the technique I came across is as follows...i may give it a try..i dunno...i really dont have a place to do it, so, i may just wait, and have someone else do it for me...i dunno...randy


1. take all the parts off, mask headset, bb, whatever areas you don't want
to paint

2. sand with 320 grit or whatever rough sandpaper

3. apply thin coat of paint (remember, lots of thin coats, not fewer thick
ones)

4. let dry (I waited about 30 minutes, I think)

5. repeat steps 3 & 4 as many times as you like

6. sand with wet 400 grit sandpaper, wiping with towel to clear sanded bits

7. repeat step 6 with finer sandpaper, working your way up to 1500 or
whenever you want to stop. You'll notice even in the 600 grit range that,
when wet, the paint will look shiny smooth but then will look rough once
it's dry- so keep upping the grit count.

8. finish with rubbing compound ("removes grade 1500 or finer sanding
scratches")

9. put frame on shelf too look at while saving up for parts

Materials (approximate cost):

1- 3M Imperial Wetordry sandpaper assortment pack (P320-P800 grit) ($4)

1- 3M Imperial Wetordry sandpaper pack 1500 grit ($4)

1- 8 oz 3M rubbing compound ($6)

1- roll 3M automotive masking tape ($3)

1- 11 oz can Dupli-Color spray paint ($5)

1- roll paper towels

Depending on how many layers you want to put on, you may need more paint- I
thin did about 6 layers on the panel. Quality masking tape probably isn't
as necessary for a single-color paint job. I doubt I used more than 1oz of
rubbing compound and probably only needed 1 sheet of the 1500 grit- if the
assortment of 1500-2500 grit was in stock, I would have bought that. There
is also a higher-polish rubbing compound that works above 2000 grit or so,
but I wasn't that dedicated to this the first time around.

I was told that heating the spray can makes the mist finer, resulting in a
smoother finish, so I heated a pot of water to somewhat below boiling temp,
maybe in the low/mid-100F range, removed the pot from the stove, and let the
spraycan sit warm up in the water for a few minutes before applying paint.
I did this before each coat of paint. This may or may not be effective, but
I figured it couldn't hurt. Obviously, don't heat the can in the water
while on the stovetop as it could explode.

It might be worth noting that I didn't have any sort of clean room and live
in an area with lots of flying insects, spiders and spiderwebs hanging
about, but I was still able to get a smooth finish, probably because of the
many levels of sanding, though I also tried to avoid heavily-webbed areas,
of course.