Custom Paint - Workshop specials.

Halfords

Any pics of the job yet?

Do you have pics of the scratch?

So I bought this frame a while ago with the intention of trying to do my own Gianni Motta-inspired neo-retro paint job on the fluted tubes (the frame is supposed to have been custom built by Gianni Motta...) . The thick green paint was even uglier in real life than the advert, but when I started to pick around the edges, I found a lot of layers underneath suggesting the green was not the original colour. When a bit of what was underneath was exposed, it looked unusual, so I tried to strip off the green and keep as much of it as possible. It is a sort of marbled gold finish, with a purple kind-of flip colour in it. Unfortunately it is practically impossible to do justice to it in a phone photograph. Most of the damage was already done, just a few of the smaller spots are due to me, and I guess they just sanded the decals off the original and painted it in the colours of their club/team (arbo kinderg is an Austrian club with minimal web presence and generally green stuff).

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I was planning some kind of sick fadez on the fluted tubes (flutez?), but I think the original paintwork just needs to be stitched together with something low-key, like a paint equivalent of the castle. I'm thinking of some shade of grey, and stencilling in the Motta decals in a second shade of grey. The thing is that the shorelines look like a natural part of it now and they pick out the shapes of the tubes, which I want to do, but they also look just too ratty for me. I think if I picked out the white/pink shorelines in the second shade of grey, that would keep it feasible, minimal, but help make a natural transition between the two.

So, I'm interested in your thoughts on a couple of things:

What to do with it now, in general!?

Any ideas for masking irregular shapes like these? Has anybody used something like the art masking fluid to paint a mask freehand?

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Looks as though perhaps there are multiple finishes atill left on your frame.

The lighter colour looks to be a primer with a white over it which is best practice for the neon pink still there.

On top of that it looks like there is a black groundcoat which is essential for a flip style product.

Anybody tried the 'Spray.bike' spray powder coat paints?

Pretty shit

Really? Liking the Keiren sparkle clearcoats. Who else sells similar? Gonna do myself, not looking for pro results mind.

I used that, it was actually pretty good.

The colour coats go on like powder which doesn't stick. You can rub it off as it stays all dry powdery. My experience was this anyway

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/287444/

There's a couple of pages of mentions in the search.

all of the bikes at bespoked this year using SB looked terrible

My feeling was that different colours are different. I used three, one that erupted into a massive cloud of powdery dust and was very difficult to get to cover (fluoro orange), one that went on fine and came out fairly smooth (quasar), one that tended to go on wet and then would get rough (dark green).

I also did quite a lot of careful priming and stuff, and I didn't get the feeling that you can just whack it on over anything and expect it to stick.

Montana do a silver glitter and what looks like a rainbow glitter.

https://www.montana-cans.com/en/spray-cans/effect-sprays/hologram-400ml/montana-hologram-glitter-400ml

In real life the pink is less than neon. I assumed the gold was everywhere and that the pink was a primer cos I'd read about Gios using a pink primer to make the blue so distinctive, but maybe part of the bike was pink. 3 different primers and the black base coat would seem amazingly dedicated.

I've always used montana gold cans and they're great

Really? Interesting... how tough is the finish? I have at my disposal an art supply place with a pretty good selection of montana cans, or a DIY place with a rather out of date selection of some car paint product.

The colours of the montana cans are more appealing, but they're mostly flat colours and I might not be able to let go of a little metallic sparkle, and I thought the car paints might be a bit tougher.

The finish is good but I can’t speak for longevity I’m afraid. First frame I painted with it cracked at the headtube so never got built up, second one has only been used for about 3 weeks now but no marks from locking up etc.
I also used a Vauxhall green can before which chipped but I rushed layers so I think it never properly set and hardened, also didn’t clear coat it.
So basically useless advice.
Montana colours are indeed pretty flat but you can gloss clear coat them. They’ll just never be metallic

Yeah.

It just looks like two finishes.
The clay colour beneath the white, I'd assume to be the etch primer.

Lighter colours, especially pinks, often oranges benefit from a white groundcoat.
And if that flip colour is indeed a pearl flip, it needs a black groundcoat in order to have the effect "work".

That's not the worst example I've ever seen. Some very high-end brands have multiple finishes on top of one another... new year, new scheme... same bike, new look etc...

Legit steel team bikes that are raced etc quite frequently have paint on paint on paint as we've seen when tackling restoration projects. For similar reasons really... the bike still fits the rider but it needs new colours for new brands and such.

The bike @Drakien linked to is my project; I used a combination of Spray.bike and Montana Gold but I had it professionally clear-coated. Holding up well so far; some chips on underside of DT and chainstays. Any questions hit me up; have done another frame since.

do you think getting a primer is wise, as the sprays say no primer needed? doing it straight onto raw metal (titanium).

Hmm, not sprayed titanium before. As long as you have a clean, dry surface I think you should be ok but don't quote me on that.

Have just started sanding this back ... started with coarse and going to move to fine. How much do I need to sand to have a paintable surface?

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Best practice is to go fully raw and start fresh.

Good paint needs a mechanical bond and a chemical bond. Mechanical bonds are achieved through the key or abrasions in the substrate... chemical bonds are achieved through good product choice where the solvents chemically unite the layers.

If you paint onto the factory finish you'll only have a mechanical bond because there are no active solvents left in the paint on the frame. If that's okay for you, rub the bike down until it is all matte in appearance with no shine.... shiny means smooth and smooth means no key and no key means no mechanical bond. 500 grit is good. Red scotch will get into the gaps. That should be enough to help the paint adhere and is a good place to start.

Mechanical bonds alone aren't the most robust finishes. Painting over the factory finish might mean that you when you chip and scratch your finish you'll reveal the original paint... this will highlight that the weak link in your chain is the bond at that stage.

It works but it's not the best way to do it.

Starchem Synstrip is is a good product to get you back to raw.
One bottle might do four bikes if you're sparing. Maybe go splits on it with someone else in a similar situation. People often need it.

I'm in for some Starchem Synstrip if you're getting some.