Fixie Conversion - PAINTING HELP!
 

Greetings! I'm planning on converting my '84 Varsity into a fixie, and from repainting several times, I've decided that I would like to try having the steel exposed with only a clear coat. I've read threads on here about this, and I know powdercoating is probably the best option, but I'm a broke student. SO. Has anybody had success with a spray-can clear coat, and what brand? I've never seen Dupli-color primers mentioned here - the Adhesion Promoter seems to be a clear primer:

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/adhesionPromoter/

Anybody think this would seal the bare steel properly? I would use the Crystal Clear Enamel on top. ANY AND ALL OPINIONS!

Whats a fixie?

I'm new - dunno if you're messing with me haha **fixed gear bicycle!

Just messing with you.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=o...w=1280&bih=595

Just a heads up: When I was converting my '84 Peugeot I also considered painting. I decided against it because to make a paint job look good requires a good deal of effort and attention. Sanding, priming, painting several coats, and drying will take about a week. Furthermore, you need a relatively dry atmosphere for the best looking paint job.

Yeah, I can wait during spring break! I just wanted to know if any spray-on clear coats have given anybody good, long-term results.

My understanding is that most aerosol spray paints don't adhere well to bare metal and will chip off very easily. I sprayed a frame once and took moderate time on the prep and waited several days for curing but still found the paint chipped very easily. I discovered later it was best to simply rough up the existing paint and then clean it with acetone, or similar solvent, and then paint to give the spray paint something better to adhere to. I've never even heard of a clear primer, so I'd be interested to hear how it works, but I suppose it might be difficult to see how badly it was chipping until you started seeing corrosion on the steel tubes.

Anyway, sounds like you have some more googling to do. This has been discussed ad-nauseum on the internet. I looked a bit and found a decent thread about painting a bare frame on our very own beloved BF.net: http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-144045.html

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/spr...clearcoat.aspx
This stuff may be worth a shot. I have never personally used it, but have done A LOT of research in the past when I was going to paint my Jeep. And also, what you really need is proper curing to insure the paint is hard. Drying doesn't take long, but curing can take weeks. If you had a way to bake the frame, or get it really hot that would help the strength. I think the hardest part of the whole process would be getting ALL the paint off the frame.

^^^You can't just put clearcoat on bare metal and expect it to adhere properly. OP had the right idea with a clear primer. I don't really mess with paint much because I am not patient and detail-oriented enough to get good results with that kind of tedious work.