The more I think about it the more it can’t work. Overspray would be a nightmare in all the various places where bearings will need refitting?

How could you seal all these? Tape wouldn’t last? Chasing threads isnt an issue its the smooth over parts isnt it? Ideas/experiences?

Masking tape.

Will it survive? Or should it be fitted post paint blast? Cut with a scalpel carefully I imagine?

I would leave the bearings in and get new ones. When you’ve painted you should be able to cut around the top edge with a blade and knock them out, replace with new ones.
Luckily the place that do my frames have loads of silicon bungs that fit all sorts of holes so didn’t have too much trouble. A bit of excess to remove but careful use of a blade gets that out easy enough..

Thought about the bearings etc but they are in good condition. Ti uprated in parts too. The main ones etc have a top dust screw cover from memory

Dremel is your answer

It’s only paint – knock all the bearings out, leave sacrificial parts in to protect BB threads and headset fitment

Dremel the bearing seats and any faced areas when done

Bear in mind that if you do leave bearings in, at least take the seals off and degrease em. Last thing you want to do is have the bearing grease ruin your paintwork when it gets baked

Although that last bit only applies for powder coating – obviously

Take it to someone who knows what they are doing & will bung all the holes you want them to?

Oh, wait.

Do not dremel, unless you do similar stuff daily, or as part of your job, it’ll end in tears.

Use ducktape on all bits you need to mask before blasting. Roll some paper or bits of rag up and stuff them in the holes then ducktape over top. Blasting tends to bounce off it. We then use hi temp masking tape in all bearing surafces etc. Bit of a ball ache but pulls of leaving a nice crisp edge.

I did an old frame. Stuffed all the holes with wet bog paper, worked ok

I just had an old cube stereo redone it cost £70.

£70 vs hours of work fixing it if you do it wrong?

First off, are you talking wet air dry / two-pack paint, or powder paint ?

Wet can be as little as a quick flat down, mask off & away you go. Bearings can stay in, & results will reflect the time spent.

Powder will require bearings out & fully chemically stripped. The grease in the bearings will probably run out & screw up the paint. (It’s baked at 180c). Blasting is generally just to get a nice key for powder.
It goes on by electrostatically charging the frame to attract the powder. Hence the frame needs to be bare metal. You can powder over paint, but it’s hit & miss. Mostly miss & looks truly awful.

You need to check if the bearing seats are powdered at the moment, if they are don’t worry. Most manufacturers won’t go to the hassle of masking, they will just size the housing so that after powder it will take a bearing. Powder is typically 70-100 microns thick.
If the seats are bare metal (or it’s an anodised/raw frame), then the painters will have special high temp tape that can be baked. Other method is a bung of some sort, or a rolled up peice of card.

Find a good firm, who know their stuff. Most do.

If the bearing seats are painted, & the new bearings a snug fit, wrap a peice of 500 grade emery around a pencil & swirl it around to take a bit of paint off. For gods sake don’t use a Dremmel.

If your asking for tips, do you really want your frame painting by you 😕

Most manufacturers won’t go to the hassle of masking, they will just size the housing so that after powder it will take a bearing. Powder is typically 70-100 microns thick.

Don’t think I’ve seen FS Bikes with painted/powder coated bearing seats.

So – I’m curious now

Why not Dremel? Is it in case you’re completely cack handed and can’t tell whether you’re stripping paint or metal – in which case I agree

Or is it just cos you have a different opinion – in which case it’s just usual STW

I didn’t mask the bearing mounts in the commencal I got done, spend a couple of hours with emory paper getting the powder coat off so I could get the bearings seated properly. BB threads were chased so that was dine, everything else has the bungs put in and was fine. For the cost pay someone to do it.

Remove everything.

Remove old paint (or just key old) and degrease

Fill bearing holes with plasticine and fit an old BB.

Spray (if taking back to bare aluminium then I would use an etch primer like uPol)

Any mistakes (runs, orange peel, hair, flies etc) wait until dry and flatten back with wet and dry and then re-coat.

If you’re considering cans of aerosol I wouldn’t bother. Waste of time and money and the finish wont be durable. Just take it to a specialist and get it PPC’d or stove enamelled

Dremmel could remove too much metal, & it’s difficult to put back on… 🙂

Wasn’t entirely sure on the painted bearing seats. Just thought mfrs would think it a hassle on massive production runs. They were painted on an old Giant I had once, but my last two Ventana’s were polished at theback.

I have sprayed hundred’s of all different types of frames. Like stevied said they use silicon bungs and masking tape its quite straight forward really.