A couple of weeks ago I did a stupid thing. I had just put a lens in my freshly painted 49er Valve, and then decided I wanted to try and swap it out for a lens that was more red. Well I ended up chipping out a small piece of paint by the nose of the left eye socket, and was immediately sickened by what I had just done. My first reaction was to start painting two frames right away. The thinking was that at least one should come out OK. As it turns out I went with neither pair as both had imperfections I didn't like. One became my green pair and the other was redone. When I started painting myself, my goal was to good enough to be consistent so I could fix my own mistakes. I guess as long as I'm using the same exact colors as before, I can achieve this. So here's my 49er Valve back in action, without that chip in the paint.













The last photo is of the older frame that got swapped out. Using that photo so you can compare with the new paint job.

I wanted a green pair and did this one almost all green (minus the rubbers and icons). The frame is called "British" green. It's just very dark and that's what I wanted.

Finally completed my copper Valve 1.0 with Polarized black Ikons. This was like the third or fourth attempt at this color. Still working on the nuances of painting, but I think there's been an improvement. Still flaws visible here and there. Overall I give myself an 8/10. Now to see how long my finishes last.

My copper Valve is so close to completion. This is try number 4 or 5. Lol. Thing went wrong with earlier paint jobs and the only thing I know to truly fix a problem is to start over. There are many flaws with this one, as with all my projects thus far. All I can say is I'll get better. This copper frame is just waiting for new lenses to arrive in the mail.

Much Mahalo guys. I appreciate the compliments. Here's my take on the Ice Valve. Only white instead of silver. Lol.

I guess I need to apologize for not following through on the Violet white Valve project. I actually ruined the finish on the white pair shown before when I tried to forced in my violet lenses in much too early. I gave several days of drying before attempting again. But I chickened out when I started having fit issues. I didn't want to try and force things this time so I put the Violet lenses back into a black pair that can take the abuse. What's happening is my Violet and DWP lenses are lenses that I cut myself. Because I'm scared to over-cut, these are just a hair bigger than it should be. I can tell when these two lenses almost 'snap' in. So the only custom with these two pairs is the lens cuts and painted lugs.

The 49er pair is ready for Sundays. Go Niners.





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Added red icons

Got this project finally near completion. Still learning things along the way so not sure if this is a better effort. The colors may look nicer with the pearl white and purple. Waiting for things to harden a little more before trying to push in the lenses. So probably put this together too early.

Aloha OR. Here's something I just finished though it could use a little more clear. This is a Tamiya metallic red with Oakley black iridium lenses. I'm not as happy with this one as I was with the last Valve I did. But it came out OK and now it's a matter of seeing how durable my paint job is. This is actually slated to be in my work rotation. I Need a few more pairs done so I can have a good mix. Coming soon.

Much Mahalo guys. Hopefully I can keep practicing and get better at painting too. My next project is almost ready.

Aloha OR. This is a Valve 1.0 that started as a beater blue FMJ pair. When stripping off the old paint I found that the hinge piece was clear. So I then made plans to take advantage of that fortunate accident. I sprayed this in Silver which I thought was going to be brighter than what it looked like in the end. I think my use of clear on a metallic paint actually dulled it a little. Even spraying a heavy glossy clear didn't bring that original brightness back. I'm not very good with painting, and in all honesty, this is the first full frame that I'm actually proud enough to show. So this is painted frame number 1 from Lopaka.