Originally Posted by Wogsterca

Like any other painting job, PREPARATION is the key, it's not uncommon on many painting jobs to take 10 hours of preparation and 1 hour of painting. First you need a good assessment of the existing paint, one problem with paint is that it builds up, you need to make sure that there are not too many layers on there already, you also need to make sure there is NO rust anywhere, and no dents in the frame, you also need to make sure you fill in any nicks, deep scratches and chips so that the surface is nice and even. Make sure the frame is totally clean, anything like grease or oil, even in trace amounts can kill your paint job. Next you need to mask off the BB and headset, you could remove the external parts of the headset, then mask off the rest. Give the existing paint a good sanding to give it a rough surface for the new paint to adhere to. Go over it with a tack cloth to remove any dust, do this again just before painting. Remember that ANY imperfection in the surface will show through the finished paint (this is the problem with many rattle can paint jobs, they don't prep anywhere near enough). If you know the model and year of the bike, see if you can get a set of original or reproduction decals to finish it off.

Really consider the difficulties of spraying paint, bicycle tubes are hard to spray well, so consider Rand's brush technique, especially in a city like Boston, this time of year when you need to work indoors under central heating.