N OVEMBER M ONTHLY D IGITAL R EFLECTION Hunter Flowers

C OLLABORATION WITH MY M ENTOR I collaborated with my mentor several times in the month of November to ensure that I would reach my goal of building a dirt jumper bike. This month, I sanded and removed all of the paint off of my banged up frame, and I also applied my primer. I met with my mentor in the beginning of November on the 5 th for about thirty minutes to discuss the sanding process, as well as what I needed to mask off that didn’t need to be sanded. I also went to my mentor’s house to spray on my primer on November 17 th. This meeting lasted about an hour and he showed me the proper way to apply primer in several coats. I also collaborated with my mentor when I was trying to figure out exactly what type of primer to purchase. He also showed me that there is a specific aluminum primer that would work best.

W HAT I LEARNED The month of November was a large learning stage for me. I learned how to remove paint from an aluminum bike frame. Initially, I was going to use paint stripper to remove the paint, but I researched online and learned that paint stripper could weaken the welds. I also learned that using higher grit sand paper removes thick paint faster, but too high of a grit could damage the aluminum. I found out that they make rough sponge-like drill heads to remove paint. My mentor told me that using white primer will make your final color brighter, but if you use a grayish primer, your final color will look bland. Lastly, I learned that you must spray on primer and any other spray paints when it is at least 50 degrees in the environment where you will be spraying.

Here is my frame and materials I used. This is the rough sponge- like drill head I used. Here, you can see what the aluminum frame looks like under the paint.

This is a picture of me re- masking some areas on my bike to ensure that they were completely covered for when I applied the primer. This picture really shows what my whole frame looked like after sanding and before the primer.

In this picture, you can see the can of white aluminum primer I used. In the three pictures above, you can see me spraying the primer onto my bike frame.

These two pictures are before and after pictures. The left shows my frame before sanding and primer, and the right picture shows my frame after sanding and applying the primer.

M Y P LAN FOR D ECEMBER In the month of December, I plan to have my bike completely painted, stickers applied, clear coat done, and any other parts painted and finalized. I will need to make sure I pick out the perfect color for my bike and see if I want to put any stickers or decals on it. I will also need to research what kinds of clear coat there is and pick out the correct one. Another thing I will do in the month of December is pick out some of the old parts that I have to use and paint them to go with my bike. I hope that by the end of December, my bike frame and parts are completely ready to be assembled in the following months. I am prepared to invest time and effort to make sure my bike is as good as I can make it by the end of December.

Works Cited Allen, John. "Bicycle Frame Refinishing." Bicycle Frame Refinishing. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec "How to Paint a Bike." WikiHow. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec "How to Spray Paint a Bike Frame." YouTube. YouTube, 12 May Web. 01 Dec James, Sean. Personal interview. 5 Nov