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Re spraying an old frame

warrior4lifewarrior4life Posts: 925
edited March 2010 in Workshop
I have an 1987 vitus aluminium frame and i'm going to be re-spraying it, any tips on what to use and where to get it from... Cheap as possible!
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Posts

  • WooliferkinsWooliferkins Posts: 2,060
    Cheap as possible? Hammerite and a brush :D
    Neil
    Help I'm Being Oppressed
  • Andrewa123Andrewa123 Posts: 17
    Hammerite smooth aerosol is cheap and works well, but colour is limited.

    Alternatively any car aerosol should be fine, clean frame, prime, top coat and lacquer. Halfords carry a fair range of off the shelf colours, alternatively look through their catalogue (usually at parts desk) and ask them to mix a specific colour for you.
  • elcanielcani Posts: 280
    I just got two frames chemically stripped, blasted (gently) and powder coated for £25 each. (TST Powder Coating in Preston). Excellent finish and hard-wearing, much more so than a rattle-can job. Hard to beat and much less effort than doing it yourself.

    Cheers
  • laelae Posts: 555
    Powdercoat is indeed the cheapest way to do it, and will give a fairly good result. The finish isn't anywhere near as good as an experienced painter would get (even with rattle cans you can get a professional quality finish, it just takes a lot of time, effort and sanding) but you'll spend £25 on paint alone, plus other materials (paint stripper, masking tape etc) and rattle can paint isn't very resilient and will look rubbish after a year's worth of regular use anyway.

    If you want to read how to do it yourself with either rattle cans or with a gun, my post here will give you the basics.

    A local car painter might be able to do it on the cheap too; if you do the prep you'll save on labour, and if you use a colour that he's already painting something in you might save on paint too.

    Another method that I'm going to be experimenting with shortly is Rustoleum. It's a bit like Hammerite, but comes in far more colours, is better quality (Hammerite really is rubbish) and costs about £8 for 750ml. I'm going to be experimenting with painting one of my hack bikes with this (and possibly my girlfriend's bike as it's a hell of a long way to the nearest powdercoater), and I'll post up results. Basically you thin it, roller it on, sand it, and repeat. A lot of work, but a halfway decent, very durable finish for an absolute minimum of cost.
  • softladsoftlad Posts: 3,513
    hammerite is great for gates and railings - and I wouldn't let chemical strippers get anywhere near a bonded aluminium frame like a Vitus, for obvious reasons...
  • balthazarbalthazar Posts: 1,565
    I've never seen any Vitus frames of that period that aren't either entirely polished, or colour anodised tubes, bonded (+screwed, like Alan frames?) into aluminium lugs. If so, do you really think it's appropriate to paint the frame? Could you polish and clear-coat it?

    Either way, I'd be wary of either chemical stripping or powder coating, if bonded joints are involved.
  • warrior4lifewarrior4life Posts: 925
    Its a bertitini vitus with 105...
    Its pinkish red and white.. I'll try to post some pics later but i'm liking the polishing suggestion..
  • laelae Posts: 555
    If you polish it, get some wheel wax (halfords type places or ebay) for polished alloy car wheels. If you don't protect the polished finish, you'll never stop polishing it!
  • BunnehBunneh Posts: 1,329
    When I last resprayed a frame I hand sanded it, then did it a lovely blue. When spraying I hung it from the washing line; only annoying thing was the damned greenfly decided to land on it and it left me with quite a lumpy frame...wonder how much weight they added?

    *weighs a greenfly*
    http://www.youtube.com/user/Eurobunneh - My Youtube channel.
  • warrior4lifewarrior4life Posts: 925
    107ozn4.jpg

    This is the frame as it is now, its a little chipped and scruffy in places.

    302ylcg.jpg[/img]
  • softladsoftlad Posts: 3,513
    you've got to leave that as it is - it's a crackin original paint job and the 'chips' are hardly worth worrying about. As far as I'm concerned, if you strip and re-paint that, you will devalue it...
  • captain_oakleycaptain_oakley Posts: 222
    softlad wrote:
    you've got to leave that as it is - it's a crackin original paint job and the 'chips' are hardly worth worrying about. As far as I'm concerned, if you strip and re-paint that, you will devalue it...

    +1

    In these retro obsessed times, pls keep it as it is. Love the downshifters as well.



