thinking of painting a bike frame a plain boring colour for commuting.
Any tried it?
how did it turn out??

i don't need an amazing finish, if it looks tatty then it'll be less likely to get nicked. in fact i'm tempted just to paint over the existing finish.

I used to all the time. I was about to paint my daughters race bmx and then realised it's actually cheaper to get it done by a professional down the road than it would cost me just for the materials….

Depends how good you want it, I've painted my road bike because it was pink and a fat bloke in lycra on a pink bike just ain't right.

It's now blue and silver and looks alright. A couple of car tins from Halfords and some patience.

Rubbed it down with W&D, hung from the washind line on a coat hanger, spray little by little, rub down and paint again. It looks okay but you can tell it's a home done thing

Yes, with Nitromors then direct-to-metal spraypaint. Looks OK but not a very robust finish – scratches really easily. And not that cheap if you need to buy everything to do it.

when i got my fit dehart bmx frame i de-stickered it as usual and the paint came off witrh them!

so i layed it on the box it came out of and sprayed it with a black paint spray lying around my lbs 🙂

The harder you try the worst they seem to look 😕
The best one I've seen though is an Inbred brush painted in NATO matt green.

A few times, but needs serious prep, effort and time, and not as durable. More interesting as a thing to do than for the result. Best one was in Satin/matt-ish black with red and white decals – not sure where they came from. But I have seen the most amazing coach-hand painted track frame all done by hand. And some of the bikes – real ones with motors have had a fantastic finish.

Used to paint my old intense but it cost 50 in materials and a lot of labour for stripping and prep then loads of light coats. A friend used to use black hammerite for a fiver and had an ok finish. He wanted to cheapen the look of new frames so they didn't get nicked around uni.

To answer your original questions:

Use Nitromors to strip the paint off – remember gloves!
Once stripped and cleaned then prime it. Remember the colour of the primer will have an effect on the outcome of the colour of the paint you will be using.
Once primed you may want to tidy it up with some wet & dry (fine).
begin painting, spray lightly – don't try to cover too much as you'll end up with the paint running. In between coats you may want to use the wet & dry again. Slowly build up the colour.
Once happy with colour go over it with wet & dry again to key it. Then spray with laquer. This will protect your nice new paint job.

Above all, take your time. If you do you will be much happier with the results.

Mine turned out pretty well, make sure your working area is big enough, clean and well ventilated.

Good luck and remember to show us how you got on if you decide to do it.

Any photos anyone??

Was pink, now Blue & Silver

Yes, that is a road bike

Becareful where you paint it, I painted my sons bmx in my garage and the overspray gets everywhere.

"A friend used to use black hammerite for a fiver and had an ok finish. He wanted to cheapen the look of new frames so they didn't get nicked around uni."

This sounds much more like the sort of thing i fancy doing (especially after reading how much effort it is to do a decent job!)

Just started to nitromors the paint off of an old frame today. Wish me luck! Will post some piccies as things get going.

If it's aluminium, it's worth spending £15 getting it glass blasted and then spray it with a few coats of automotive clear lacquer. Comes up a treat and cos the lacquers clear you don't have to be a painting expert. I've done it a few times and you get a really nice Ti look. Total cost, no more than £25!

No access to anything like that here, not even anyone who does powder coating which was my first choice. One of the down sides of living on a small island I guess 😕