Cadfael

I picked this up the other week from my LBS...



It is an old Raleigh Winner 5 speed. It is intended as a winter bike for my commute to work. It has been well looked after, but the frame is looking a bit tired, with a few rust spots. I gather there is nothing special about the bike, they were mass produced. So with that in mind I figured I should respray the frame.

Problem is I have absolutely no clue about this type of work. I am not looking to get a super high gloss finished, just something to protect the frame from further degradation. It has been suggested I just remove all the components, sand the surface down and apply a smooth Hammerite spray, which is designed to go over rust. I may be being picky, but that does not sound all that clever to me?

Any advice would be welcome?

MBinMTL

Hello,

I've got a commuter bike that started life looking remarkably similar to your bike. I removed all the components and had it sandblasted and powdercoated flat blue. That finish has held up much better than my factory painted bikes. Did the same with one of my girlfriend's bikes in flat black with similar results. The finish is very scratch resistant and holds up well even through harsh winters here in Montreal.

I did once try to strip and spray paint a frame myself. I did some research on proper paint removal, metal preperation, priming and painting. I really took my time, was very thorough yet the results were terrible. The paint chipped if you even thought of resting the frame against a hard object. Maybe I suck at spray painting, but for me the $120 to sandblast and powdercoat was well worth the result. I found that powdercoaters had a very broad range of prices, (I called everyone in the yellowpages). The cheapest option was always a color they already had in stock. If you are having trouble finding someone in your area, try talking to a garage that works on motorcycles.

cheers and good luck whatever you chose,
mb

dabac

Mirrors my experiences all the way.

I've had tolerable results with hammerite, but it still screams DIY from twenty paces.
Still, it keeps the rust off and is less ugly than the sun-bleached color scheme it replaced.

Retro Grouch 

That's a pretty frequently asked question. If you do a search I'm sure you will find dozens of threads on the subject. The majority opinion seems to be you can get it stripped and powder coated for around $100.00 to $150.00.

I rattle can spray about 1 bike frame per year. By the time I buy stripper, sandpaper, paint thinner, primer and spray paint, I've got around $30.00 or so in materials and it's still a pretty labor intensive job. I'm OK with the results that I get and I don't have the chipping problems that other people compaln about. I don't claim results that rival a factory paint job, however.

tellyho

I have never been happy with the rattlecan job on my fixie. In fact, it's currently in pieces with a rusty BB shell, waiting to be acid-dipped, sandblasted and powdercoated. The paint you have on there currently is WAY beefier than any rattlecan job you can do.

The tough part of rattlecanning (if that's a word) is the surface prep. You need to get all the old paint off and have a super clean, dry, and grease-free surface to get any worthwhile adhesion. And even then, it's going to chip in 2 seconds.

For a mediocre frame, I highly suggest cleaning up the frame and touching up the rusty spots with some auto touch up paint and forgetting about it. You could even hit the rust with some naval jelly before touch up if you felt really dedicated and had nothing whatsoever better to do. But a complete strip and paint of this frame is really not worth your time.

Cadfael

Thanks for the comments, I think TellyHo has hit the nail on the head. It is just a winter bike that cost almost nothing, going to town on the frame could cost way more than the bike is worth... and it will still be worth very little then.

Common sense has prevailed finally.