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Lenni from Krazy Kolors
Whether it’s a long Chopper or just a more conservative custom V-Twin, building a custom bike involves a lot of work by a lot of talented artists. In the case of the Yamaha Road Star being built by Donnie Smith Custom Cycles, mentioned in last week’s blog, the sheet metal is now lime time pearl from House of Kolor, applied by Brain at Paint Works. Before being bolted back on the bike however, there are a few more steps.

The first of those two steps is the creation of some graphics, applied on top of the green by local legend Lenni the Pinstriper.

The heart and soul of Krazy Kolors Painting, Lenni the Pinstriper.

The last thing Brian did when he painted the parts, was to apply a clearcoat, and Lenni started his part of the job by scuffing the clearcoat, and then masking out the designs.

After masking off the graphics, Lenni applies the gold mixture.

The designs are done in two colors, black and a lighter gold pearl, with materials from House of Kolor. As Lenni explained, “Donnie wanted an old-skool look, so I used some black to tie the sheet metal in with the frame, which is black, and then I created the sweeping shapes with a mixture of pagan gold kandy koncentrate, and zenith gold. I used an airbrush to darken the edges of the gold with more pagan gold mixed with blue-to-green kameleon paint.”

After the gold comes the darker gold, applied with an airbrush.

When we arrived at Lenni’s shop this morning (Deb Shade is helping with the writing and photographing of this project) he had the tank almost ready for the application of the gold. Once we quit distracting Lenni with questions, the process went pretty quickly. First came the masking followed by the special gold mixture. Next, the airbrushing of the darker gold, along the edges of the graphic. Then there’s application of the pinstripes, all of it done freehand with one of those crazy too-long pinstriping brushes.

The tank ready for pinstripes.

After almost thirty years in the business, Lennis makes it all look easy, from the design to the tape, and from the spraying to the pinstriping.

The pinstripe colors are all custom mixed using urethane striping paint from House of Kolor.

From Lenni’s shop the tank and fenders will make their way back to Brian’s shop for multiple coats of clear, with sanding between to elminate any “bump” caused by the pinstripe underneath. Then the buffing and the final assembly.

Some of the pinstripe colors contrast sharply with the paint they surround, while other colors are more subtle.

The final pinstripe color is green, used both to outline some of the black, and to create some freehand stripes in the open areas on the tank.

The finished tank, ready for multiple clearcoats.