The Heavy Methil Spesh Spray.Bike Paint Project

It begins again.. Been away on holidays and not got vinyl done yet but pressing ahead with the Montana Gold gold chrome. Here are the forks; gonna paint HT and some of TT/DT so the front end will look golden. Masked with [green] Gorilla Tape then given two coats.

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Some front end action, flatted before spraying but a tricky old taping job around the bosses. Planning on masking HT then will paint spray.bike Whitechapel with the logo.

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bike is looking great!

I think the look would benefit from a black pinstripe between the gold and grey!

Yup, might be a goer. Made a bit of a fuck-up with the DT spraying, tape wasn't perfect around the bosses so some over-sprayed where I didn't want it to. Flatting that layer back now and respraying DT.

Updates? I'm totally inspired by this, definately gonna try some of this paint out. I swore that I would never rattle can a bike ever again but this stuff looks too good to be true.

Sorry, nothing much to report, two holidays in a month + new job + TdF means progress has stalled somewhat. On a parts-gathering mission now.

Decent thread, some really useful info as I'm spraying a raw prepped steel frame & fork at the moment with spray.bike cans!

How did you find the paint adhered to the frame? To me it seemed really dry and grainy, after gently rubbing down the first coat quite a bit of powder comes away leaving slightly more steel exposed. Even after 2 coats and drying overnight its quite easy to rub away the powder back to exposed steel. Hoping the clear finish will seal all the powder in and leave a smooth glossy finish?

When you say 'raw prepped', does that mean you used a primer? I had really good results with spray.bike using a factory painted white frame (sans decals) that I sanded with 600 grade sand paper. If you're adding another layer on top of powder coat, you'll probably want to sand it first. I haven't had any issues with flaking whatsoever and the paint certainly doesn't rub away.

Like @bikes_knob said, I didn't use a primer; just sanded down the layer of factory clear coat with 240 grit sandpaper, then used a finer grade - 400 I think - to do decals. Then I just sprayed over with spray.bike. I certainly noticed a difference when atmospheric conditions were taken into account; in my warm kitchen the paint went on a little drier than in an infinitely more ventilated and cooler garage. Check also you're not doing one or more of these things:

1. Spraying at a distance. I was typically spraying between 6 and 12 cm which was enough to coat the frame but not too far away that the paint was drying in the air before hitting the surface.
   
2. Spraying too heavily. My first coat was a very gentle misting that merely covered the existing flatted factory paint. Left that to dry and added another judicious coat. I still had 1/3 of the can left after doing F&F.
   
3. Not moving the can during spraying. You should be aiming to move your arm in a gentle sweeping motion, using short sprays in one direction as you go.
   
4. Sanding too vigorously. In error, I put a layer of lacquer on to transport the frame and when it came to flatting I took that off as well as some of the original paint. Once you're at the clear coating stage you won't need to sand back the frame unless you've really laid the paint on thick; welds, any horizontal surfaces where gravity has taken its course and paint will naturally land on this first.
   

Sound advice. I would also add to make sure to clean the nozzle before each use as the powder creates more blockages than standard paint.

Yup, good practice. I actually switched the nozzles from the Battersea (petrol blue) to the Gray's Inn as the latter was my base colour and was more used. A thorough agitation before spraying (at least 3 continuous minutes) is needed, as well as after 20 or so squirts.

I'd expect that last sentence to be taken out of context.

Have you varnished or lacquered yet? That's my next stage, and I have complete confidence I'm going to fuck it up.

Ha! I did lacquer, yes, with varying degrees of success. The bars, seat clamp and stem I tested on worked after a bit of tweaking, but mainly swearing. The spray.bike lacquer is a totally different beast from the powdercoat as you'd expect. You need to go very easy as my first attempt resulted in a lot of dripping (fnarr) and some colour run from the paint itself; this was probably because I didn't allow enough time between powdercoating for it to properly dry - 90 mins nowhere near enough. This was on the stem which had a lot of nooks and crannies obvs, but the frame itself went pretty well. A gentle misting initially - use a lot less than you think you'll need - then give it an hour or so to dry, then another v. gentle coat. If you fuck up - which you most likely will - you can sand it back but beware of removing some of your powdercoat. This did happen; I just gave the affected spots another wee blast of powdercoat.

I think once the decals are sprayed I think I'm gonna clear coat it with this:

http://www.specialistpaints.com/products/2k-clear-coat-canz

I'd advise donning a full respirator and not doing it in your kitchen..

Cheers for the advice - Yeah spraying onto a shotblasted steel frame, free of oils etc with no primer.

As far as I can tell i'm doing things in the right way - the finish after two coats of fluro just seems way to gritty and textured, but gently rubbing it down as advised seems to strip away too much paint, thus needs re-coating.

Did you find the surface fairly rough after 2 coats? Unsure whether I should finish mist over this, or rub it back as much as possible without stripping away the coat before the final finishing mist.

I might be wrong, but I think a primer is necessary over raw steel before a powder coat. The powder coat probably won't protect the steel from oxidisation.

Yeah I did think the same thing - dubious that the spray would offer enough protection without primer. The guys at spray.bike recommended using without primer over the steel. I'll use framesaver to protect the fork steerer and inside the tubes.

Thanks for the advice. You've created a nice guide for people here.

My plan is to go really light on the varnish this evening, let it dry overnight and start building the bike up tomorrow afternoon. What could possibly go wrong?

I should probably start a CP thread of my own and stop derailing yours...

From my dabblings with the fluoro it does seem thicker than the regular stuff; might just be an optical illusion or a result of my first spraying attempts. Ditto for the Whitechapel (plain white).

No worries; I'm glad folk are getting some useful info. We can compare notes when you start your totally successful lacquer plan..

IT BEGINS. AGAIN, again. Got my vinyl done finally, so applied that to the frame, carefully masking any bits that needed it. Frog Taped everything that needed it.

Sprayed TT, DT and forks. Masked chain- and seat-stays for spraying later this week. Three coats of Montana Gold.

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Fork outers.

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The moment of truth..

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Worked out pretty well I think. Few bits and bobs to touch up, then paint the rest of it, clear coat and actually build the fucker up.

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I particularly like your contours, if you'll pardon my intentional double entendre.

Why thank-you. Hand-drawn in Illustrator.