Spraying my frame.

n.battison
n.battison Posts: 57
edited September 2009 in MTB general
I am waiting delivery of a new frame (2nd hand DMR trailstar) and when i get it i want to spray it all white.

I do not have the funds to get this done professionally does anyone have any tips on how i could do this myself?

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

neil.
My Bikes And Me
A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.

Comments

  • J55TTC
    J55TTC Posts: 224
    Save the money and get it done properly. Preferably powder coated - a chap got his done in green recently and the finish looked top quality.

    No matter how meticulous you are you will never do as good a job. Worst case, you'll need to take it all apart and do it again after a few months.

    If you do it yourself Im guessing you'll be using rattle cans? By the time youve paid up for a couple of tins of primer, colour and clear (petrol resistant laquer preferably) - you'll be half way to paying for a proper job anyway. Not to mention all the sandpaper, cups of tea and manhours.

    http://www.gariebevancoatings.co.uk/Gar ... fault.aspx
  • J55TTC
    J55TTC Posts: 224
    Thread here

    http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... der+coated
  • steveinthepeaks
    steveinthepeaks Posts: 102
    second getting it done by a pro.
    I was thinking of doing it myself, but to get it powder coated cost me around the £30 mark. They strip the old paint off then powder coat to your chosen colour. The finish i got was fantastic, a few mates are so impressed that they are stripping their frames of parts to be coated.
    http://twitter.com/steveinthepeaks
    http://www.virtual-canvas.co.uk
  • n.battison
    n.battison Posts: 57
    thanks alot for the replys, i think i will get it done by the pros.

    cheers

    neil
    My Bikes And Me
    A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.
  • .blitz
    .blitz Posts: 6,197
    Could strip it and leave it raw for that 'ghetto' look. Works quite well with some decent components.
  • J55TTC
    J55TTC Posts: 224
    steveinthepeaks wrote:
    second getting it done by a pro.
    I was thinking of doing it myself, but to get it powder coated cost me around the £30 mark. They strip the old paint off then powder coat to your chosen colour. The finish i got was fantastic, a few mates are so impressed that they are stripping their frames of parts to be coated.

    Only £30 :shock:

    Bargain of the friggin century mate, I was expecting about triple that price!
  • steveinthepeaks
    steveinthepeaks Posts: 102
    your telling me. only took them 48 hours aswell.

    Got a few quotes mainly off the net and at the back of cycling mags, they were coming in at about £200 - 300.

    Then i did search in the yellow pages (yell.,com) for powder coaters and they happened to be only round the corner. Phone them up and i almost snapped their hand off. Had to ring back and check as i was so shocked at the price!
    http://twitter.com/steveinthepeaks
    http://www.virtual-canvas.co.uk
  • Northwind
    Northwind Posts: 14,675
    £300 for coating a frame is a complete pisstake, but £30's good ;) Especially if they did a good job of the masking/cleanup. Nothing worse than finding baked on powder in every bearing recess etc. Best to stick to someone who knows bikes (or second best option, motorbikes).

    If you want to paint it yourself, it'll take ages and soak up much more time and money than you think. Don't believe anyone who tells you you'll definately get a bad result, but do be prepared for the possibility you will ;) I basically had to spray my motorbike twice, almost every panel got redone from scratch because by the time I sprayed the last one, I'd got so much better that the first one looked awful, even though when I first sprayed them it looked OK to me!

    if you want to spray a frame yourself- easiest option is black satin hammerite or barbeque paint. Nice and easy, tough, looks good, costs maybe £29 for 3 cans tops, plus a tin of nitromors and a wire brush. Hammerite's slightly awkward to spray with as it goes on thick, and also the white will need a lot of coats to give a consistent colour (the metal will show through otherwise). But it's good stuff and doesn't need a primer or clearcoat.

    I'm doing my old frame in hammerite yellow- running joke really, I've been slowly spraying it for about 6 months! But it'll look good and be tough when it's done. In 2013.

    Certainly, do NOT use halfords car aerosols, as many do- it's perfectly good quality cellulose paint, but cellulose is really not what you want- it's not very tough, it's brittle, and the clearcoat is far too soft for pushbike use.

    But all that said, get it powdercoated, it just makes more sense. Spraying is for people who like spraying, not for people who just want to change a colour.
    Uncompromising extremist
  • dave_hill
    dave_hill Posts: 3,877
    I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it yet but...how about stove enamelling?

    OK so it's not particularly cheap bit it gives a terrifically glossy and chip-resistant finish and is ideal for steel frames. Google Dave Yates and see if they can do it for you.
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  • flamedude
    flamedude Posts: 119
    Mr bro got a bright PINK Cove Peeler and got the frame sandblasted and then powder coated. The job they did on it was amazing, its well worth getting professionally done. Then he slapped on some new stickers and its impossible to tell apart from a brand new bike.

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