TrainHardRaceEz

Hi all, NOT a bike mechanic here but hoping you may help me out...

Does anyone have any experience painting their bike frame? I bought an old beater to ride around town and the paint is cracking all over. Any suggestions on type of paint and how to go about this?

While on that note...My black Cervelo P2 got a pretty bad, deep scrape in the frame when it was in its boxed being shipped to/from a race. It's a small divot out of the frame. Any use in trying to paint over that?

fietsbob

I repainted my bicycle in 1957, stripped off all the parts, then once I sanded off the loose chips and feathered the edges,
I sprayed it with a primer, car paint spray cans, being a steel bike, then top coated it ..

I used black primer and the top coat was not opaque , you could see thru it ," candy apple ", is usually over a metallic under layer
but over black it was black with an in this case a green patina..
Air dried rattle can paint is not very durable, but good enough for a 10 year old kid's job...

For a more durable finish , get a professional to do the job , they can use a catalyst cured liquid paint,
with a chemical self curing along the lines of an Epoxy, which is how carbon fiber fabrics are made structural

Not a mechanic? (no bike tools) I'd hire one that is.. to strip the bike down.. and put it back together, after the paint job,
unless you want a 'Ghost bike' type paint job, just painting everything white.. tires and all.....







9 days to winter solstice..

...

Retro Grouch 

Honestly, You're talking about learning to completely disassemble and reassemble your bike and learning to paint a tubing structure (which is different from spray painting a flat surface). It's good you are asking this question in December because I think that's a pretty major undertaking. Even if you already own the necessary tools, the materials alone will cost more than the bike is probably worth. If it was my beater bike, I'd leave it.

Andrew R Stewart 

Once again my answer is "it depends". What do you expect as a result of painting? What are you willing to put into this project (time, tooling, $)?

One can do anything from simple fingernail polish/model enamel touch up with a disposable brush to a full on strip and wet paint with it's many coats and expenses. Rattle canning and powder coating fit in between these two book ends.

This forum, as well as the Framebuilders one, has had many threads on painting. I suggest you search for painting in each and step back. Andy

veganbikes

I wouldn't bother painting a beater bike unless you really want to take it all apart, strip it (potentially do a little sanding), mask everything off and then go through the painting process and then put it all back together. Granted winter is a good time to do this since most folks are riding less but honestly unless the paint is becoming an issue IE: rust that is eat the frame, don't do it.
If you really love the bike and it is worth something to you, you could strip it down and send it out to a painter, a lot of auto body shops will paint your bike with the next car or car similar to the color you want for not a whole lot generally but you will want to bring it to a shop to get everything chased and faced again.

As far as the Cevelo is concerned is the paint damaged or the actual frame of the bike damaged? Paint can be touched up with fingernail polish (seriously that is what is used) but a dent in aluminum is not good and broken carbon is also not good and I wouldn't ride that.

Freqman1

Here are a few I did. Preparation is the key to a quality job. Plenty of how-to articles online. Don't rush and if you can see an imperfection fix it because paint won't hide it. V/r Shawn

mtbikerinpa

That is some classy work I am partial to automotive paint quality but it certainly costs a lot more. A spray can setup can come out decently if done right but keep in mind most paints are designed to be done at 70-80 degF and some flat will not work properly at all below 50.

Freqman1

I use single stage enamels. BC/CC was not used on these bikes and it looks way overdone when you clear coat one of these. Cost is a factor. I normally spend about $150 on paint and hardener for a two tone job not counting my One Shot for the striping. Of course you have primer, sand paper, grease and wax remover, reducer/thinner, tac rags, etc... that all add to the cost. V/r Shawn

_ForceD_

wschruba

Easy to fix, hard to do well. You will follow the same procedure for touching up paint on a car, so I suggest you look into that, but the basic process is:

1) Fill to surface/slightly below. (Bondo for large damage, cyanoacrylate for small portions. CA is best applied using a probe, here, dipped in CA/lightly dragged across the surface like a pencil. Medium/thick "gap-filling" CA, depending on how fine the damage is)

2) Sand back (feather) the damaged area into a good area. The goal is to bring it down just below what the paint will fill.

3) Paint slightly over the bounds.

4) Feather the repair's bounds with high-grit paper.

5) Use appropriate rubbing compound to bring the finish to the same consistency of the original paint. Matte is harder to match than gloss...

