kevintshaver

I'm stripping down a dirty old bike frame. Just curious, why do you need to remove the bearing cups from a frame to properly paint it? All the tutorials I've found say it should be done, but I don't understand why it matters if you're masking off the cups or the bracket opening behind it.

Thanks.

Bianchigirll 

Hello Kevin welcome to the forums. You need to remove the bearings, cups, races, screws everythign so the frame can be properly prepared. Since the frame was completely bare whan painted at the factory there is paint under and behind the bearings. Not removing this old paint and accumulated grease and dirt can affect the quality of the new paint.

Booger1

You don't have too......Moisture can get under the paint at the edges.....the fewer edges the better.That's why good paint jobs on cars remove as much as possible....windows,trim,lenses,ect....the fewer the edges the better.

kevintshaver

OK, thanks for the info. I'm going to remove everything. I was thrown off because this frame must not have been completely bare at the factory. There's paint on the inside of the bearing cups, at least on the head tube cups. It's a low quality bike so I'm sure some corners got cut.