balmore1312

I'm thinking of rebuilding a bianchi premio from the 90s the paint is a bit chipped and it just doesn't look as spiffy as I would want it to. Anyone have any ideas or recommendations on painting or restoring paint on these bikes?

fietsbob

Strip it, take all the parts off, then turn the job over to a powder coater.

balmore1312

What would you say is a fair price for that?

fietsbob

I'd ask the Shop that's doing the work ... I have not a clue to which country you are in, for one..

I have a Friend that runs a powdercoating Shop, the most expensive part is the power to heat the small room sized oven to melt the powder..

so if you have a bunch of stuff getting done at once, the cost per item is cheaper..


If you get your stuff done and the color is the same as someone is getting their Harley M/C frame and a lot of other parts, done
and you are willing to wait a year for that big job to come along, to pay for most of it, it's really cheap.

NB, this is unique.. already having a rapport, with the business owner , for years before asking ..





...

cs1

A good powder coater will get $100 and up. Anything less is usually an amateur or someone who doesn't specialize in motorcycle or bicycle frames. I'm sure lots of folks will chime in about their $5 show piece job. But it just isn't so. Good luck.

squirtdad

I have painted 2 frames so based on that here is what I learned

Rattle can (ie what you can get in spray cans at hardware store) can come out really well, but is not durable
Automotive paint is a ton more durable, but more expensive and toxic (can be done using pre-val sprayers)

Costs for either will be a lot more than expected if you do a really nice job that looks good (at least for me)

Good mask ($30-50 right there if you don't have one)
stripper
primer (2 types)
color
clear
miscellaneous stuff like rags, sandpaper etc

process that i used

Strip to bare metal...any leftover paint at all will show in final result, I had best results with chemical stripper which is nasty

clean all stripper residue

acid etch primer coat

sandable primer coat

sand

get all dust off

2 to 4 thin color coats, paying close attention to recoat times and outside temperature

2 to 3 thin clear coats paying close attentions to recoat times.


The first bike I painted with rattlecan is looking a bit scruffy.....that one I will have powder coated when the time comes

Juan Foote

You could "easy way out" and contact a local (car) paint shop with a media blaster (sand/bead). One of my local buddies does this for $300, single color.

ramzilla

I recently got a bike frame & forks powdercoated for $125. That included surface prep, chemical removal of old paint, some sandblasting &, one heavy coating of powdercoat. Only problem was that the powdercoater didn't mask the headset. (Should have removed the headset before I took the bike in). And, afterwards I had to treat inside of bike frame tubing with frame saver (actually LP3). It turned out very nice. Considering all the hassles of DIY painting I think it was well worth it.

_ForceD_

I will also suggest powdercoating. I recently had a frame PC'd and am very happy with the results. All the frame prep...and two forks (because one fork was slightly damaged and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to reuse it...which I wasn't. So that's why I had two forks done) cost me $150.00.
Like ramzilla pointed out...there are various nooks and crannies that need to be blocked from getting powder coated. Unless your PCer is a cyclist he won't know. I went over everything on the frame with my PCer (or so I thought)...steer tube bearing race (if you remove it), braze-on cable bosses, shifter lugs, head tube where the bearing cups are inserted, drain holes, etc. The one thing I forgot to consider was the width of space in the dropouts...specifically the rear dropouts. When I tried to (re)mount the wheel, the axle would not fit in the dropout. Just a bit too much powder built up on the surfaces and resulted in too narrow of a space for the axle. It was a simple fix...I just used a fine file to the top and bottom a little bit...and actually there's still no metal showing. But, the powdercoater probably could have prevented that had I pointed it out to him. I didn't have a problem with the front dropouts.

Dan

balmore1312

I'm planning on keeping my headset on since I don't have the tools to remove it and install it. Is there a good way to cover the headset?

Andrew R Stewart 

There are masking materials suitable for powder coating (and the heat of the curing step). But understand that with every added hands on step comes added cost, not just for the extra time and materials spent but also the deviation from simple work needing no unique prep care. A lot of powder coater outfits are targeting the industrial customer and don't have the mind to high details that end users expect. Andy