ianpaschal

First of all, sorry if this is not the right area for this question. Painting a frame and building a frame are not the same thing, of course, but I wasn't sure where else to put it.

Anyway, I am painting what is now a galvanised and primed frame, but I would like to paint the lugs a different colour from the tubes. I'm running into all kinds of trouble though with respect to masking off the lugs.

So far I've come up with two approaches, but neither works very well:

1. Paint the lugs, then run masking tape around the edges and follow up with painting the tubes. The flaw? Masking tape can't handle the compound curves... this method requires either the bottom edge of the tape (on the lug edge) to contract, or the upper edge (sticking off) to expand, neither of which his possible with masking tape.

2. Paint the tubes. Add tape to the tubes, then cut along the edge of the lugs. The flaw? I can't cut a nice smooth curve in the masking tape without messing up the paint underneath, plus it's just a tricky task to cut a smooth curve with an x-acto knife and make it look good.

I've seen a lot of bikes with different coloured lugs than tubes though, so I know someone must have figured out the secret. Mind sharing?

Andrew R Stewart 

There are people out here with FAR more experience in painting then I have but I'll add my $.02 anyway. Generally the darker color goes on second. So if the lugs are to be white and the tubes black then the lugs get done first. In some cases the whole frame is painted the lighter color so there's no change of hue to the darker color (because the darker color can vary depending on it's being over different under layer colors).

As to masking: my only experience with lugs has been with masking stainless. So laying down a strip of masking tape and then cutting along the lug's edge is straight forward (but not always easy to do cleanly). Removal is done with first cutting the edge of the mask to prevent the paint from chipping over the edge. I have heard of using thin strips of tape that can follow the lug's curves better to set the edge then wider strips for the body of the lug. I use high quality masking tape I got from an auto paint shop and SHARP Xacto blades.

There is a paint on product which dries to a rubbery nature. After painting over this it can be pulled off. I had some once but never tried it.

Like all skills, practice counts. Try various methods to find which you seem to get a handle on then practice some more. This is just one of the reasons that a pro paint job (with wet paint) costs what it does. The painter has already practiced, knows his materials and how to get the look wanted.

Looking forward to hearing from the pros too, Andy.

ianpaschal

Thanks for the suggestions.

Although with black and white, light to dark is important, I've done quite a bit of painting and in my experience, colour order doesn't matter that much when you're painting anything less than extremes of the spectrum. Maaaaaaaybe it needs one more coat than usual, but hey, that doesn't hurt the paint job, especially if it means more precise masking.

Basically what I realised is that even when cutting my tape to narrow strips (about 1/8"), it simply does not play nice around the compound curves so I think I HAVE to paint the tubes, mask on that surface, and then paint the lugs.

I've also realised I can get a fairly accurate map of the lugs buy wrapping the tube in paper and using a piece of drawing charcoal to get a rubbing of the lugs. Hopefully then I can cut some tape to the right shape and lay it in. It probably won't be super precise, but then I can go back in with a very small brush and do some touch ups in the groove between the lug and the tube.

Craig Ryan 

You probably will want to shoot the lug, mask it, then shoot the tubes, but it could go either way. Tape, then cut the line you want with a new blade. It's not uncommon to mask more than once in the painting process. Practice, and make sure you have good tape, a lot of blades, and a magnifier. This is very hard and requires good painting practices on either end. Are you using a modern single stage or bc/cc system? Did you mean "galvanized?" Is this frame chromed? The bottom line is if you have experience painting and know your system you probably can do an OK job. If you haven't really painted before it'll be really hard to do this well. Don't be afraid of starting over if it gets away from you. Things like this take a lot of time to get good at. Be prepared to fix bits here and there. Make sure you aren't doing this in a dangerous way for your health. If you're using modern uro's, research and do it right.

ianpaschal

Galvanised is the British spelling. It's a Reynolds 531 steel frame, now galvanised with a self-etching primer (using zinc and phosphoric acid).

But yes, I have done a lot of painting in my life, but this is my first bike frame. The only thing is I had never masked any curves this complex on such a small scale (something like a compound curve across a car body isn't hard to do with wider tape).

Anyway, as I said above, it seems quite impossible to get the tape to bend along the edges of the lugs, so better to apply it to the tubes (only curved in one dimension) and carefully cut it to shape.

Craig Ryan 

Lay your tape flat across the surface, use an object like a wooden coffee stirrer to aid you, then cut the edge. Go right across the lug and down onto the tube. Press the tape into the shoreline as you go.

Michael Angelo 

Painting lugs is a bit of a Challenge, Nervex style even ,more so. On Nervex Lugs I use a hole punch on the edge of the tape, that way I can tape those pesky round curves. Also have a good suppply of Sharp exacto blades. They go dull really fast. On regular lugs it's a bit easier, if you're going for lug lining even easier. With lug linning the shore lines don't have to be that perfect. This is my Carlton I painted last year.


Lug linning is not that difficult.

SJX426 

Lug lining was going to be my solution to the color interface. Looks great!

FMB42

I'd spray the tubes and then paint the lugs with a fine/smooth finish producing brush designed for the paint you're applying.