. After all the time and energy (the last 6 months documented here) that we've poured into this project I didn't want to skimp on the paint - after all it's the first thing people see so it needed to be stunning. I knew I wanted black and white to complete the classic look and decided to do it in pearl to add depth and interest. The result? You can tell from the smiling faces (below) that José did the job. It's really amazing how paint can tie an entire project together. I've had a vision of what the bike would look like but to see it really start to come together surprises me. Months ago we set our sites on having the bike done for the BMW Motorcycle Owners Association's national rally - it seemed like a good goal and I knew that without that deadline it's hard to keep forward motion. At this point there are two weeks to go and we don't have the pipe back and the bike still hasn't been started. As an unknown and wise bike builder once said, "90% done and 90% to go..." There are many sleepless nights to come...