Stripping and painting
 

Guys i have asked on other forums about the best(cheapest) was of preparing a frame for paint, most people on other forums have recommended that i get it done professionally, this is way out of my price as i want to get it done cheap as mentioned.

Can you sand the paint of the frame , or as a last resort use any sort of stripping chemicals to get the frame preped.

And also would autmotive spray paint and primer be any good for the painting section of it.

Plus how do you break a chain in 2 its causing me no end of hassle

what do you mean by breaking it in? as in its just stuck? locked up? or makes noise?

no mean break the link s to get it off

Sanding by hand may take a long time. If you have a electic drill, a wire bristle brush could speed the whole process up. Finish it up by hand, but don't go too fine and polish the metal. You need a little roughness for the primer to grab on. Also use gloves to prevent oils and salt from your hand from getting on the bare metal.

You'll need a chain tool to push out one of the pins. Getting it back in might be a problem though. You may need to get a special pin or maybe a quick link.

$75 for a blast and one coat is pretty cheap IMHO. The materials cost for DIY approaches this at any rate. And you'll still have a craptastic job.

yea, you'll want to make sure your chain allows the pin to be placed back in, even if you don't push it all the way through. you'll want to get the sram quick link chain, so u can replace the chain quickly and easily.

One quart of methylene chloride based paint remover available at Home Despot sells for about $10. You have to use this stuff outside, and you'll need gloves and safety glasses, but it not super deadly stuff.

Auto parts stores have a huge selection of auto touch-up paint. You can get a very presentable job with air dried spray paint, but it is not very durable -- the finish is very soft and easily scratched.

Catalyzed auto paints, the same stuff your bike was painted with at the factory, will produce a factory finish -- shiny, hard and durable. Problem is that catalyzed auto paints are expensive, need to be applied with a spray gun/ air compressor combo and THE UNCURED PAINT IS DEADLY POISONOUS. Such paint needs to be applied while wearing a respirator and protective clothing.

Go to home depot and get some Jasco, a bunch of steel wool, some painter's rags, and whatever color of Rust-Oleum Gloss Protective Enamal spray paint you want. Total cost, around twenty bucks.

STRIPPING:

Jasco is like the pee of Satan. Don't get any on your hands, or they'll start stinging badly almost immediately. Use goggles and cover your nose and mouth with something. The key is to strip the frame in sections. Use gloves and some rags to apply a GENEROUS quanity of Jasco over the section you're working on. Let it sit for like twenty to thirty minutes. Don't let it dry, or the paint will re-adhere. After the twenty-thirty minutes is up, start removing the bubby goo that the paint on that section has now become. Try a rag, it might slide right off- or use the steel wool.

CLEANING:

Once the bike is completely bare, rinse it clean with water. Be careful to minimize the amount of water that gets in the frame- a good trick is to stuff rubber dog balls (various sizes) into the holes to form moisture barriers before rinsing. Towel the frame dry, and make sure any and all specks of paint or goo is gone.

Dry the frame BONE DRY. Place it in front of a heater or radiator (not too close). You want to make sure any moisture inside the frame has evaporated.

PAINTING

the Rust-Oleum stuff mentioned above is pretty great. It covers evenly, doesn't drip or create odd textures. And it's DURABLE. For the most part, it sticks to any metal surface (even glossy painted ones) very well. Follow the directions and you'll get close to pro results- I've never seen such good results from a can- if done properly.

If you want to do a multi-color design, use painter's masking tape, available at home depot. It's blue. Paint a section one color, apply tape where you want color borders to be, and spray on the new color. Be very careful of over-spray- sometimes it's best to tape plastic trash bags over the sections you're not painting. Be sure to alloy at least 48 hours for the first color to fully dry and bond to the metal before you tape or apply the second color. Wait 48 to 72 hours before building the frame up after you finish painting.

Don't paint anywhere wind or a draft can carry dust in the air. Particles will stick to the paint during the drying process, and it will look awful. This stuff has a fairly long drying process, and remains tacky for up to seven hours, so be extra careful of this... of course, don't paint without ventilation, or you'll get high and jump out a window like the chick in that 70's movie about LSD.

TIP

Be PATIENT. If you rush or half-ass any part of the process, your frame will definitely look horrible, or it won't be durable, or something else bad. Just take your time and be extra careful.

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SUGGESTION

I once went to a Maaco's near closing time with a six pack, and talked a guy into spraying a prepped frame for 25 bucks...

I've rattle canned my frame several times and I give up. You can never get a good prep with anything other than bead blasting, and rattle can paint is just too soft for bicycles.

I tried paint stripper and sanding and and rust inhibitors, etc, and the rust always came back. Once I had it bead blasted, no rust whatsoever.

Rattle can paint will always be soft. It can be pretty if you are a good painter, but always soft. A good hard, catalyzed or acrylic urethane paint (like Imron) is very expensive.

So you can do a good job with bead blasting ($30-40) and then catalyzed or urethane paint ($50-75+), but if you can have a painter bead blast and powder coat the fram for less than $100, to me its a no brainer.

Hey, I saw your post on stripping and painting, and thought I would respond since I have some prior experience in that area (used to do restoration work on old musclecars a number of years ago).

Stripping with aircraft stripper or anything you find at the big box stores is a pain, and yes the chemicals are noxious and will burn the fool out of you. Many years ago, I found a stripper that was quite pleasant to work with - and which is very effective as well.

