Anyone spray paint bikes?

Dear Uncle DOV can you do some spotweldi g on my frame and then repaint it pls. Also can you do chrome? Yours hopefully FOB age 12.

Wac@paintmyharris.com 07890564326 xxx

Hi all,

just wanted to give you all a bit of a heads up. Recently seen quite a few threads about paint and the price of it, so I wanted to get my point across.

I do custom paintwork for a living with my father, anything from custom hot-rods to full restoration of £25m worth of Ferrari GTO, we do it all.

As I'm just starting my own business, custom paint-work on bikes is something I will be doing a lot of. I offer these custom paintjobs, but also powder-coating. For me to do a bike, I charge an amount which covers the cost of materials, the workshop, VAT and all expenses, then enough to make myself a living. As with everything, people will always want things a little cheaper so I always here "but x and y are doing it for this much".

So, I've taken it upon myself to see the qualities of a £30 powder-coat job. Here is what I got back:

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd267/JamesLangtonPhotography/5F4BBA0C-8374-4246-8B0D-DC5D41EB9075-1588-00000264656DB57D.jpg Foreign paint from not cleaning the gun out prior

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd267/JamesLangtonPhotography/2EF47BAB-E1B8-4E17-879D-E5BB97D96E9D-1588-000002646AA62854.jpg Paint build-up around the seat-tube where it hasn't been masked properly.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd267/JamesLangtonPhotography/52C686AB-7621-475F-9C37-BC05ED28E199-1588-000002647E180643.jpg Again, poor masking

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd267/JamesLangtonPhotography/F368DBF3-8E33-48EF-BC13-45CD5D8A5456-1588-000002646F9F7FA9.jpg Oil which has expanded the paint

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd267/JamesLangtonPhotography/CE85C21B-06C7-48D0-8535-E0A09AD486DC-1588-0000026474E8C6B6.jpg More poor masking

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd267/JamesLangtonPhotography/843A88B5-22EF-41E0-B117-6792A12C1FE9-1588-0000026494439B04.jpg More foreign paint

I'm in no way slating the powder-coaters that did this, I've seen there work before and it's of a decent standard, but due to the price I paid there is absolutely no way anybody can do a job which I'd be happy with if I was paying £30. I can also tell this job was done with cheap powder and tape.

Moral of the story? WIth paint, there is no such thing as a cheap job which is of a good quality, you really do get what you pay for!

James

what sort of dorrah do you charge for a blasting and a coat of wet paint? Not in the market, just interested.

what sort of dorrah do you charge for a blasting and a coat of wet paint? Not in the market, just interested.

I charge £100 for that job, that includes the rubbing down of the frame once it's been shot-blasted so the metal is smooth which allows for thin lacquer and less paint (more detailing to lugs plus a more durable finish)

"Moral of the story"
spend ages on the prep work!
I reckon a lot of folk don't appreciate the time that goes into prepping something for painting.
Good luck with the new biz and looking forward to seeing some cool paint jobs, I'm thinking of trying a fade with small silver flake under a candy apple red !?!

Moral of the story? WIth paint, there is no such thing as a cheap job which is of a good quality, you really do get what you pay for!

James

Er no...

I had my frame resprayed by "one of the best, blah blah..." in the country and it came back shit.

Sometimes, British industry doesn't give a toss...

name and shame

Oh sorry, I've just seen this.

1. Argos
   
2. Bob Jackson
   

Those two? Man, if they mess up jobs where can you go to...

I am in Norn Ire, there's NOTHING here. It's either posting to England or to IRE and pray the postie doesn't lose it.

RE chrome plating:
I heard it's cheaper to post directly to car rechroming places that take small parts, rather than go via a cycle spray place. I may go that route for my fork on ciocc, as I heard if you phone around it can be done for £45 and BJ is £80.

Here's a frame I did using a new technique. I've had many people come to me with frames they want re-painting after other paint-shops using too much paint and thick chalk primer.

I don't have any pictures before it was bare metal again, but I do have a few pics.

Frame was painted blue (using my secret recipe primer, 10x more durable and it's also the colour of the final coat, so when you chip the frame to the primer, it chips the same colour)

I then sprayed the head-tube and the seat-tube in a real lovely copper colour and with some careful masking, it was ready for the next stage.

(excuse my feet, I don't usually publish these photos)

I then sprayed the top-tube and down-tube in white (a very very small hint of silver towards the bottom, just to give the letting a 'pop')

Lettering now applied and all I've got to do now is remove the masking tape and decals, then take the frame back with paper and lacquer it!

I did a little hipstergram of how the colour will come out with the lacquer I'm going to use:

Don't take any notice of the orange-peel effect to the paint in it's current state, it hasn't been fattened yet. It will be roughly the same colour as the last pic, just smoother and shinier.

I want to have my lovely new claude butler painted, is Dov the best person for the job?
how can i contact him

I want to have my lovely new claude butler painted, is Dov the best person for the job?
how can i contact him

Dov would be the best person for the job if it weren't for the fact that he lost all of the fingers on his spraygun hand in a freak accident while moonlighting as a sheep shearer.

Does anyone still doing some bike painting around London area?

There's a newish shop in chiswick that planned to start painting and already had a framebuilder in house.
Pi squared bikes confusingly the front sign says Bike. (Dot).
Me no understand.
Might be worth investigating.
Otherwise vaz isn't too far.
I've even seen some polish guys in southall doing bikes in an accident repair place for cars in there spare time. Nice guys and I saw them restoring a vintage mini great finish in proper booth not a shed.

http://www.pisquaredbikes.com/bikes.html

The website says they paint. So looks like it's up and running now.