Hi All,


Just a quick few questions on Frame painting. I'm painting a bike using rattle cans... not ideal but so far so good. I'm up to the primer after several layers of primer and filler primer. I'm about to do the colour coat but I'm wondering about the following...

Do I need to sand between coats?

Should I sand the final coat before I put on the clear? I've heard the you should sand it enough to take the shine off but then the clear puts its own shine back on... is this true?


How long should I wait before putting the clear on?


And finally! Should I put the decals on immediately after painting, or just before I put the clear on?


Apologies for all the questions... I'm new at this.


Thanks!


Stephen

This is an article on painting a bicycle with a paint brush(don't laugh - I do this frequently with excellent results and it is really cheap!). The steps all work well for spray painting with one exception. When painting with a brush, one does not have to worry about over-spray.

Painting Bicycles - Introduction

Hope this is a help.

It depends on the particular paint you are using. Follow the intructions on the can. The acrylic enamel I'm using requires that you apply the next coat within one hour or wait one week and then sand and spray. The clearcoat goes on within one hour, too. I'm doing three coats of color and then three coats of clear. The decals go under the clear. You want warm weather and low humidity for spraying, especially when spraying clear. I painted the fork on Saturday, and was going to paint the frame Sunday, but the weather changed and spoiled my plans.

Thanks for the advice. The instructions for the specific spay cans I'm using says that I should wait two whole weeks for the colour to harden.. but doesn't say anything about using a clear coat. The clear coat also says it needs two weeks to fully dry. I'm assuming I don't need to wait the full drying time for the colour coat if I intend to use a clear coat. Is this correct?

My main concern is by leaving too much time between the colour coat and the clear coat that the clear won't bond properly or the finish will be affected....

You're correct on the clear, treat it just as if you were applying another color coat, so within one hour or the time specified.

And to speed up drying/hardening times, I just did a little dupli-color matching/ partial respray myself this weekend on a frame. I use a quartz ceramic space heater about 6-12 inches from the frame for about 20 minutes. I'll still probably wait a week before I do anything, but if you don't force-dry, a month wait is best.

And finally!

Is it completely necessarily to sand the colour coat before applying the clear? If I left the colour coat with the gloss intact with it radically affect the finish on the clear or is that simply a case of best practice? I ask because if I'm only waiting an hour or so before I apply the clear will the colour coat be dry and hard enough to wet sand without making a mess of it?


Thanks for the replies everyone


Stephen

Didn't we make ourselves clear?

Yes, just double checking as I don't want to screw it up...!

I book-marked your article, Randy. Thanks.

the article that randyjawa posted is pretty thorough. I'm definitely considering painting my next bike by brush. One question: what type of paint should be used? He mentioned rustoleum etc. but what type of paint? acrylic? latex? something else?

Sorry I forgot to put that information in the article on painting with a brush. Here is a name brand product, Tremclad, that I used for the Peugeot. The process does take a bit of practice but you can do a pretty good job if you take your time.

I try to use a plastic based rust preventing paint primer and color coat. The results are not bad and certainly good enough for the likes of me. I might add, that for those of you who do want to spray, Krylon spray bombs work just great also... Third place in the cheapo contest was painted with a Krylon spray bomb. Messy and expensive when compared to brush, but faster and looks pretty good.

Hope this is a help.

Legnano_Consv_Forks_1.jpg

Hmm. Tremclad is available in Canada but not the US. Perhaps they use a different name here.

I have used Krylon with great success also. Both in brush on and spray bomb. Have a look here....

My Legnano, third place in the cheapo contest, was painted with Indoor/Outdoor Krylon but I used a spray bomb for that job. I doubt I will use spray again. Too messy and four times the cost.