Some of you may remember the 1952 Paff I acquired and repainted a couple of years ago. Still a great riding bike and starting to acquire its own patina which I am happy about.

But during that renovation I found the original fork was compromised, so I substituted in a repainted newer fork. It looks and works fine, but one thing that has always bothered me is the original had chrome socks and my replacement did not. No way I was going to pay to chrome the fork either.

Recently I came across another fork, this one with chrome socks. I did a test fit and it works even better than my first replacement, so all I needed to do is paint. This I did yesterday.

It turned out great. I had let the paint (Rustoleum/Tremclad) dry for 12+ hours and then removed the masking tape. Fantastic! What I didn’t see though was that I had laid my hand on one of the blades and the paint though dry was still soft enough I now have a light palm print right along the blade. Dang!

Gonna let it harden for a couple of days then see if it will polish out, however my experience with Rustoleum is it doesn’t take to polishing well. If it doesn’t I will light sand and recoat just that blade and leave it alone for a week!

Lesson learned: don’t touch it until you are really sure the paint has cured!!!!

Been there!

While I’m not familiar with the variety of Rustoleum you used, my experience with Rustoleum paint in general is that it takes a loooong time to cure. Give it a week or more before you mess with it. If the palm print isn’t too deep I’ll bet it’ll polish out. Good luck!

I am a Rustoleum fan and totally agree with the above comment - the paint drys (not cures) slowly. And even a month of dry time is not completely adequate (I base that comment on experience). I gave the paint on this old Torpado a couple of months to dry and, today, the paint is darn near bullet proof...


Turns out pretty good, does not cost an arm and a leg and is durable after given a year or so to dry hard. And easy to apply just about anywhere, even the kitchen, using a 1" brush and practice...


Rustoleum white is also a personal favorite...

Look on the bright side, if someone steals your bike you can now prove it's yours by the palm print.

randyjawa

What if you had an auto, truck or car should make no difference, that was parked facing into the sun and you left the frame set to dry in there. Do you think it might speed up the process? Cars can get very hot by human standards during hot summer days.
I've always wondered how a home paint job could be made to dry faster and thus harder.

UV lamps work well on many kinds of paint.

Something about this I don't understand.

I had a can of Krylon spray paint explode in my garage once, splattering my car, and by the time I found it the stuff was rock hard. The car wasn't cleaned, primed, sanded, or otherwise in any way prepared to be painted. You'd think the paint would flake off, but no, it was bonded. I asked a friend who had a body shop, and he said that wasn't coming off without sanding down and repainting the whole side of the car.

How can this be?

"Tremclad" is Canadian for "Stops Rust"

krylon is great paint. that's why it won't come off, and dried quickly.
it's also forgiving when it comes to applying too much..it rarely sags and any runs dry to nearly invisible, IME.

Rustoleum drys slowly, sags and runs with little notice, and will sheet-sag if it gets too warm... i leave it to dry for 24 hours before picking up, re-coating, or remounting a part.

unfortunately, use/QUALITY of a product no longer drives Stocking of a product... a sales rep that uses incentives does.

an even better rattle can paint is PlastiKote... super quick dry times, really great adhesion, re-coat at will, and so forgiving you become over-confident..
their sales reps must be on permanent vacation or something. ...

Yep... Never used Tremclad but I have hand painted 5 of my bicycles using Rust-Oleum gloss enamel and they have turned out great. I live in Central Texas and add about 20% mix of Penitrol Oil based additive to get better flow of the paint to the surface. After a few days of drying at room temperature I hang my frames in the attic to harden up. At least one month drying time is good. And yes the paint is thick, and protective, with a nice shine, no clear coat needed.


Rust-Olium Oil Based Gloss Enamel (Kubota Orange)

Good question. When I lived with my parents as a kid growing up, my dad was a building maintenance salesman, a creative one. One of the things he made was a heat box (plywood, light bulb fitted inside, lid, hinges and clasp). It was used, originally to warm up, as in heat caulking to 120 degrees F. He invented the heat box and the company he worked for gave him a bonus for it. That said, he also discovered that he could hasten the paint drying process as well (long story). So...

In my book, heat does accelerate the paint drying process. I even tried using a bike box for a frame/fork, with a portable 100w light bulb inside but cannot honestly say it did anything (only tried it once so not enough date to support any claim).

These days, my heat box is the great outdoors of Northwestern Ontario, Canada during the heat of summer. Summer was on a Tuesday the year I painted and allowed to dry this fifties something old German racing bike hanging from the clothes line in the back yard at the lake cottage...

Me are to.........
Eye had this hapen and chacked it up as personalination.
Best, Ben

Progress report (I know you are all waiting breathlessly)…..

Have wet sanded all the blemishes off; we are suffering a cold snap now so waiting (impatiently but trying to learn my lesson) for a warmer day to reapply the paint.

Final note on the journey: I managed to rid myself of paint blemishes and get the fork mounted. I think it looks great.

Here’s the original fork (after removing a rattle can paint job, uncovering questionable chrome, painting in the new colour, discovering the rust hole in the chrome sock, and just saying done with this one. But at least you can see the original striping).



Next is the bike with the first replacement fork - worked great but no chrome socks or crown.



Finally, the new replacement fork….