I just got my 1973 Moto Grand Record back from the powder coater. It is gorgeous (not going for an accurate restoration, something new. Illusion Copper). The plan is to hand paint the two lugs at the head tube a contrasting color (and the detail of the shoulder of the fork), and hand paint the gold outlines of all the lugs. I can post pics later. I have the contrast paint in the form of a small bottle of automotive touch up paint which I used for testing my color choices before it got sandblasted, and good brushes. But the powder coater guy was pushing me to get a small sprayer to do it (with super careful masking of course). He said I would be much happier with the outcome. But it's such a small bit of paint, just two lugs, that I'm hesitant to jump into all of that (I would have to go to Harbor Freight and get a sprayer.). Anyway, any and all opinions and advice welcome. I have new decals on the way from VeloCals (who were great to deal with).

I've seen really nice paint jobs done with extra layers of thinned paint, by thinning the paint more it eliminates the brush strokes or roller marks depending on application and lets the paint lay flatter. Down sides are more time involved due to more coats and the extra drying time. But, for the best results you still need to mask them and after 2 coats do a wet sand and another after a couple more coats with really fine paper. The results can look as good as spray but more time and effort are required.

Thanks. Yes I would certainly be masking regardless. The automotive paint dries very quickly so the time factor would not be troublesome. Not sure what to thin it with but I will check with the local supplier. Since I don't even own a sprayer, there's plenty of time & effort avoided or transferred to the brush painting time. I'll consult around and look for other replies here before jumping in.

While I was refinishing my Humber, I initially did it all with rattle cans (and lots of prep and sanding in between coats). For an experiment I used brush on paint for the chainguard following randyjawa instructions on his site. With careful application the brush paint looks equally good to the sprayed. I think brushing will work well for you if you are careful and you can always sand out defects….

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...the lug lining is a lot harder to do than it looks. I would suggest some experiment and practice on something else, first.
I'm still looking for some kind of paint pen that will produce a thin enough line to look good, and you might want to look for someone with a steadier hand.

A pin striping brush doesn't really work well, because of the difference in the surface levels. Here's one that is the best I could do at the time. Lately I've just skipped it.

If anyone else has a good tool for this, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Is there a link to that randyjawa site?

Here is a link to randyjawa's old site. It is a great resource. He sold the website some time ago but you can access his "old" site on the wayback machine. I tested this link and it appears to be safe.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190509...TRODUCTION.htm

I have found that a Uchida Deco Color Extra Fine Tip paint pen can give very good results. A source: Deco Color Pen

I did the lugs on this bike, including the detail on top of the fork crown.

Me too on the ultra-fine paint pen for lug lining. It's really quite easy to get near perfect results. Have some tissues and a little mineral spirits to wipe away any mistakes in real time and then redo the lining.

Lug lining gone wrong sounds like the title of a B-film.

One thing that hasn't come up I think is the type of paint to use over powdercoat. I wonder if a certain type of paint works best? The other thing is surface prep. I would think that a primer would assist the adhesion of the finish paint. Or maybe sanding the paint on the lug in order to create a rougher surface for mechanical adhesion of the finish paint. Just some thoughts.

Don't know how you would do that with the example of thin lining in post 8.

...thank you.

A trick I used to line and fill cutouts of the lugs on an all-chrome frameset was to use a fine artist's brush to apply some Elmer's Probond Plus glue where the paint was to be applied. This glue is water-based and drys clear, is supposed to stick to anything, and is paintable. I then lined the lugs with said ultrafine paint pen, filled the cutouts with Testor's, and then applied another coat of the glue. It looks and has held up fab.

You're welcome.

Ditto that.

Interesting but I don't quite follow. If you have a minute some more detail would be appreciated. Thanks.

My powder coater guy suggest a light wet sand of the lug with 400 grit, then the automotive touch up paint that I've got will adhere very well he said. Re the narrow liner paint adhering, he was confident that even without being able to sand that small angle there would be no problems.

The glue, clear when dried, acts like both a primer and a top coat on surfaces that may not take paint easily/well.

I used a rattle can to paint the lugs on my 3Rensho Allez. Not a contrasting color, but some previous owner had sanded the original paint off of them.



This picture was before I cleaned all the residue from the masking off. You can see that I left some ridges. I think you could effectively hide that with lug lining.

BTW, I also had a Grand Record powder coated. I had the lugs powder coated in a contrasting color (as well as the seat tube panels). I've heard that people only agree to mask Nervex lugs if they've never done it before.

So they did two runs of powder coat with masking? My guy didn't even offer that option. I assume it would have been prohibitively expensive.

I'd try to roughen it up as best you can. You can use a nail file to get into small, tight areas if need be.

Honestly, I'm not sure how they did it. The invoice on the Grand Record (which was done by Forever Powder Coating in Olympia) gave me the impression that they might have just painted the lugs, but I've since had a Grand Jubilé powder coated by Groody Bros, and I know they used powder because I placed the order for the powder and had it shipped to them.



So, I know it can be done, but I don't know how. I've heard that it involves some kind of specialized high temperature tolerant masking.

Wow, gorgeous.

Lots of discussion about lug lining in this thread about the frame builder Brian Chapman. Chapman uses a "fluid writer" tool.

Brian Chapman's lug lining

Harbor freight's might not be the sprayer to consider. I have no experience but I do have time and figured that I could use an air brush to do an entire frame or any parts thereof. Seen it on the internet.