Repainting a bike

ThisRegard

I'm sure a few here have done it, but my daughter has moved on to a new MTB so I want to repaint her starter bike so that my son won't be ashamed to be seen on it, it's this at the moment, not a bit of rust and remarkably scratch free.



So all I was going to do was sand it, prime it, a layer or two of paint and some clear finish at the end. However I'm thinking I might leave the wheels at they are, for starters they'll be fiddily feckers to do, and the other reason being that any paint I'll put on will just get rubbed off by the brakes, and may affect the braking itself.

Any suggestions from those that have been through it, how to go about the chain guard and mudguard. Son likes green so I think a bright green will look ok with the wheels and white tyres, a couple of Avengers transfers for the frame and chain guard and it'll be a looker.

Can't figure out where to get paints though, Woodies and the likes should be good for that?

ED E

Krylon is great for work like that, dont think woodies would stock it but the graffiti places do it.

Kimbot

Another option is "plastidip"

ThisRegard

Cheers lads. I'll look into both those. Don't think I'll spend too much money on it though as due to the small size of it and the thrashing it is likely to receive.

tonytiger81

If you are repainting it yourself you're best bet is to look at car paints/primers/lacquers such as in horrible halfords. I've done a few projects over the years so this is just my tuppence worth. To strip the paint i tend to use the likes of nitromors and a wire head brush adapter on a drill to speed up the stripping. I then tend to use an acid-etch primer (best place for to pick up that is Vinny Byrnes who also make up RAL paint by the can) and sanding wet n'dry 250 grit between coats. After that it's minimum 2-3 coats of chosen colour (again sanding in between) followed by minimum 2-3 coats clear lacquer (sanding in between).

It's best to have as dust free an environment as possible for this so i usually use a temporary wardrobe such as the 'vuku' ones in ikea (http://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/wardrobes/free-standing-wardrobes/vuku-wardrobe-white-art-80331973/).

I've attached a more recent respray of a cheapo single speed i bought that looked terrible. The colour is Ford Aztec bronze which i picked up in Halfords.

ThisRegard

That looks good. I had completely forgotten about looking in Halfords for the spray paint, I was wondering to myself earlier where's local I can get some car spray paint.

tonytiger81

One more This is VW indigo blue which has a slight shimmer effect once you build up the lacquer coats. Of course if you were in a hurry you could also consider powdercoating at tallaght, i think they charge about 100 for an adult frame but you might get to squeeze that frame in with some bits for cheaper.

Quigs Snr

Check out a bike specific product called spray.bike ... Bricklanebikes in the UK are the distributor. Ideal for what you want to do I reckon. Couple of nice videos on their site of the stuff too.

rubadub

I noticed spraypaint in dealz the other day, probably crap quality but possibly on a par with woodies or halfords stuff. There might be reviews online, dealz is owned by poundland so would be the same stuff.

At 1.50 a pop it might be worth trying 1 can on something.

I couldn't see myself spending money on say powdercoating a kids bike, or spending a lot on really good paint & primers, I reckon they would appreciate it being spent on something else.

ThisRegard

Yeah, had it been one of my own I'd be going for the top quality stuff, with a small kids bike which will be their first and no doubt crashed a lot I think I'll go down the road of primer, paint and clear coat at the end.

Rojo

tonytiger81 wrote: »

One more This is VW indigo blue which has a slight shimmer effect once you build up the lacquer coats. Of course if you were in a hurry you could also consider powdercoating at tallaght, i think they charge about 100 for an adult frame but you might get to squeeze that frame in with some bits for cheaper.

Top job on those two bikes! :-)

coco0981

tonytiger81 wrote: »

One more This is VW indigo blue which has a slight shimmer effect once you build up the lacquer coats. Of course if you were in a hurry you could also consider powdercoating at tallaght, i think they charge about 100 for an adult frame but you might get to squeeze that frame in with some bits for cheaper.

Great job

rtmie

You will be better off financially to buy spray paint from a large motor factors or mf wholesaler rather than halfords or bike special stuff which is likely the same stuff in a smaller container with a bike logo on for a more expensive price. That is certainly the case with greases and similar.

cdaly_

rubadub wrote: »

II couldn't see myself spending money on say powdercoating a kids bike, or spending a lot on really good paint & primers, I reckon they would appreciate it being spent on something else.

Spending a lot of time on really good prep will matter far more than spending money on good paint.

ted1

I did a Simiksr job, just used a can of black hammerite spray. No sanding or anything , just sprayed it , took 5 minutes.

ThisRegard

Well this week has been a disaster, weather has been too ****ty to strip and prep it outside, so it'll be put off for another week.

Re: just the paint over the existing finish, we had a bike as kids, a Raleigh Boxer, that we did that with. I remember the finish being a bit lump and as I have the time I'll try and put a bit of an effort in, more so out of the joy(ha) of stripping the bike and putting it back together again afterwards.