BMX - Painting a bike...

I want to paint my bike frame.

Do i need to peel or sand off all the old paint and ****??? or do I just paint over it...

Right now it's in the color it came when I bought it awhile ago, it's a bright red, but i wanna paint it brown or something like that...

If you just spray paint over it it wull chip off in a week. Sand the bike down untill it's smooth and then put a layer of primer on it, then paint. If you just start spraying you'll be doing it every week or so, take the time and do it right, BMX plus had an article about it about a year and a half ago.

-Middi-zon

What about using that stuff to take off-paint.. seen it at the auto-store last week. I know one was designed to work on aluminum.. would it be safe to use?

A good bike paint job will cost over $300. Anything less and you will get what you pay for.

Try to find a place that powdercoats. they have many different colors and will strip it down. I am not sure of the price though.

i was wondering this myself.... my girlfriend is an artist, and i thought it would be cool if she painted some detail on my shocks. is there a certain type of paint she should use? would we have to cover the paint with some sort of laquer?

Ok, I'm just gonna sand it down and then paint it brown probablly.... but I'm not sure, I may just ride it the way it is...

or buy a new bike frame...

Originally posted by gonesh9
i was wondering this myself.... my girlfriend is an artist, and i thought it would be cool if she painted some detail on my shocks. is there a certain type of paint she should use? would we have to cover the paint with some sort of laquer?

If you have to ask...

If you have to ask...

sorry, i'll try not to ask any questions.

Originally posted by 1oldRoadie
A good bike paint job will cost over $300. Anything less and you will get what you pay for.

I beg to differ. We have done several bike frames for less than $100 painted by a professional! I strip them sand them Marshall paints and finishes them. Marshall did my persoanl rig my color specs, using a two stage paint and 4 coats of clear. Haven't chipped it yet! I guess though small town small town prices. He agrees with me though, we are not that greedy as long as we get something out of it we are happy.

And how many hours did you spend stripping and sanding?

And how much is your time worth?

And who polished in-between coats?

And did Marshall use paint left over from some other job and didn't charge you for it? Good paint can go for several hundred dollars a gallon....and you can not buy it by the oz.

And who masked the frame to separate the colors? or was it just a simple one color thing?

And who applied the new decals under the clear coat, how long did they work? how much per hour did they charge?

Who bought the decals and paid for shipping or printing?

Who's shop and equipment did you use? was it Marshall's or his bosses? Does his boss know that he was using the equipment?

Does Marshall make his living painting and gave his buddy a break? I hope if he is a good gun man his services are worth a little over $5 or $6 bucks an hour? And if he is an employee of a shop his wages only represent aabout 50 to 60% of his cost to the company on a break even basis.

And if Marshall really screws up...who buys more paint and re sands the whole dang thing?

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!

I spent a total of 4 hours striping and sanding and polishing. I DID IT MYSELF! I bought the paint, it is one color, he did all the paint work, there are no decals, Marshall own his shop and his equpiment and is his own boss, he is a very good Christian man. Like I said in my earlier post but apparently you neglected to read what I said about the money issue. Also since you have NEVER SEEN what we turn out how would you know anything about it? Oh I also own my shop am my own boss etc.
Perhaps you should look into things better instead of jumping the gun so quick.

ok children, calm down here.

powdercoating would be the best way to go, unless you have the hok up like hunter does.

does anyone know the avg price to get a bike powdercoated?

i've seen some damm nice paint jobs come out of a 5 dollar can of spray paint. of course no where near what you can get for $300.00 but nice enough that you don't cringe when you look at it.

I think when you talk about bmx frames the quality of paint is not as important as a road bike or something simalar.

bmx bikes take a beating. they get scratched up no matter how good the paint job is. and they are expendable.
you may have the same road bike frame for years and years but very few bmx frames last that long.

why spend 300 on a paint job for a frame that cost about the same?

also, bmx bikes come apart so easily it's not hard to repaint the frame every few weeks if so desired.

my suggestion is to lightly sand the frame down. you don't have to go to bare metal, just scuff the original paint and make sure it's clean from grease and dirt. If you want, take it to a sandblaster and they should charge you about 25 bucks to get it to bare metal. this ensures the paint will be smooth, provided you know how to use a spray can....

then hang it up in as warm of a place as you can and spray the thing w/ your favorite rattle can color.

slap the parts back on in a few hours and proced to pound the cr@p out of it. it's a bmx bike, that's what they are for.


I personally don't care about the color of my bike as long as it's not pink. if the thing is running good, and I'm healthy enough to ride, that's all that matters to me.

Originally posted by 1oldRoadie
If you have to ask...



Um, I think that's what he's doing. :p

Um, I think that's what he's doing. :p
woot spray paint is awesome but use premium stuff dont skimp out and use quk-color use like krylon and similar brands



Clothes Make the man naked people are rarely recognized for opinions or taken seriously

I want to paint my bike frame.

Do i need to peel or sand off all the old paint and ****??? or do I just paint over it...

Right now it's in the color it came when I bought it awhile ago, it's a bright red, but i wanna paint it brown or something like that...



In my opinion I think that sanding the frame down to the metal is the best way to do it. The finish will be smooth and will be really durable.

Check the dates, dumbass. It's been 15 months since someone replied to this.

How to strip and paint in under 4 hours:


-Buy a large and small size METAL paint stripper that fits onto a drill.

-Do the job all at once as you're going to have very small paint chips stuck to your body/eyes/hair/clothes/garage floor.

-To make the job easier work on what angles you hold the drill until you see a difference in how much strips off.

-I stripped mine on the ground in our back yard

-If you are pressing too hard, you could probably angle it or change your location in relation to the bike.

-Rotate the bike and try grinding off paint from different angles, it will decrease the time it takes to strip.

-You can paint the bike with all the cables and crank on if you like. Get a piece of cardboard to hide things as your painting. Example: when I painted the left side of the vertical tube in front of the crank, I put the cardboard behind the tube to stop paint from getting on the crank. When I painted the tubes with cables on them, I pulled on the cable and got the cardboard under it to mask it.

- NEVER hold a spray paint can in one spot. You must always be moving the can or you will get runs. Start spraying in the air or on the cardboard then move in waves back and forth across the tubes.


-If an area is hard to get to, flip the bike around until it isnt. Dont lean over upside down on the other side to paint something.

-Let it dry, add more.

-If paint chips, give it a nice touch up.

-Dont forget the cardboard!

-For those that dont like my grammar, you'll get over it :)

The thread was started 2 years ago. I'm sure he's done something to the bike since then.

this is the correct way to paint a bike:

go to your local auto body shop and ask them if they have any left over paint from projects or from deadbeat buyers.

buy a product called auto strip and strip your whole bike down to the bare metal.

clean and dry your bare metal bike with soap and water

shoot it with grey primer for darker color bikes

shoot it with grey primer and then a coat of flat black for light color bikes

wet sand the bike to get out any runs or streaks

build a makeshift spray booth and spray the automotive paint on with a spray gun

put on decals and shoot with a clear coat

low-budget way

buy rustoleum and spray it on