Bike painting

[captainhastings]

Hi I am getting a bit attached to my old bike even though it weigh's a ton compared to my road bike and seems about 10 mph slower.
I am thinking of sprucing it up a bit with some paint.
Do too my lack of bike skills I wouldn't really want to strip it down so can you go at these things with a tin of paint and a brush.
Also what sort of paint would I need ?

 

[smokeysmoo]

I personally wouldn't attempt to re-paint without stripping the frame, but it depends what sort of finish your after tbh. You'll never get a great finish with a tin and a brush, (unless your a skilled coachbuilder/finisher), it's hard enough even getting a decent finish using a rattle can, (you need to be super patient and build the coats up slowly).

I've got a burning itch to paint my own frame on a future build, but I'll use a spray gun if I ever do give it a go.

As for paint, mine get sprayed with 2 pack car paint, but if you want to just hand paint it then, (despite not advising doing so) I'd probably suggest Smoothrite by Hammerite as it doesn't require any primer so you can just whack it on.

 

[Night Train]

It would be difficult to get a good finish with a brush and the whole bike still assembled.

I have a friend who does spraying and at the very least it would need to be remove wheels, cranks, chain, seat stem, handle bars and stem all cables. He would then mask off the bits that don't need painting and then clean, sand and prepare the frame for paint before spraying.

As a DIY job I would do likewise and then hang the frame up and spray carefully with rattle cans using a good primer and undercoat before top coating and lacquering.


However, for my winter hack I would be tempted to just remove wheels, cranks and chain and then spray in some manky colour to make it less inviting for the light fingered. The shiny spinny bits would get wiped off with white spirit before the paint was fully dry. A crap way to treat a bike really.


ETA: If you are brushing with Smoothrite I would still recommend the partial strip down and a really good cleaning to remove dirt and grease. You can key the existing surface with a Scotchbrite pad.

 

[TheDoctor]

I once did a winter hack in emulsion with a roller. (I'd been using the roller to do a wall)
It looked crap. Didn't get stolen though.

 

[smokeysmoo]

I once did a winter hack in emulsion with a roller. (I'd been using the roller to do a wall)
It looked crap. Didn't get stolen though.

That's a good point

 

[TheDoctor]

I almost *wanted* it to get stolen. It looked utterly dreadful.
Thank the deity of your choice it was mostly dark when I rode it. I'd have died of shame.
Oh!! There was an Original Question, back in the mists of time.
Home jobs always look awful, unless you're a pro (in which case you'd not be asking!! )
I'd either leave it as is, or get it professionally powder-coated. Brush painting looks pretty bad, and if you spray without stripping the bike down then you'll get overspray on everything.
I reckon that Marin looks good as it is.

 

[captainhastings]

lol ok I shall refrain from whipping out the paint brush. One good thing at least as it is I can leave it chained up out side of tesco with relative peace of mind

 

[tyred]

You can get a decent finish with a brush (I have done) but you need to really take the time to prepare it properly, use quality paints and brushes and really take your time. It would be much easier to spray it really. The only thing I would say in favour of brush painting over spraying with a rattle can is the finish will probably be tougher, depending on the paint used.

The only exception would be if you wanted to quickly tidy up an old winter bike where I would just clean off the worst of the rust, treat the rest with Jenolite or similar, a quick rub over with sandpaper to key the surface and brush a coat of heavy paint like Hammerite on it.

 

[Chris S]

I once did a winter hack in emulsion with a roller. (I'd been using the roller to do a wall)
It looked crap. Didn't get stolen though.

Did the paint come off when it rained?

 

[albion]

I had an old raleigh tourist that had seen better days.I used a tin of dulux gloss pain designed for painting metal.It came out 'fairly ok' though think if I had added paint thinner it would have been even better job.Before and after the bike was black which surely hides imperfections better.

 

[g00se]

If you wanted to, you could always get it blasted and powder coated.

 

[TheDoctor]

Did the paint come off when it rained?

No!!
It may have been exterior paint, it was a long time ago.

 

[biggs682]

this is a subject that keeps crossing my mind as surely once a frame is re painted , it can be what ever stickers you want so that gas pipe steel frame could be a 531 frame to a lot of people and then that mid quality frame could be a good quality frame with the right set of decals on . but if left in its untouched state its still the same old bike that it started life as , unless of course you are to proud to ride around on a bike with scrathces on !!!

 

[Alun]

If you wanted to, you could always get it blasted and powder coated.

+1