Painting a Bike

Hello Instructables, this is another one of my entries for the  I Made It Photo Contest.  As you can see, this is my bike, which we painted over the summer.  The entire project took about four days, including drying time.  We used paint stripper to remove the paint, but learned afterwords that this was a very tedious way of going about preping a bike.  Looking back, it would have been much better to have just removed the stickers, and sanded up the old paint to provide a surface for the primer to stick to. First, we painted all the smaller parts with their single colour coats.  For the frame, wich has a detailed paint job, we painted one detail colour, covered it with a peice of tape in the shape that we wanted, painted the second detail colour, covered it in tape once it dried, and finnaly, painted on the orange coat.  After all the paint dried, we pulled off the tape, revealing the detail.  We then used three coats of clear laquer to help protect the paint.  The bike is a Raleigh Matterhorn, and we restored it because it is a very good bike, and is made in Canada.  You might not be able to tell from the pictures, but the brakes actually go into the tubing through small holes, and come back out again near the breaks.  We had a bit of trouble getting them back in after the paint dried.  After everything was back together, we put the new grips on the handlebars, and I finnaly hooked up the bike computer that I have had for three years.  And on the plus side, it hasn't fallen apart yet, so we think we put it back together right.  Thanks for taking the time to check out this instructable, if you like it, check out some of the other ones that I have posted, vote for it in the contest, and rate it.  Thanks!