Stiff-up your brush: paint porn

Oh you’re handtightenonly! All that changing forum names a while back really fucked me up, I still can’t work out who @ (coffee cup avatar is), lost touch on here with loads of people because of it. What did you used to be called?

I’m guessing general grey harbour used to be private patterson? Thanks for the scoping a ral book offer! Might just do that some time.

So confused.

HAHA!

Yes... sorry.
Went from a Private to a General.

Do please hit me up, a paint shop is a lonely place!!!

Not sure it's porn, but I'm having my first attempt at a galaxy paint job, at the request/demand of Niece #2. Stars next. Toothbrush time.

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Rather a lot of comets and shooting stars. Stars be hard.

I think I need a toothbrush with stiffer bristles.

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Starting to think it might work out OK after all.

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Looks great.

What clear did you use?

Specialist Paints 2k Show Clear.

That's without any sanding or polishing.

That's laid down really well!

Not certain you have cracked it, I have several frames available if you would like to practice.

Probably need the extra practice, but I've resprayed 5 framesets in the past month so I'm having a break from the spray booth for a while!

Forgot to post a pic of one of the finished frames. The name on the downtube is in Chromocromatic flip paint.

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Don't know if this is the right place to ask but I'll give it a shot.

I've just won an unpainted Somec -frame and I'm thinking of doing the repainting myself. I've previously been happy with what I could accomplish with Montana cans, but for this I'd want a base of pearl white or pearl very light grey like in the picture below.

Is this even possible with spray cans? Would matte silver ->white ->fade give a similar effect?

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An unpainted somec... This raises all kinds of metaphores.
https://youtu.be/dsFpUW48Tnc

For Pearl you want a white base, Pearl coat (this bit is the hard part to get even so I’m told) then lacquer.

That effect is relatively straightforward to achieve if you're competent.

If they were proper fades with long, fluid transitions, that would be a bit trickier with rattle cans but what you have here are feathered edges which is as you'd imagine.

Once you've prepped the steel, prepped, primed and keyed the bike, the order of operations should be....

Flat white groundcoat across the whole bike.
Dust your pink on and work outwards towards the edges of the pink areas... white is an essential groundcoat for pink so it will add to the vibrancy of the colour. Try to get it right the first time because white over pink won't look the same as the rest of white on the bike.

Next you'll want to add a pearl over everything. This is basically a colourless paint with tiny little translucent beads in it. The translucent nature of a pearl means that it will get darker as more layers are built up. This can mean that bb and st clusters can look a bit odd if you're not methodical in your application.

If you're using a transfer kit for the branding, you'll only get one attempt because the adhesive on the back of the transfers will loft the pearl off the paint beneath.

The lugs can be filled by dumping paint into a dish and painting it in with a brush.

Keep us updated on your progress!

Thanks all!
The frame is currently missing the cable guides for the rear brake so that will have to be taken care of firstly, wich means that it might take some time, not enough frame builders in Stockholm unfortunately.

@general_greyharbour the problem is that I'm not that competent:/ but I'll do my best! Any suggestions for pearl spray cans?

Someone do this to my frame please... Paint, not broken forks.

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That galactic look is so far up my street. Woof.

Anyone care to offer some advice...I've been painting one of my frames and it's been going well until applying the clear coat...on the second pass of the clear a ton of cracking has appeared, presumably because I didn't leave enough time between coats. My plan is wet sand back the clear with 800 grit, hopefully not affecting the colour layers, and then re-applying the clear. Is this sound, or very wishful thinking?!

Picture…

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Warning: explicit content

https://youtu.be/4bcbeVl8q8M

Your diagnosis is correct.
That's just a lot of solvent pooling and pickling the paint.

If you didn't manage to get a lot of clearcoat on there in the first place, you might end up burning through if you go too hard on the wet sanding.

I'd use a 600 grit pad DRY over the affected area and anywhere flat, just enough to take the sheen off, then a grey scotch in the difficult to reach areas and then re-clear.

A mirka goldlfex or similar is a great option.

Thanks for the advice, alas I have already wet sanded and while I've been able to take it back to a smooth surface, some of the cracked patterning remains. It looks kinda cool I guess, but since it's not what I intended and more sanding will burn through the chromacoat I'm going to take it all back down to the base black and start over.

I want to learn how to paint and I just got a nice new compressor. Which paint gun for learning and doing maybe three bikes a year ish? What else do I need besides gun and paint? Any DIY threads or tips welcome.