Painting my fixed gear
 

Hey I'm new to this forum.I already have a fixed gear bike but does not like the color.I was planning on painting my whole bike.Basically what I want to paint is the frame,pedals,rims, and fork.any suggestions on painting it especially the rim?

thanks
eric

rollers work good.

there you go, fixed.

my suggestion is don't. I'm painting an old Motobecane. On the frame alone the sanding is taking forever not counting the time it will take to prim, paint and clearcoat this thing.

http://toolmonger.com/wp-content/upl...t-polisher.jpg

take all the paint off with this.

then wipe down with alcohol/mineral spirts/whatever

then primer the frame.

then paint the frame.

prep is the most important part, as for actual painting, I just use rattlecans and take my time.

after about 5 bikes you will start getting ok at it.

Its certainly not something you want to rush. If you use the bikes as a primary ride, I wouldn't bother for two reasons. 1. The time it'll take for the paint process to be completed will surely make you unhappy and make you want to rush it. 2. Paint gets banged up from the factory from use, just imagine how easy it is to chip home made rattle can jobs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in week two of my Raleigh Sprite paint, and I just put bondo on to clean up some of my braze-off's and crappy brazes between chain and seat stay's. If you don't mind it taking 5 or 6 weeks you'd be fine (Frame alone, although parts can be done simultaneously).

You should give it anywhere from 5-7 days between each coat to cure, plus sand time.

you can also use paint stripper from autozone, it usually eats through even the stripper...the problem i see with the wire bristles is that it digs in the metal if you don't know how to use it. You could always go to napa and get some really good spray paint too..If you are using auto paint there is no way it should take 5-7 days to cure paint more like 1hr for the primer to dry to touch and the paint is overnight. Other variables come into play as well like how much thinner you use etc.. i would just spray bomb it then spray a clear coat over it...cheap fast and effective.

I am just finishing my first paint on a 5$ frame I bought from a thrift store to convert to fixie. It was a pinnacle, I cleaned it well with mineral spirits, sanded the frame, and primed it in about one night (I'm no perfectionist). Took a few tries to pick up bits I hadnt sanded well enough, but I rattle canned it flat black in a day and tossed a matte clear over the top today. Total time, about 4 days, looks decent enough for a beat around town errand bike. I would suggest taking your time prepping it, but a rattle can job isnt bad at all and inexpensive. Allow yourself time to correct errors though.

any pictures of how it came out?ill have pictures of mines not painted or sanded down yet soon.so you can get an idea of wat i want.

well right now im just gonna worry about the rims cuz theres a little rust and on the hub it is a little oxidized.any suggestions on painting the rim and sanding it down?

as far as I know/can think of self painting rims without taking it off the spokes/hub would be a pain, and probably render less than desireable results. It would be hard to effectively sand around each spoke, and if you ran a brake the paint would be gone in not much time at all. If the rim color is that important, I would look into purchasing a new rim, though you could give painting a shot, as the worse you can do is screw it up and find yourself buying a new rim. I'll go take pictures of the frame in a sec and post em for ya. Its nothing complicated, just flat black, but I am happy enough for a first paint job.

i no this aint the right forum but anyone selling a wheelset for cheap with tires,tubing and mayb a cog and lockring for cheap?

Here are photos of the frame and forks as of about 10 minutes ago. I tried to show the only bit I'm not happy with on the front tube where the paint looks a little crinkly, though it isnt noticeable unless you are about a foot and a half away. Overall, college town errand bike/beat around conversion, good enough for me.


http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...h/DSC_3080.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...h/DSC_3079.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...h/DSC_3077.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...h/DSC_3072.jpg

All i did for mine was a thorough wet sanding and then spray bombed it....dont need all the paint off, just the glaze and impurities. Alcohol will help clean aswell. Paint won't stick to the hub or rims.

your paint is lifting. its a chemical reaction that happens usually from mixing different brands or types of paints. also maybe not cleaned well enough with some kind of degreaser. can happen for many other reasons. dont be surprised if it flakes off very quickly.

if i were you id strip it all down again with a chemical stripper, sand it with 180 grit than spray a self etching primer. regular primer fillers wont stick to bare metal for very long. let it dry for 24 hours, sand with with some 320 grit and rattle can it. when you spray it, spray it on light and dry. if you try and get it all covered in one coat its gonna run or possibly lift again.

Yeah, I fixed a bunch of the lifting by re-sanding, and it seemed to happen in areas I didnt sand very well. It was really an experiment, so I'm not worried about it for now, I'll re-do it in a while, for now I just want to get back to riding the bike. its only lifting in that one place, and everywhere else looks better than I expected. As I said earlier, the lighting in that picture makes it look drastic, but from a few feet away you would be hard pressed to notice it, but thanks for the advice for next time.

check these out here. i've had them on my road conversion for over 7 months now and they've done me great.

that's another good point, if you try to be the one coat goat then it will run and not stick very well at all. Self etching primer is a must if going to bare metal. I've never used filler on a bike, how does it hold up with all the abuse?

i used like a dupi color primer filler. its not thick or anything. just enough to fill the 180 scratches.

I am in the process of converting and painting a Nishiki cro-moly century and just finished priming it today. I still have to wet sand it w/600 grit paper, but I used the automotive dupli-color primer that mikebern was talking about and it worked great. I also used aircraft stripper(also purchased from auto parts store) to strip the paint, and it works amazingly well. If you are unhappy with the way your bike came out I would strip the paint and start over from scratch. It wouldn't take longer than a day and would cost less than $50. I even had to sand down and bondo some rust spots and that primer filled them right up, at $4 a can they are a bargain and wrok great, just remember that you final paint coat is going to be dependent on a good coat of primer. I'll post pics of my primed frame, and the painted result later.

when i built up my first bike i sanded all the old paint off by hand and it took for f***ing ever. then i painstakingly etch primed and sanded like 5 coats. then did the same with like 6 or 7 coats of auto paint matte black. that sh*t still chipped of sooo easy. this time i just sanded the old paint down past the clearcoat and through the rusty spots, 2 coats of primer, 3 or 4 of paint...2 of clearcoat. it took 2 days while drinking and taking my time.....with pouring rain slowing me down. oh, and this time i used Montana (the german one) graffiti paint. theyve got like a zillion shades to choose from and it dries like instantly.

on a side note...in the garage with that car, arent you getting overspray on the car? my brother did that...dad wasnt so happy and it took forever to get all the little painty spots of the car.