If you are just looking to make a better looking beater out of an ugly beater, a product I have found that works fairly well is Rustoleum spray truck bed coating. It is tougher that regular spray enamels by a long shot and leaves a satin sheen finish in black or tan. The finish isn't perfectly smooth, almost like 800 grit sandpaper, and hides imperfections and scratches well. I refinished an old Trek 700 frame for a gravel mutt by using an electric sander and a spot sand blaster to remove almost all of the original paint. I used Duplicolor rattle can primer and two coats of the Rustoleum. It got a few rock chips but held up pretty well over two years of mixed surface and winter riding and still looks good, very similar to the flat black retro look that some manufacturers came out with in recent years.