DIY paint - painting

After a quick search it looks like there's not a thread dedicated to this, so here's one to start it off. I find myself with six weeks off the bike after a fall and a broken arm, which has gotten me thinking about what I can do to my everyday bike while it's not needed for a while.

The paint is in a bad way, and there's no danger of puppy killing (it's a surly) so I'm going to give it a new paint job. The obvious options are powdercoat, professional paint or the good old DIY.

Like many, I had a crack with a rattlecan in 2007, and the results were pretty shit. Flaky paint, bad finish. But there are a few on here who have been able to produce some really excellent results - @reeen 's Cinelli and @hoops ' (I think?) mad Talbot stand out.

So, my question is - what does it take to give a bike a good paint job? Is it something that you can do in the garden/garage or is it really limited to those with spray guns, masks and boiler suits?

I did my first bike diy...
It took me three weeks of spraying, drying, spraying, drying etc.
Only for the first tiny bump to gauge straight through the clearcoat and all the way through the paint. Im pretty sure that the secret is in the hardening of the paint afterwards. maybe baking it?
goodluck otherwise

perfect results are boiler suited and gas masked. quite good results can happen in the garden, in the summer, no wind and some experience.

lasting jobs require nasty activator/hardener chem that surely is lethal hence the gas mask.

got a shed? possibly able to re-do it in a years time? yes, then rattle can it.
no? get armourtex or someone else to do it.

there is also the thing about real ratty looking bikes. not that I am particular into that sort of thing, eh?!

;)

aahaha

Yep the quick-transformation-to-rat factor of rattle can is tempting. The existing poo brown powdercoat doesn't look awesome and ratty, it just looks shit. So not like I'd be losing the rat factor.

The likelihood of me doing this again in a year is slim, so the pro option looks like the best at the moment. I'm scoping out some local powder coaters, see what they say...

I paint stuff (not bikes) for a living, have use of a high end spray booth. I also use expensive 2k paints that you need to use an air fed face mask to use.

Clean working environment is essential, and spending time getting the prep right is as important as the paint itself. A good quality 2K lacquer is also essential if you dont want it to chip and flake off after 5 minutes.

Getting a high end finish lasting finish is simply not possible in your shed or garden in my opinion.

Experience and knowing what you're doing also helps. I've been painting things for over 10 years, and I'm still learning!

I paint stuff (not bikes) for a living, have use of a high end spray booth. I also use expensive 2k paints that you need to use an air fed face mask with.

Clean working environment is essential, and spending time getting the prep right is as important as the paint itself. A good quality 2K lacquer is also essential if you dont want it to chip and flake off after 5 minutes.

Getting a high end lasting finish is simply not possible in your shed or garden in my opinion.

Experience and knowing what you're doing also helps. I've been painting things for over 10 years, and I'm still learning!

I used to paint stuff when I worked for ICI Paints at Slough both automotive and decorative. It doesn't matter how good the paint is that you are using if your preparation has been poor or non-existant. British car makers never bothered much with steel pre-treatment or finishes hence British Leyland cars were rotting by their first MOT. German cars of the same era were treated differently hence they outlasted them. A good rust and grease free surface to spray onto is the first step with the correct undercoat/primer for the colour/top coat you are using. In lab conditions, under which I worked, the paint, spraygun, panel and spraybooth had to be kept at 25C so that you got consistency or at least one less variable. Light coats with plenty of drying time and patience is probably the key to a good finish. Try and go for consistent conditions everytime and don't rush it.

I paint stuff (not bikes) for a living

Yes you can, just takes a lot longer and set up cost is high

Autumn/Winter is the worst part of the year for executing DIY rattle-can jobs, unless you can spray indoors with a powerful heat source. Even then, rattle can paint & lacquer are what they are - soft, not durable, but cheap.
I don't regret doing my Pompino a year ago, but the rear triangle looks a bit of a state after only 6 months riding/locking-up.

Roller paint is more durable than spraypaint but you'll have to live with the texture.

just a rattle can job, think it turned out pretty good though

Thats nice phil! is that just over a gloss black?

the problem is not the finish, it's what happens after when the shit chips way to easily, also depends on what brand rattlers you use. I've tried this a few times before and at first it looks good, but a week down the line and the paintjob gets pretty wrecked.

@Vlad was raw alu underneath, the gloss graphic is a vinyl cut sticker.
its a few months since i painted it and its still sound, a few chips but i only really wanted something that just wasn't raw alu.

I must admit it looks really good if it has been a few months then, you can't really see the chips at all in the picture.

I painted a frame from White to Black with a rattle can, just gloss black car paint from Halfords.
The frame was powercoated so rather than strip it, I sanded it back with a medium fine glass paper and used it as a base/primer for the top coat.
Masked and taped all the threads and hung the frame outside on a sunny and windless day and gave it two or three good coats, leaving 15-20 mins between each coat.

Initially it was just a quick fix but it's held up really well for over a year now. There's a few chips and scratches, but it's an everyday/town bike so that's fine. And not bad for £8 paint and a few hours graft.

The beauty of satin/flat relatively-common colours too is that you can always give them a very quick blow-over to hide the old scratches.
These are utilitarian finishes, ideal for non-exotic framesets.

from my experience if you prime, spray, and clear coat each a couple times on a bare frame it will hold up pretty well.

ICI Paints at Slough

working on replacement facility for that, still get involved with R&D and SMU though

#smallworld

Getting smaller everyday.

Anyone tried plastidip yet?

Yes.
The CF forks on my Pomp use white Plasti-dip as primer, and flat clear Plasti-dip as clearcoat with real paint (the colour coat) sandwiched inbetween.
Lots of fun to use, and non-destructive. Quite an unrefined finish unless you're putting it through a proper gun. The flat-clear finish does match the rattle-can satin-clear of my frame quite well, though.

That's actually really interesting. Do you think that I could do similar with a paint damaged carbon frame? Use the plastidip to "even out" the poor original and then pain over it. Instead of stripping it or full plastidipping it?

If the original finish is really bad (ie flakes or deep chips in the paint), then you'd really need to fill it and smooth it as much as you can before laying paint or Plasti-Dip over the top, otherwise it will just show all the imperfections through.

Yes, understand, thanks for the insight.