The product is Captain Lee's Spra'Strip - below is a link to the manufacturer. Many automotive restoration suppliers also sell it; I did find, however, that the product was best when as fresh as possible, so I bought it direct from the manufacturer.

http://www.halonmarketing.com/mall/Spra'%20Strip.php

This stuff goes on with a normal spray bottle; it bubbles the paint nicely; you can then just scrape it off easily. If you work over a sheet of plastic, just let it hit the floor. It will dry up to paint flakes, and you can SWEEP it up rather than having a goopy mess as you'd find with other strippers. It has an ammonia-type smell, but is not nearly as strong as regular household ammonia. And, unlike other strippers, it won't burn you if you get it on you - you'd still want to wash it off, but it's not caustic like aircraft stripper. Since you're spraying it, definitely want to work out of the wind, and wear goggles while spraying.

Hope this info helps!

Anyone ever had bead blast done in central Illinois and can recommend a place?

I'm in California, so I don't know any beadblasters in your area. Check the Yellow Pages.
IMPORTANT!
Once the frame is blasted, PRIMER IMMEDIATELY!!

Put at least 2 coats on the frame. Even 3 if you're on a roll.

Now sand all the little blems & imperfections.

Clean with PPG's DX 330 Wax & Grease Remover.

A final coat of primer.

Spray color/clear.

Done! If you sprayed rattle can paint, wait 2-4 weeks before assembling bike.

Any other questions? Contact me anytime!:D

Yes it would!
But now you'll blow your budget right out the window!
PPG DPLF primer, catalyst & reducer...
About $60-$70
PPG basecoat color & reducer...
About $40
PPG 2042 Clear, catalyst & Reducer...
About $100
Blasting frame...
About $30-$40

TOTAL= $250. + or -

And you'll have enough material for about 6 frames. More if you use an HVLP spray gun!

So, you coooould DIY or....
Send it to me, be to be profesionally sprayed...;)
6 of one, half dozen of the other.
You decide!:D

Chemical Paint Stripper - $10 - hardware store
Wet/Dry Sandpaper - $5 - hardware store
Wire Brush - $5 - hardware store
Chainbreaker - $10 - bike shop
Warm day - Free - outside
5+ hours - your time - outside

If you're going to use a rattle can to paint, there's no need to strip the frame down to bare metal. Sand it down almost to the factory primer, then paint. I've painted several frames in this fashion.

I agree. I've spent hours cleaning, sanding, base coating, color coating, clear coating with rattle cans numerous times. It sort of looks good when you're done but encounter the simplest little ding and the paint cracks right off. I've figured anything less than $200 (stripped, painted, shipped) for powdercoating is a no brainer.

hmm, strippers, wierd.

My $.02:

I did a REALLY diligent rattlecan job on my fixie w/ three nice coats and two clear coats. It looked pretty sweet- but it still wasn't free. I took her out and within a week it had many chips- ugh.

In retrospect, I would (and probably will) have paid the $75 to have it powder coated. The pc jobs look pretty nice, me thinks.

I will say a DIY paint job is fun to do though/

I painted a frame with spray paint and it held up for several years. There are a couple key things to remember.

Temperature. Follow the directions on the can with reguard to this. It's pretty important.
Prep. Don't sand down to the bare metal if you can avoid it. Sand every square mm of the frame that will be painted.
Clean it. Use something from paint supply place. If there is any grease, dust or oil anywhere, the paint will come off.
Paint. Don't skimp on the paint. Go to a paint supply place and have them mix up some quality automotive paint and put it in a rattle can. It's not cheap, but worth it after all the work you just did.
Let it Cure. Resist the temptation to go out and ride it (or even build it up) right away. Don't just wait for it to dry, give it plenty of time to harden.

I painted a bike rather recently with hammerite paint- good look, hard, no primer necessary... It costs about $7 for a can and that would get you at least 3-4 coats on the bike. If you're looking for cheap and easy, yet somewhat durable, you might dry sanding the frame as mentioned, but not to bare metal, and then putting a few layers of hammerite on.

Hi, I'm in the process of doing this at the moment. I started sanding the forks and frame. I decided to take it back to metal as there was some rust I needed to get rid of. I wasgoing to sand it all by hand but after about 6 hours of sanding the frame I gave in and bought some paint stripper to get all the small places like around all the tube joins.The paint came of the frame almost as I painted the stripper on. Guess it depends on the original finish. Once back to metal I primmed with metal primer. Waited 2 days then coated with gloss enamel, waited a day then put on a second coat. I've used Plasti-kote spray enamel. Looks good but I got a bit of orange peel in the finish, which is probably more my spraying than the paint. I'm going to add a clear coat to it in the next few days, to give it a bit more protection.The paint cost me $13 a can and I've used 2 cans, 1 primer and one colour. And then there'll be the clear coat. Kinda cheap I guess. I could of got cheaper paint too. At the moment the temperature here is 17-25 deg celcius, so its kinda warm, which I've read is better for curing paint. Its driving me nuts though not having a bike. Theres heaps of info on bikeforums about painting so doing a search will get you a wealth of infomation.
Before I started I rang aorund some powder coating places on got prices ranging from $90 (New Zealand $$) for black or white to $180 NZD for a colour.