General Cycling Discussion - Spray-painting

I have a pretty old and banged up road frame and was hoping to just spray-paint it black. Is it a good idea to spray-paint bikes? What are the ups and downs?

I have a pretty old and banged up road frame and was hoping to just spray-paint it black. Is it a good idea to spray-paint bikes? What are the ups and downs?

There are two ways to do this......
1.) spray everything
2.) strip the bike, sand it down, wipe off all grease/dirt, spray, let dry, then reassemble.

There now you have it all. :beer: :beer:

BTW, spraying everything doesn't work out too well.

Take off everything from the frame, anything that can come off should. sand with 180 grit sand paper then again with 500 grit or so until all the paint/grease/dirt comes off and you only have bare metal (dont goo too insane here, tiny buts is ok) apply primer and sand it down with high grit sandpaper. Repeat with primer/sanding until you have a 2 or three coats. lightly apply spray paint in a thin consistent manner in a dust free enviroment. allow layers to dry befor adding the next. once the desired shade of black is reached sand again with 1200 grit sandpaper. finally add clear coat (you'll want a few coats off this stuff)

it takes alot of time but you have to do it if you want a decent looking paintjob. if you sand it enough you should be able to get a mirror like finish, that would be sweet on a bike

Thanks for the tips, Jerb. I was wondering the same thing.

I've sanded my project frame down to the factory primer only, sprayed primer, and sprayed paint. I found stripping down to the bare metal a waste of time, especially if throwing some rattle can paint on it.

I've sanded my project frame down to the factory primer only, sprayed primer, and sprayed paint. I found stripping down to the bare metal a waste of time, especially if throwing some rattle can paint on it.
Yes, it is, because it's harder to get primer/surfacer to stick to bare metal than it is to get it to stick to existing, sanded factory primer.
Only things I would add would be to not just sand between coats, but wetsand (have a slow-running garden hose over your work as you sand; feathers better that way), and start with 320 for the primer coat and use 600 for your color coats.
Also, when shooting your clear, you may notice that it's a challenge to apply it smoothly. When you shoot one side of the frame, the other side of the tubing, and the rest of the frame, gets a lot of overspray, which will lead to a dimpled, or 'orange-peel' effect. It drove me nuts the first few times I painted frames. You will need to work fairly quickly to avoid this.

And on the same note. Are there any cons to having a frame powder coated? I would think it would last longer than the factory paint job.

Powder coat does not have the flex that car paint possesses. So if you have a derailler that clamps onto the frame… you might crack the power coat installing the derailler.

Powder coat does not have the flex that car paint possesses. So if you have a derailler that clamps onto the frame… you might crack the power coat installing the derailler.

Could you mask off the areas where the derailleur mounts and have the rest powder coated and coat only the masked areas with paint for protection?

Could you mask off the areas where the derailleur mounts and have the rest powder coated and coat only the masked areas with paint for protection?
That will work but it will not look right unless you do it yourself. I would guess that most people are not doing their own powder coating. If you are trying to do it cheap and make it look good... Just paint it all and be done. Jerb sounds like he knows what he is talking about... I would follow his advice.

That will work but it will not look right unless you do it yourself. I would guess that most people are not doing their own powder coating. If you are trying to do it cheap and make it look good... Just paint it all and be done. Jerb sounds like he knows what he is talking about... I would follow his advice.

I was more thinking of having the powder-coat people do the masking or masking it myself and then having it professionally powdercoated.

I have a pretty old and banged up road frame and was hoping to just spray-paint it black. Is it a good idea to spray-paint bikes? What are the ups and downs?


You've gotten a lot of good advice here already.

I'm in the process of refinishing an old folding bike - not a collectible by any stretch, but I like folders - and I'm documenting the process in photos.

Here's a link to the "before" pictures (http://www.ncf.ca/~af895/bikes/). (it's the top bike)

Rust was showing through the paint so I had take it down to bare metal and prime it.
Key to that: clean metal, sanded reasonably smoothly (not obsessively so), wiped with a solvent or other evaporating cleaner (isopropanol).

I have a nice gloss coat of white on it now. I'll either leave it white and put some decals & pinstripes on or go entirely gold. (the white makes colours pop and it's not a bad idea if you're going with light colours).

Also plan on doing multiple gloss topcoats (Minwax Helmsman polyurethane finish) - LONG drying time and thin coats.

I'll post more pics once I've got 'em!

See attached photos.