Painting a bike frame

[robfosters]

Whats the best way to paint a bike frame?

I was thinking of sanding down to bare metal, priming and using car spray paint. Is this the correct way or are there more suitable types of paint?

[bazonix]

hi what frame is it? material would be ideal?

[robfosters]

Hi, it is an aluminium frame.

[Napoleon88]

What about getting it powder coated? Provides a very durable finish.

[robfosters]

What sort of money we talking about with that?

[Napoleon88]

Under £100 I reckon.

[robfosters]

Cheers, I'll have a think about that, but I kinda wanted to do it myself as personal project. It cant be that hard painting a bike frame.

[bazonix]

do u have any industrial yards/ polishers? around ur town/city? do u intend on keeping the bike a long time?

if so, and the frame is worth it, id strip the paint with a stripper myself (maybe nitromos, taking safety into consideration) and take it the polishers, tell them to do just that and lacquer it (very important) with a low bake, the frame will come out superbly it will look amazing!!! for cheap too!! then some fresh decals and its complete

otherwise, powdercoating, quick and easy...but finishes are chalk and cheese... no comparison if the alu frame is worth the restoration....

nice one

[Napoleon88]

Originally Posted by robfosters

Cheers, I'll have a think about that, but I kinda wanted to do it myself as personal project. It cant be that hard painting a bike frame.

Its the preparation thats a pain in the ass. You have to buy a load of different grades of sandpaper to start with, and its easy to rub down the straight bars, but gets hard to do the juctions of tubes and the welded bits. Then you also have to buy decent primer, and flatten that down, then decent paint, and finally decent laquer. Materials alone will cost you maybe £60/70. And thats for a rattle-can finish.

Always sounds like a fun project, but rarely works out that way

Which is why I have 4 Audi alloys in my loft, 1 fully restored, 1 half done and 2 sh!tters


If you go to a decent powder-coaters, they will media blast the existing paint off the frame first, then powder coat is for less than £100 and it will be mint.

[bazonix]

i disagree that the powder coat finish will be 'mint' if treating alu....in fact.... ill guarantee the finish will 'never' touch the factory finish.... it just looks.... boring... iv seen some rubbish powder coats, drips, unevenness.... and even the good ones are plain.... a downhill rig/steel.... yeah, but not alu.... troy lee

i do agree that to personally undertake re-spraying/re-painting a frame is quite a challenge, not one that i would attempt, especially if it was something nice

nice one

[robfosters]

here's the deal, have a look here 1999 NISSAN SERENA (Great for camping - converted) on eBay (end time 26-Aug-09 17:13:39 BST)

The bikes came free with this van that my dad bought (it's the one at the back), so have not cost me a carrot, so that was why it is kind of just a personal project. It's not something that I will want to keep forever or feel strongly about, it's just a free bike that I want to smarten up.

[bazonix]

leave it as it is.... it will serve its purpose as intended.

[eL-ZilCHo!]

I used to do this all the time when I was younger.

I had decent results with both car paints and powder coating.

Its not a difficult job at all really, doing it yourself.

You could always get it sandblasted before you start, this will take it right back to bare metal giving you a good base. Last time I did that it cost about £20.

Spraying is easy, just remember to 'mist' it on rather than spraying it thick. Lots of thin layers basically.

You could probably get away with sanding it but not going all the way back to metal, just get rid of the topcoat and leave a rougher surface for the new paint to key in to. Depends on the state of the current paint of course.

Powder coating is a lot tougher though. I had a dirt jump bike powder coated and it withstood some serious abuse. Think it cost about £30