DIY respray

[eddiemee]

Afternoon all,

I recently bought a new bike and have decided to rebuild my old one from the frame up and use it as a spare. The frame seems absolutely fine structurally but 8 years of grease, gravel, grit salt and D-lock abuse have taken their toll on the paintwork:





So since I'm stripping it down anyway (getting the BB out this morning was fun!!) I thought I might as well repaint it for rust prevention and also so it looks shiny and new when I'm finished. I spoke to a guy in Halfords earlier and the only place he knew off that did resprays locally (St Albans) was somewhere in Sussex and the cost started at £140 + paint + courier charge. However he had recently sprayed his own frame and gave me some really helpful tips about how to go about it if I decided to do it myself.

So my question to people on here is: is it the kind of job that I could make a reasonable go off myself? I'm not fussed about having a shop quality finish, just something that looks alright and most importantly protects the frame.

According to the guy I spoke to the process would be:

Sand with coarse paper/wire brush to strip existing paint
Sand with fine wet/dry paper to prepare for painting
One or two coats of primer. Dry for 3 hours
Sand very gently with fine wet/dry paper to prepare for main coat.
One or two coats of main colour. Dry for 12+ hours
One or two coats of lacquer. Dry for 2-3 days.

Looking at paints and equipment in the shop I reckoned I could probably do it for under £100. I'm in no hurry to get it finished as this has now become my second bike and the rebuild is more of a hobby and practice than a necessity. But at the same time it might be tricky if there are particular parts that have to be done non-stop, e.g. do you have to go straight from the primer to the main coat or can you do one one week and the other the next?

Is there anything else I might need in terms of materials? Anything else I need to consider during the spraying process?

Many thanks in advance,

Ed

 

[P.H]

I wouldn't. The quality of the finish of decent paint is directly proportional to how well it's baked on, sprayers don't invest in heaters and ovens for nothing. If you take your time and care you can get a good looking finish, just don't expect it to be anything like as hard wearing as a professional job.

A cheap alternative is powder coat, tougher than paint though usually not as fine a finish. If you're lucky a local firm out the yellow pages might do it for £30 - £40, or use a firm specialising in bikes like Armourtex will cost you around £60 or £80 with an extra clear coat on top. They also do a bling sparkle finish but I can't see this on the price list.

http://www.armourtex....uk/cycles.html

 

[Gareth]

Tack-wipes .... .... .... you will be surprised just how much dust can settle between coats of paint and lacquer.

 

[e-rider]

you can get professional resprays cheaper than you suggest if you go for one plain colour - Mercian Cycles charge about £65 for one colour plus courier charge on top.

If you do it yourself you'll wish you never! Plus you'll spend a fortune on paint and hours and hours of your time.

My advice would be to either get the wallet out and pay a pro frame sprayer (not powdercoat on alloy frame either) or just leave it as it is. For eight years it's in awful condition - perhaps next time take more care of the bike in the first place.

 

[P.H]

Mercian Cycles charge about £65 for one colour plus courier charge on top.

Current price for plain colour is £100 +VAT

not powdercoat on alloy frame either

I hadn't spotted it was aluminium. I wouldn't take it to a powdercoat firm that usually only dealt with garden furniture, but the more experienced sprayers will know how to treat it. Armourtex charge an extra £10, they use a chemical removal of the original paint rather than the usual grit blasting which can ruin an aluminium frame.
Maybe it's just not worth it, depends how much the frame means to you or whether it's a practical decision. When there's some decent frames around from the likes of On One for the same price as a paint respray , it doesn't necessarily make sense to spend a lot keep it.

 

[eddiemee]

Thanks all. Looks like getting it done professionally might be the safer and less frustrating option. Armourtex looks promising. I'll ask around the lbs to see if there's anywhere closer, but I should be able to take the frame to Armourtex myself rather than having to pay for a courier.

For eight years it's in awful condition - perhaps next time take more care of the bike in the first place.

Indeed, that's why I want to get it resprayed. As for taking more care of it, well hindsight is 20-20, but after 15,000 miles on rubbish roads in all weather, and with a notable period where one of the B roads had an unsealed surface, I'm not beating myself up too much over my shortcomings.

Maybe it's just not worth it, depends how much the frame means to you or whether it's a practical decision. When there's some decent frames around from the likes of On One for the same price as a paint respray , it doesn't necessarily make sense to spend a lot keep it.

The frame doesn't have any particular sentimental value, and the whole bike new was £500. But I don't like getting rid of anything that is in useable condition, and I'm looking forward to the idea of rebuilding it with no pressure to get it all done before need to go to work on Monday morning.

 

[e-rider]

Mercian's prices look like they are increasing at the same rate as their standards are decreasing!

I got my frame resprayed 2 years ago at Mercian for £65 including VAT. They didn't even do a very good job but better than what I could have done myself.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

It can be done DIY bit you waste a lot of paint and time

I used to do quick restos on old hack bikes, buy them at auction, make a couple of decent-ish ones out of the best parts and frames, with a respray and a good clean-up, and new cables and brake blocks. However we were talking 2nd hand bikes with a resale value of £50-80 so I took enough care not to leave the end used with a peeling, flaking paint job, but I wouldn't like to do it myself on a decent bike that I cared about.

I got quite experimental once and threw a real hack bike together out of the older crappier rustier bits and did a speckled paint job (it WAS the early 90s, people liked things like that ang Global Hypercolour T-shirts back then!!) and had it nicked the first time I took it out - mainly thanks to my 6th form college having those wonderfully useless concrete wheelbenders with no securing point, and strict rules about that being the only place bikes were to be left.

I was more pleased with the compliment to my bike painting skills than I was annoyed about the theft!

Anyway, in short, no, if it's a bike you want to restore properly, let someone else do the paintwork.

If you must do it DIY, then go old-skool



That was how we USED to repaint bikes

 

[snailracer]

How about Hammerite with a brush?

 

[tyred]

I've never used Hammerite on a bike but I've used it on other things and find it chips easily.

Japlac is my paint of choice for painting a bike.

 

[02GF74]

I used rattle car paints from Halfords, 3 collur fade scheme, final coat of clear laquer and got a very good finish but it does take a lot of time in the preparation.

 

[Chris S]

How about Hammerite with a brush?

I painted the 'horizontal' edge of my rusty chrome wheel rims with black Hammerite back in June. It's stayed on OK and looks like black enamel.

It also looks OK on motorbike frames but they've got tanks and panels that draw most of your attention. It would be interesting to see what it looks like on a bicycle frame.