Paint drying time

miss notax

Hello

A friend of mine has just re-painted my Santa Cruz frame at the weekend - it looks fab - and I was planning to build the bike tomorrow. The guy who resprayed the bike wanred me that the paint would take a week or so to harden properly, but that it should be ok to build / ride etc - after all, it's a mountain bike and going to get a few scratches sooner or later!

Having had a chat to a few buddies today, I think ive decided that getting it built tomorrow is a bad idea as the paint is still actually quite soft (you can mark it with a nail - obviously tried this on a hiden area!) so have postponed the build for a week. The bike shop is unlikely to show it the same care and attention that I would....

Anyway, good idea / bad idea? How long should I wait until getting it built? Have provisionally booked it for next Thursday which will be 12 days after painting..... I'm gutted as I really wnated to bike for a race this weekend, but then again I would be REALLY gutted to unnecessarily damage the frame at this stage :?

Any thoughts welcome!!

1mancity2

Depends on the paint but most 2 pack paints take 7 to 10 days to reach full cure, i.e base and lacquer is a 2 pack system.

stick it somewere warm to speed it up, but you should be ok to build it after a couple of days, they are dry after 24hrs but not cured.

miss notax

Ok, so after a further weeks sunbathing it should be as good as it's going to get by next week then

That's reassured me, thank you!!

1mancity2

Yeah it will harden up but if you can keep it warm it will speed it up no end, when we spray 2 pack at work we leave it for 1hr then stick it in the oven at 60 degrees for 30mins and its fully cured.

Shame your not near as you could have used our oven.

miss notax

Sitting in a sunny car? I know that sounds crazy but it's the simplest toasty warm place I can think of...!

My work colleagues will think i'm mental :?

cooldad

I was going to make a silly nail polish joke, but won't.

miss notax

Thank you

1mancity2

miss notax wrote:

Sitting in a sunny car? I know that sounds crazy but it's the simplest toasty warm place I can think of...!

My work colleagues will think i'm mental :?

In theory yes but in practice, the paint as it heats up goes soft so may stick to the seats unless you can suspend it from the roof!!

Tbh its well on its way after a couple of days, just keep it in the house and it will be fine.

miss notax

Ah, ok, that would be very bad

Many thanks!!

cooldad

Make Notax sleep on the couch and snuggle it under the duvet. Win win.