Originally Posted by
eastbay71
If you go the spray can route I would say $10 for Primer, $25-50 for the Base Coat paint, $30 for the Clear Coat and then $50-$75 for decals and you need to factor in masking tape, tack rags, sand paper as well so add another $25 for that. It could cost up to $200. You could go cheaper and use the paint from your local big box store at about $5 per can but I've had some awful results with Valspar, Duplicolor, Krylon and Rustoleum.
On a couple of my bikes I've decided they earned their paint chips so I should just preserve what I have. In those cases I've just lightly wet sanded the frame with super fine sand paper and soapy water and then used Eastwood's Patina Protector to coat it. One can of Patina Protector lasts a long time. I've used it on the bumpers for my Bug and on 2 bikes and still have some left in the can.
And that doesnt include the stripper, never used a chemical stripper before so no clue about those. But most all of the extras I wouldn't need to buy (masking tape, sand paper, etc I already have). Have sandblaster too, might need media for it though. Think I may have glass beads for it.
You guys who say its not bad are you blowing the images up fullsize? The forum tends to shrink em way down unless you have a 24" + screen and have it fullscreen. One thing you could do is right click and view the image in a new tab by itself.
That Patina Protector looks interesting though, maybe I could just clean the rusted spots and the top tube cable guides that are bleeding rust, and then spray it all down with that Patina Protector. I'm not opposed to keeping it all original even if some parts are faded and scraped, mainly I want it protected so it wont continue to rust.