CPFITNESS

Bull****, the high i got from painting mine indoors in my 700 sq foot manhattan apt can't be beat!

Nice work, I just hit mine with two simple coats and now I kinda wish I did do a little more work on it. I may still strip everything down and sand it good and do something like what you did.
Replacing the crank is definately the next step on this bike. the stocker is only 170mm and i'm a pretty tall guy and the way the saddle sets up just isn't quite right. Perhaps when it's time to pull the crank I'll strip everything off again and go at it. I'm satisfied enough with the rattle cans that I don't think i'll make a full investment in powdercoating it. Here are some after pics of this bike put together, some of you have probably seen them in other threads. this was a bike i bought off the street for 30 bucks so i could get my feet wet with a drop bar bike having only a flat bar giant rapid. so far I love it, it rides incredibly smooth and i feel the difference inthe geometry. The flat bar setup relies heavily on my hammies but this bike really lets me get my quads involved and despite having 2 torn ligaments in my left knee, I can still put the hammer down a bit and feel the difference.

Dilberto

The following conditions apply:

a) Mainly if new paint is same as existing color
b) Decals and lettering is to be saved
c) No rust or oxidation under the old paint is present
d) Surface prep and time is critical for success

The best cover-up paint for bicycle frames, is Dupli-Color 500F Engine Enamel with Ceramic. It's UV resistant and with proper heat curing - will withstand any oils and solvents a bike normally uses. First, clean the frame of any oils and thoroughly dry it. Then, touch-up any deep scratches and paint chips with nail enamel in the best matching color as the old paint. Use enough to cover up the chip and then some. Nail enamel works great simply because there is never a shortage of available colors to match and it's fairly cheap. It also does not require primer, because fingernails flex often and bike frames will not rattle it apart. Sand it down evenly, with 400-grit sandpaper when dried for a full 24 hours.

Mask decals and lettering by using blue, low-tack Painter's Tape. Lay a strip on clean glass and measure, cut and apply over the graphic, with as little tape overlap as possible. This way the cover-up paint job will look seamless. Burnish the tape with a pencil eraser, so the new paint will not seep into the tape.

Always rough-up the old paint, so the new will adhere to it permanently. In fact, the old paint acts as primer, as long as its not rusted or oxidized underneath. Use a 400-grit paper and "give it tooth" all over the frame. The first coat of paint should be so light - you can still see the touch-ups and faintly see the old paint scuffed. Many rattle-can paint jobs chip and flake away simply because the owner got too anxious to finish the job and gave it one huge, thick coat and assembled the bike the next day. Follow the instructions per the can...and it will LAST. Ideally, the first two coats should be light, and the remaining two should be heavier. Always give it 10-15 minutes flash time between coats. Do all this outside in the Sun, for best results.

The final steps is what makes this task a success, with a lasting, chip-free finish: with the frame fully suspended at either the head tube or bottom bracket - place a 150w heat lamp three inches from the frame, starting at the rear dropout. This will heat cure the paint at exactly 200 degrees F. You don't need any more heat than that, especially if the frame is 6061 or 7075-Series, thin-walled, butted aluminum alloy. A curing temp of 200F for 30 minutes, is perfect to NOT reverse the annealing(heat treatment) of an alloy frame. After 30min - move the heat lamp to another part of the frame, so the heated portion can cool - precisely where ultimate paint hardening occurs. Do this heat curing in stages, so each part of the frame has a chance to heat/cool down properly. Without this baking of the paint - you would have to wait approximately FOUR WEEKS for full, air-dried curing to effect. The true benefit of heat curing is the touted benefits of chemical, oil and solvent resistance....aside from an ironclad finish. Heat cure the entire frame 3x over and then let it sit for another 7 days in an environment above 60 degrees F with zero humidity, before finally assembling.

I have 7 years of near-perfect durability, on my 2001 Cannondale Bad Boy Ultra commuter bike. The Engine Enamel finish is close to a true Powercoating as you can get. Take the time to fill-in and sand down the imperfections, and this job will look 98% of a professional automotive paint job....for a fraction of the cost!

pierce

I've rattle can painted old bikes. prep is everything, do good prep, it comes out great. do sloppy prep, it comes out sloppy. prepping a bike frame with sandpaper is incredibly time consuming due to all the nooks and crannies and tight radiuses. sandblasting ROCKS, but requires a far higher volume compressor than the cheap one I have.

last cheap frame I rattle canned:



(the BB was sacraficial, I was replacing it with a shimano sealed unit anyways... the brake bosses and fork bearing cones were masking taped)

final result:



we have a powder coating shop here in town, they will sandblast and powdercoat a bike frame and forks for about $150. you have to bring it to them completely disassembled, all bearings etc removed. they powder coat bikes for a couple of the local custom frame builders, as well as stuff like playground equipment. these paint jobs are every bit as good as a brand new bikes.

Flying Merkel

Take this advice and run. If it chips, re-spray. In the future you can powdercoat it should you desire. For now, spray it down and ride the butch.

Dilberto

What a beautiful, awesome restoration! I feel compelled to post pix of my bike now....coming soon.

Retro Grouch 

That's been my experience too. Everytime that I try to "cheat" on the surface preperation, I regret it in the long run.

pierce

that was my first attempt at building a 'lightweight cruiser' flatbar bike.

the pictures do hide the paint blems there were grinder marks all over from using a wire wheel on an electric drill to try and remove old paint. that red was actually two coats of red over 1 light primer coat over half bare metal and half the original crappy dark green metallic. I used Krylon brand spray paint.

this is what I started with...

(I bought it as a frame with wheels, those are new tires and a new cheap seat and seatpost, note there's no chain, gears, or brakes)

while the bike came out like I envisioned, it turned out that no amount of tall seatpost can make up for a frame that's way too small, so I ended up selling that bike to a petit little college girl here in town (via craigslist) to whom it was much better suited. I did swap the FSA crankset and put the original triple back on, and I saved my nice vintage suntour thumb shifters, and flat bar, and put back on the riser bar and some sram grip-shifters. I left the new 40mm Michelin "City" tires on it as they didn't fit the replacement frame I rebuilt. she was quite happy, as she wanted an inexpensive commuter bike that was fast enough on pavement but could handle light dirt duty, and all the $200 mountain bikes she'd ridden were heavy clunkers and needed all kinda fixing.

when I sold it, it looked like this...

Jem22

I used paint thinner on my bike to get the paint off then I sanded it

blakcloud

Really? In what world does paint thinner actually removed dry paint? Paint thinner, solvent, Varsol, call it what you want is used for degreasing bikes and in no way takes off paint.

I am always leery of first time posters dragging up seven year old threads to post nonsense comments. Something doesn't smell right and it is not the paint thinner.

StanSeven

This thread is ancient. If interested in the subject, let’s start a new thread.