    'Another coffee or are we off....'
  • warrior4lifewarrior4life Posts: 925
    I love the colour and i would love to restore it but im not sure how to get the frame upto its original bling, i'd have no probs if it was all one colour but the the 2 tone makes it hard to touch up.
    Also the stickers are a bit tatty and bring it down, i've got everything to polish the chainset and calipers up and i plan on putting some new wheels on it as the old rims have seen better days.
    I dont know weather to buy new rims as the old 105 hubs are fine, I'm on a wheel building course in may.
    Or should i just get some planet x model B's or try Ebay..

    It's my winter bike but once i have a new bike i always end up fixing it up (you know how it is)
    I was going to change the steam and bars as the hoods where pretty uncomfy at first but after riding it for a week i've got used to the old shape and riding on the drops is great.
    So far all ive bought is a bontrager seat post and a charge saddle, i also now believe that 11 speed and Dura Ace D12 arent the future... The future is 6 speed and down tube shifters 8)
  • captain_oakleycaptain_oakley Posts: 222
    I can get you details of a chap in Sth London who specialises in the respraying of
    retro frames, he did a fantastic job on a friends 1970's Holdsworth track frame, incl
    the original decals.

    I know it's not exactly local, but if your interested let me know, his prices were
    very reasonable.



    '.. and the words of the prophets were written on the subway walls.....'
  • warrior4lifewarrior4life Posts: 925
    Captain oakley

    Yes if you could send me the details i'll check it out...
    Regards, Ben.
  • laelae Posts: 555
    Buy an airbrush and do it yourself!
  • softladsoftlad Posts: 3,513
    frinkmakesyouthink wrote:
    Buy an airbrush and do it yourself!

    congratulations on providing such a pointlessly simplistic comment......
  • morstarmorstar Posts: 6,190
    Captain Oakley wrote:
    I can get you details of a chap in Sth London who specialises in the respraying of
    retro frames, he did a fantastic job on a friends 1970's Holdsworth track frame, incl
    the original decals.

    I know it's not exactly local, but if your interested let me know, his prices were
    very reasonable.


    Yes please also.

    I've got spots of rust (external) on my old 531 Raleigh Road Ace. I keep toying with the idea of powder coating but I really don't want to sacrifice the original looks and decals etc.
  • laelae Posts: 555
    softlad wrote:
    frinkmakesyouthink wrote:
    Buy an airbrush and do it yourself!

    congratulations on providing such a pointlessly simplistic comment......

    What do you actually mean by 'pointlessly simplistic'?

    I'll start with pointless. The guy has said himself that he doesn't know much about painting and probably didn't know that an airbrush would be the right tool for the job. So that's the 'point' of my post covered.

    As for simplistic - I've already posted a link to a rather detailed post about frame painting in this thread, and an airbrush is used with exactly the same technique. I'm not going to link to it twice or type it out twice. So whilst that particular post might be rather simple when taken at face value, it does tie in with the best post on frame painting I've seen on this forum.
  • warrior4lifewarrior4life Posts: 925
    I think i may have a crack at airbrushing it... I've found somewhere i can get the stickers reproduced..
    May just clean it up amd use t-cut very carefully and see how that goes.
  • laelae Posts: 555
    ^ if you go to a automotive paint supplier rather than Halfords (motor factors might do it, too) they might be able to sort you out with some products from G3. Much better than T-Cut.

    Remember to use water when t-cutting. The cloth should be damp, or preferably if you have a mister bottle, spray your frame periodically with it.
  • warrior4lifewarrior4life Posts: 925
    I'll go to halfords today and ask for G3... And ill spray the frame as well, thanks for the tips! :D
  • captain_oakleycaptain_oakley Posts: 222
    Details as follows;

    Vaz Finishes in Herne Hill, 'Sarf' London


    http://www.cycle-finishes.com/




    'never knowingly underweight'
  • revversrevvers Posts: 81
    Hello, I have a reynolds 653 frame and I had it sand blasted and powder coated, total cost £40, and it looks the absolute dogs danglies!!
  • warrior4lifewarrior4life Posts: 925
    Any chance of some pics? I would love to see how good it looks... 8)
  • revversrevvers Posts: 81
    I'll have to get my kids to help me do that!! will do asap
  • revversrevvers Posts: 81
    100_6939.jpg
    100_6941.jpg
    100_6943.jpg
  • revversrevvers Posts: 81
    Pictures not great I'm afraid!!
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,667
    You're not kidding!
  • revversrevvers Posts: 81
    Frame looks so great, my hands were shaking!! :lol:
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