I'm a pro painter with a major league pressure pot sandblaster and cabinet and other professional painting equipment so I am a bit removed from how to do a rattle can job. However I think about those things for my frame building class students. It doesn't take that long to emery all the tubes with 1" wide 80 grit emery (called production or shop cloth in industry catalogs). The harder to reach areas can be cleaned with some kind of a wire wheel. You can buy big ones for grinders, medium size ones for drills and small ones for a Dremel tool. It is important to wipe down the frame before priming (I can't imagine not priming a frame because of the advantages). I use lacquer thinner because I use a lot of it painting and it is powerful stuff. Be advised to use gloves doing this. An amazing amount of junk will come off. Now it is ready to prime.


There is a spray can product called Spray Max that can be bought at some professional automotive paint stores. They can put in it whatever kind of pro paint you choose. I like to use House of Kolor primers because they come in different colors and I can match the primer color to the top coat color. Thinned out it also works as a sealer. The Spray Max cans are designed that when ready to use, a button on the bottom is pushed and the activator is now mixed with the paint so it will harden by chemical action. Most professional paint works like epoxy and you have a certain time window to spray before it hardens. In other words they don't harden by air drying like house paint. Their spray nozzles are designed to apply paint better than those on a typical rattle can. What to do next is way beyond the scope of this subject thread but If i was somewhere else than at my shop I would buy 3 cans of Spray Max, the primer, the color and clear.