As with everything, the devil is in the details--matching the paint by sight is only the first of a process that requires quite a bit of practice.

capnjonny 

sand blasted and repainted with Rustoleum enamel


sprayed white Rustoleum lacquer over original white paint


Original (1968!!) paint cleaned and sprayed with Rustoleum clear lacquer top coat


1968? Peugeot mixte deep cleaned, judicious touch up then top coated with Rustoleum clear lacquer


Current project sand blast and painted rustoleum yellow enamel with clear enamel top coat


1974 Atala racer turned hipster bike Sand blasted and painted with Rustoleum enamel (no clear coat)


Raleigh Sport 1978 cleaned and clear coated with Rustoleum clear lacquer.
I Painted kitchen cabinets for many years before retiring and now have started repainting bikes for the Bike Exchange.

The most important part of the process is the prep . Everything MUST be perfectly clean and grease free. That means you should wear rubber gloves at all times, especially after the frame is striped and sanded.
I have sprayed a couple frames without stripping them first . They were white and I sanded them with 400 wet/dry, treated the rusty spots with naval jelly then spot primed , sanded, and sprayed a white top coat over everything.
(note- next time I do this I will use a white or light grey primer as the dark grey I used was hard to cover and took an extra 2 coats on those areas .

I have found that most bike paint is lacquer and you can often make the original paint look very good by judiciously touching up chips and scratches with a similar colored lacquer nail polish , roughing up the original paint just slightly with 1000 grit wet/dry, then clear coating everything with Rustoleum Clear spray lacquer.

I have sprayed a few bikes with Rusoleum spray enamel and as seen in the above photos you can get a very nice looking job with it. The main issue with enamel is it takes a long time to dry between coats, 48 hours for enamel vs 2 for lacquer(including sanding) so a lacquer job can be completed in a day vs about a week for enamel. Also with enamel you have to be careful to protect the paint from something landing on it for at least an hour after spraying. Also, enamel sprayed into the air will stick to whatever it lands on. Lacquer drys so fast it won't . If you want to try Rustoleum lacquer you can buy it in a few colors at some True value stores. I know it comes in black, white, clear, yellow, and red. Don't spray lacquer over enamel as the solvents in it arent compatable with it.

One last warning. spray light coats and let dry between. The biggest cause of runs is applying the paint too heavily.

jadocs

Without seeing the damage on the P2, I would probably get it checked out to ensure there was no underlying damage from impact.

dedhed

They can do just about anything these days if you have the money.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...an-done-2.html

Papa Tom

I have no intention of ever painting a bike frame, but I'd be curious to see how one of those new "glitter" spray paints would work for this.

robertorolfo

Isn't winter when you are supposed to be riding your beater and working on your 'nice' bike/bikes? I'm just messing around, but as others have said, it's a "beater" for a reason, so investing too much into it seems strange unless it has real sentimental value, or you genuinely enjoy having a project to work on.

As for painting a bike frame with any sort of spray, I would think it is rather difficult and complicated because of the small diameter tubes and all the various angles. I've only ever painted a few larger sized motorcycle parts that offered larger, flatter, less complex surfaces, but that was enough to let me understand I would need A LOT more practice before trying to paint a bike frame to any decent standard.

_ForceD_

TiHabanero

I am in the finishing stages of brush painting a frame. Have always used rattle can paint, first time brushing it on. It is a lot harder and more time consuming than rattle can, however I can do it indoors. The bike has had 3 colors before this one, and I did all of the previous colors with a rattle can (Rustoleum). If you want good quality, durable paint, go with powder coat. It is really, really durable.

mtbikerinpa

A long time back I think I saw a place that did two tone powdercoating but it is a process and not quite as simple as a liquid paint spray.

3alarmer 

...for mere humans, like the bulk of the people on this forum, this stuff is a game changer. I've had pretty good to excellent results with it. Works for a smoother, better gloss if you can wet sand the color coat before you apply it, but even absent that step, it's an impressive, durable, two part, mix it in the spray can, clear finish over just about any well bonded substrate. Cost is about 20 bucks most places, and one can will cover a frame and fork with enough paint to get it to smooth out to a gloss finish.

AnkleWork

Is the OP just trolling for more uncredited content for his blog?

greenspark

I bought a 1980's Gazelle, bad paint. Disassembled it and sanded it to bare metal in my workshop. Frame, forks, fenders and luggage rack. I had a cream coloured skirt guard, so I selected matching powder coat. Bike painters were quoting NZ$3,000 (US$2,000) to paint a bike. An industrial powder coating company quoted NZ$45 ($US30) for three layers. For them it was a simple job. For the bike painters, it was as if they were restoring a Picasso painting or Stradivarius violin. Below is the final $45 result.

Brittney

I did an old frame a few years back. Cost me about 5 times what I thought it would have.
Loads of filler, more cans of paint than expected etc
It was enjoyable though

These guys have a "bike specific" paint. Getting good reports, nice colour ranges, sparkly clear coats if that's your bag
https://spray.bike/

dedhed

TO PAINT OR NOT TO PAINT?

https://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpe..._A_Bicycle.htm