Marisol, part 4

Marisol was (almost) finished. The next day the sun was shining and when the sun shines I usually ride my racer, which doesn't have mudguards, has twelve gears instead of three, is lighter and is faster, but I chose Marisol instead. All went well. We were fast together. We were beautiful together.

The problem began the next day. It was raining. No worries, I thought, since Marisol has mudguards. I rode to and back from school. When I got home, however, I noticed that there were scrapings and a little rust on the top tube. "Odd" I thought, but took her up to the flat, sanded the rust off and sprayed a couple of layers of lacquer over to protect it. A couple of days passed, it continued to rain and I continued using Marisol. Then I noticed that there were small spots of rust not only on the top tube, but also on the down tube, the seat stays, the head tube... the only part that still seemed rust free was the fork. And here is my conclusion:

Don't ever use lacquer from Biltema. It's completely crap.

So I began all over, taking the bike apart completely again...

Then I took her to the guys at Guson Industrier, that sandblasted, painted and lacquered (with good, working lacquer) the frame.

(A couple of shots (without and with flashlight) I took of the frame and fork after the guys at Guson Industrier had sandblasted the parts. Harsh! And you can clearly see the gash in the seat stay.)

I asked them if it was possible to keep the raw steel and just lacquer that, but they said that it wouldn't look good, the lacquer gets a little bit yellow after some time and it would just look dull. So I went for chrome...