Originally Posted by dedhed

Personally It's rarely "worth it" for an average bike.

Professional wet paint job is not cheap.
Powdercoating is generally much cheaper and readily available in most locales with excellent durability

DIY figure time spent prepping and spraying in less than ideal conditions.
Your basic Rustoleum and similar require a very long time to dry properly and tend to not wear well
2K spray paints are much better but more expensive

People also get decent results from brush/roller. Examples can be found in C&V of this method

Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart

How nice a result can you live with? How skilled are you at paint prep (as prep is a big aspect of any paint job whether house or bike)? How skilled are you at applying the paint (the usual thing most will mention)? How durable a result can you live with? Do you have a suitable place to do this smelly and dirty work? What's it's temperature?

Most all home jobs won't have the durability of a factory or pro job. Most home jobs don't have the OEM decals applied.

There's no right answer but a huge range of opinion. Andy

Originally Posted by Mtracer

I've been thinking on this myself. I have a relatively new bike bought earlier this year. But the model I wanted (Trek Checkpoint SL 5) only came in two colors, matte silver/grey and a radioactive red. I like deep reds, but this red was bright red, so I went with the silver/grey. But aside from being quite conservative, the matte finish bugs me. So, I've been thinking, what the heck, I could paint or have it painted.

However, I also have an itch to convert it to Shimano Di2 electronic shifting. So, between a pro paint job and Di2, I'm now thinking of just getting another bike. Maybe go full Trek Project One. If I repaint the existing bike, I would only have an MTB to ride while the work is done (weeks months?). Also, as it is now, any major damage to my Checkpoint and again, I would only have the MTB to ride. So, a second bike more suited for the road avoids being without a road type bike during painting as well as I have a backup if something happens to one bike.

So, my current view has more to do with the big picture rather than whether a given bike is worth repainting. I doubt repainting any bike, for other than a restoration, is worth it in terms of adding value to the bike.

If I had a bike that wasn't especially expensive (worth less than $1,000 used) and I also had another bike to ride while working on the first, I'd give the DIY approach with the high quality spray cans a go. No matter how bad it comes out, you can always strip it down and try, try again.

Originally Posted by veganbikes

Is it? That is a question you must ask yourself. Nobody can answer that for you. Me personally probably not unless I was getting a custom frame or had a bare frame of some value (either monetary or sentimental). I don't like having to take apart an entire frame just to paint it and then put it together unless it is at the point of overhaul time then I might consider it.

I think it also has to have some nice enough parts on it because if not I would rather put that money towards better more functional parts. If everything is worn out or just doesn't work well the paint ain't gonna help.

Originally Posted by Canker

https://www.youtube.com/c/ETOE
Fun guy to watch if you want to kill some time with this topic. He does some really high end paint jobs on bikes including some with spray paint.