Lacquering a paint job?

kc-wilde

I picked up a small raleigh bike on Ebay for 99p...
Its only 19inch but its a project for my nephews birthday, it had a really bad paint job so I gave it a fresh lick of paint but I dont know whether to lacquer it or just give it a clear coat of paint since its my first time spraying anything!... I've been told a clear coat is more durable

Before:


After:

herusix

Clear-coat/Laquer ,Pretty much the same thing.

Personally as long as your confident to spray it(which seeing as you have already sprayed the basecoat red) then I'd go for it.

Are you going to replace any decals? if so do this first then clearcoat over the top to keep everything in place and looking smarter for longer.

New paint-job looks nice by the way.

Ollieda

Best to check what is avaliable from the people who make the paint you used for the base coat, most of the time its fine to interchange but some people like hammerite make some strange mixtures that don't go too well with other makers.

Base coat looks really nice, did you have a proper set up to do it?

kc-wilde

Hi, thanks for the replies...

I used Halfords spray paint so I'll probably go buy some Halfords lacquer tomorrow,
which is what I was going to use anyway but some one told me to use something called 'polyurethane' but the guy in Halfords told me it goes yellow, it was all abit confusing!

I didnt have a proper set up no, I just hung it from a beam with some elastic hook ties. I was suprised how well it turned out to be honest, considering I'm new to it all.

Also the silver parts are actually just the raw frame will I have to put anything extra on them to prevent them from rusting or will the lacquer take clear of that?

Ollieda

I've heard people mention the polyurethane yellowing effect before, something to do with UV in the sunlight.

I've used the halfords stuff before, clear laquer works great as long as you stick to light coats and leave the base red paint plenty of time to dry (some people say up to a week!).

I did has a problem with the laquer pooling in one place but it's because I hung the frame in such a way that the seat tube was horizontal and the paint pooled on the underneath! error!

As for the exposed metal it depends on what metal it is. Normally you should prime it but I don't know if you can get a clear coloured primer.

You could always consider using helicopter tape to wrap the frame. It's expensive but will give a gloss look and will protect the frame. I've ordered some and am planning to cover bits of my commuter so will see how it turns out!

balthazar

Single-pack lacquer from Halfords will be fine. Make sure the raw steel is degreased fully, and the clearcoat will adhere well enough. Two-pack lacquer is tougher and quicker drying, but is only available in larger quantities, and for use in a spraygun, with appropriate ventilation equipment and so on. There's a thread in the "Your road bike" forum about a raw steel frame, which may be useful reading for you.

Single-pack (spraycan) lacquer will take a long time to harden fully though, it will need at least a couple of days after the last coat before assembly, and a couple of weeks would be preferable. Use many light coats, with one heavier "wet" coat to finish. Even an imperfect final coat can be polished quite easily to a glass finish if the total lacquer thickness is thick enough.