Home Mixed Spraypaint Colours

It's possible to mix colours with a rattler (maybe you all already knew this but I noticed a few threads about home painting frames so thought I would add my £0.02).

Difficult for colour matching, but if you want a fresh colour and don't want to use chip away belton or montana it's quite useful..

Heat one can up(warm water, carefully!) and cool one down(Freezer for an hour or so).

Cut out the eye of the nozzle, attach a straw between the two with one facing upside down, you may have to experiment to find a straw that fits (if they have the male valve system you can just use a wd40 nozzle)

Turn the can being mixed into(cold) upside down and spray away, depressing both nozzles at the same time, you should hear a "skooshing" sound, this means it is working. Be careful not to put too much pressure in though(in a normal 400ml can it is possible to put in 520ml, the number above states how much more you can fit in it)

Like this

        (750)
         600ml

Disconnect the cans, shake, and do a long test line, the colour will come out strong at first and then even out, if the hue is not quite what you wanted repeat the process adding a little more until you get it right.

Compatible brands..

Hycote, Auto K Racing, Sparvar, Belton, Car Plan, Holts Dupli Color, Beltona, Multona,
You may have to experiment a little to get the right tone, a little knowledge of colour theory here can go a long way! It's also best to try and use similar(ie don't use radiator enamel with gloss) paints or it may end up like the milk and orange juice fuckup you discovered age 6.

If you use a hycote white primer it will also make the colour super thick.

Hope this can be of some help to someone..

Is it not easier to buy the paint, thinners, and a small electric gun?

I admire your cunning though...

Could be useful for graffiti artists. But I think a gun is easier and cheaper in the long run (I got my compressor and gun from Aldi for £60 and even painted my car with it).

Aldi? Is there no end to that shop's usefulness, and that was a good price for compressor and gun. Was it ages ago when you got it? Wouldn't mind investing in one..

a well looked after DeVilbiss gun can be had for cheap on ebay. If you look after it, it will last a life time.

Good quality cheap compressors are another matter.

Yeah it was a few years ago that I got the Aldi compressor and gun. It's still in regular use. I've upgraded to secondhand devilbiss guns (car boot sale find) which are easier to use (the Aldi gun has a massive 1.5l pot which is difficult to manoeuvre around a bike frame). I worked briefly as a painter/fabricator so that's where I picked up the skills (got employed as a one-day temp labourer, ended up staying for six months making the sets for Walking With Dinosaurs Live... a stroke of good luck!)

The problem with the Aldi compressor is that the capacity is pretty low (20 litres IIRC) so it's not great for painting a whole car with (I had to wait for the compressor to catch up a couple of times when I was respraying my Datsun), or for using air tools. It's also incredibly noisy. For heavy-duty use or for painting anything big, I'd go with a decent secondhand HVLP system, which is what I'll be looking for if I upgrade. But for a bike it's more than good enough.

Aldi is the best shop in the world. It's the only place where you can get tinned lobster thermidor and a leather executive armchair under the same roof.

Aside from Larry's Lobster and Lay-z-Boy Emporium.

I have a full-on compressor and gun set up for big jobs, and a small 1L ish? electric spraygun, which is great for woodwork, bikes, odds and sods. Cost me about £20 in a bargain bin somewhere a while back. Really easy to use, clean, and makes a tidy job with a bit of care.

I love aldi, just for the pure randomness of stock they get in.. Can't imagine the quality being that great but for 60 it would be silly not to try!

My local aldi never gets the lobster anymore, but it's a minor as I live in Leeds where you can get a nice sized lobster in the market for like 12 quid..

Oh and painting the walking with dinosaurs set, epic!

Taking photos was strictly forbidden but I got a couple of shots off on a 'wives and family' morning. I've never seen so many crying kids in my life

Also made this beast for a Motorola expo

Impressive, not sure whats going on with the motorola thing though.. Can't imagine what the brief could have been???!

That's a good little nuget of information thanks Robin.

It's possible to mix colours with a rattler (maybe you all already knew this but I noticed a few threads about home painting frames so thought I would add my £0.02).

Difficult for colour matching, but if you want a fresh colour and don't want to use chip away belton or montana it's quite useful..

Heat one can up(warm water, carefully!) and cool one down(Freezer for an hour or so).

Cut out the eye of the nozzle, attach a straw between the two with one facing upside down, you may have to experiment to find a straw that fits (if they have the male valve system you can just use a wd40 nozzle)

Turn the can being mixed into(cold) upside down and spray away, depressing both nozzles at the same time, you should hear a "skooshing" sound, this means it is working. Be careful not to put too much pressure in though(in a normal 400ml can it is possible to put in 520ml, the number above states how much more you can fit in it)

Like this

        (750)
         600ml

Disconnect the cans, shake, and do a long test line, the colour will come out strong at first and then even out, if the hue is not quite what you wanted repeat the process adding a little more until you get it right.

Compatible brands..

Hycote, Auto K Racing, Sparvar, Belton, Car Plan, Holts Dupli Color, Beltona, Multona,
You may have to experiment a little to get the right tone, a little knowledge of colour theory here can go a long way! It's also best to try and use similar(ie don't use radiator enamel with gloss) paints or it may end up like the milk and orange juice fuckup you discovered age 6.

If you use a hycote white primer it will also make the colour super thick.

Hope this can be of some help to someone..

Haha! Brilliant! this just gave me a flashback to my youth scrabbling around train yards running from the BTP and trying to get on to the roofs of buildings, I used to do this years ago after reading it in can control magazine when there wasn't a great variety of colours around!

FYI the plastic inner where the ink is within a biro pen is a perfect fit, cut about 3cm off the end.

Cut out the eye of the nozzle, attach a straw between the two with one facing upside down, you may have to experiment to find a straw that fits (if they have the male valve system you can just use a wd40 nozzle)

FYI the plastic inner where the ink is within a biro pen is a perfect fit, cut about 3cm off the end.

I noticed you said cut the eye out the cap - just take the two caps off and use the biro inner direct, a lot easier :)

Genius, the biro thing will work well, as it can get a little messy, has been a few years since I have needed to mix colours, kid's these days don't know they are born!

Thanks Tommy, if anybody has a go, post them in here t'would be nice to see what people pull out the bag..

Haha! Brilliant! this just gave me a flashback to my youth scrabbling around train yards running from the BTP and trying to get on to the roofs of buildings, I used to do this years ago...
Aah (sigh) the good ol' days! sometimes i get the itch to batter a few insides with my torch filled with purple fibs. oh what fun!

Aah (sigh) the good ol' days! sometimes i get the itch to batter a few insides with my torch filled with purple fibs. oh what fun!

DId you do it? The smell of purple Fiebings will make you feel 15 again!