Painting a classic frame

carnabystrobin

Hi all I am rebuilding a late 1980s Cilo Stratos racing bike. Its got Columbus Chromor tubing and Campagnolo dropouts. The question to paint it or not~? apart from the offside chainstay which is very tatty, the paint is ok, I would give it 7 out of 10. I am not too concerned about its future value, as I plan to keep it myself, I do like to keep things original. I would appreciate some advice please.

fenix

Get it resprayed properly. It'll look awesome. Don't even attempt it yourself

debeli

I've painted quite a few metal things over the years: many bicycles, some car wings, iron gates and other odds and ends.

I'd say have a go. It is a fun thing to do and you can achieve a passable finish with relatively little experience or knowledge.

Caveats:

1. Strip off everything that can be stripped. Everything.
2. Keep spray out of threaded parts (BB etc) with stuffed cloths or masking tape.
3. Either get very good with decals or accept that you'll go without. I do the latter.
4. Preparaion is EVERYTHING!!! Rub down, primer, undercoat (often optional), top coat and lacquer coat.
5. Rub down between coats with a super-fine sanding block or similar.
6. If there are tiny, tiny chips in the frame, you can fill with knifing putty (cheap and easy to use) and sand down to invisibility.

The upsides of painting are many:

You choose the colour. Any colour you want. ANY. COLOUR. YOU. WANT.

I use only aerosols. Halfords do tons of colours and a decent motor factor will either do custom colours or will know a place that does.

Hang the stripped fram by a cord through the steering head - and also (once dry) through the bottom bracket. That way you are less likely to misss a bit.

Stick the steerer of the forks in your workstand. You can spin it round and it stays still when you need it to.

Or.... just leave it as it is. But if it's already in pieces, the urge to paint will be strong.....

iPete

Whilst painting yourself does sound like a massive pain (as above), it looks like Spray.Bike have taken much of the hassle out.

You can get their stuff from BLB. I've never used it so can't comment on whether it holds up to its promises but here is the BikeRadar review..

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/w ... job-46256/

Otherwise there are plenty of spray shops that'll do a good job if you want the perfect finish.

0ced0

carnabystrobin wrote:

I do like to keep things original.

answered your own question...

DeVlaeminck

It's really up to you but with classic motorscooters now there is a move to keep things original even if they are quite tatty - keep the patina - that can mean treating rust and then giving it a coating of laquer. I saw a VW done in a similar way the other day - think it belonged to that Scottish actor who is in starwars, started out in Trainspotting - so it must be a thing in classic cars too.

I think I might go down the route of keeping it original if only because it's a lot cheaper and easier.

SME

I've got a frame which I intend to respray completely different, but it's not an old frame, so I don't feel I'm... 'tainting it's lineage' so to speak.

If I had a nice bike from that era I'd have to go down the renovation route - I'd want to keep it original, but as factory finish as I could. I'd likely touch up any rusty parts with colour matched paint, polish up the frame and components, and put it all back together (a bit like 'Wheeler Dealers' for bikes). But then my son does respray cars, and I have an Iwata airbrush that I can use for adding any colour trim.

At the end of the day the choice is yours, but your last sentence tells me you've nearly made up your mind.

Monty Dog

Powder coating will be as cheap as the material costs of a rattlecan job but far more durable. FWIW Chromor isn't really a high end tubeset, so don't pay for a professional respray and expect to get your money back if you sell.