I bought a Triumph Bonneville, but that didn't cheer me up, because it was fugly.
It had spent 20 years of it's 22 year life spray painted matte black, by an owner who's idea of "freshening it up" was applying another layer of 20 year old matte black spray paint every few years.
I decided if it was going to be an ugly Bonneville, it should at least be a cool ugly Bonneville, and not a lame ugly Bonneville. She had a ton of great suspension, performance, and brake upgrades, so she deserved that much.
I took the tank and fenders off. Applied paint stripper (with a chain cleaning brush the bike came with because, well, it was free and I didn't need it). Used a scraper to get the old paint off.
I didn't want to go full sand paper down mode and made it shiny. This was a grimy bike, it should stay grimy. I wanted that industrial raw steel look. No bullshit patina, just bare necessities. Something I could play Nirvana to.
I'm happy with how it turned out. If you're interested in seeing the process, and the bike's story, it's here:
