I was stopped by a fellow cyclist yesterday while out enjoying a ride on my Jaspa. The old fella was fair smitten with my bike, but as he examined it, I became more and more aware of how the years in my damp garage haven't been kind to its paintwork.
The underside of the top tube and the downtube are both riddled with rust spots and stains. So I'm starting to think about doing a DIY respray. Hopefully better than the one it originally had. I know the bike was the 1st one the guys made and only the 3rd that they as a company had sold before folding soon after, so I suspect it was a rattle can job to begin with anyway.
Any hints and tips on the best way to clean up the rust and respray the frame would be greatly appreciated.
Just in case you're interested, it's a replica 1910/20's Pathracer with a full Sturmey Archer groupset and lovely Brooks contact points.
Its all in the prep, bad prep will mean a bad finish
Very good prep and rattle can spray jobs can be done very well, just need to be patient, thin layers, let them dry before applying another coat and then a top coat of lacquer
In all honesty is more faff and cost if you haven’t already got all the equipment, just go get it sand blasted and powder coated for under £100
Its all in the prep, bad prep will mean a bad finish
Very good prep and rattle can spray jobs can be done very well, just need to be patient, thin layers, let them dry before applying another coat and then a top coat of lacquer
In all honesty is more faff and cost if you haven’t already got all the equipment, just go get it sand blasted and powder coated for under £100
Basically that
Depending on what the original paint is, don't get too hung up on stripping it off (unless it's oil based, in which case nothing will stick to it). Sand it down until it's smooth. Anything not perfectly smooth will show through the fresh paint. If you're wondering if you've done enough prep, then there's two options 1) if you're questioning it then you certainly haven't, b) give it a coat of primer and see if the finish is acceptable before sanding it again.
k-rust or similar is good for passivating surfaces.
But if you assume 2x cans of primer, 2x cans of top coat, 1x can of clearcoat, at ~£15 each then you'll probably spend more on paint than some powder coaters will charge and spend days doing it.
I've done a few now, doing aluminum bikes with fat tubes is actually easier because the paint isn't generally flaking off, so just sand down any chips, apply the aluminium-primer and then paint. Steel bikes are a pain as any chips tend to mean rust under the paint, so you end up sanding a lot more off.
Nothing you can do yourself with rattle cans in your garden will stand any sort use beyond a few weeks at best. It'll look patchy and shite in short order - especially if you use it off-road . Save yourself some time and hassle and get it done professionally.
Nothing you can do yourself with rattle cans in your garden will stand any sort use beyond a few weeks at best. It'll look patchy and shite in short order - especially if you use it off-road . Save yourself some time and hassle and get it done professionally.
Depends what you're comparing against. Compared to a powder coat, or a heavily lacquered finish, not a chance.
On the other hand I re-painted my Scandal with some £3.99 cans of matt blue multi purpose lacquer from Lidl and it's certainly no worse than the original orange paint!
Cheers folks.
You've convinced me of something I already knew. Any attempt I make will be half arsed and won't do justice to what is a lovely bike. I'm looking at local (Stirling) powder coat firms now. I'm thinking a nice matt racing green would be nice.
C.
Personally, having pissed about doing loads of prep and a rattle can job on a couple of frames, it's just not worth the bother imho as it's rarely that durable.
Take it to a powder coaters. Cheap and durable.
Personally, having pissed about doing loads of prep and a rattle can job on a couple of frames, it's just not worth the bother imho as it's rarely that durable.
Take it to a powder coaters. Cheap and durable.
Hendersons in edinburgh paint bike frames. Its been years and years but i seem to recall a solid paint colour was generally pretty cheap.
Watch compatibility as well. Acrylic paint and solvent based lacquer mix badly. Ask me how I know...
I took mine to Hendersons and he made an absolute mess of it- left blasting media in the frame then it got into the topcoat. It's not that he can't do good work, he just couldn't be bothered.
I got my trials frames done by R&O Refurbishment in Blackburn, he's really a car wheels guy but he did a first class job. I will say that he doesn't like using colours he doesn't already know (because the results can vary and there's costs involved) but also that he's a wee bit loose about colours, you can literally give him a sample and he says "I can do that" then what comes back can be a bit different. BUT, everything else was excellent, and he's very cheap. He's done 2 frames and also 12 car wheels for me and it's all been great apart from the one wee colour thing with one set of wheels, but I know someone else that had a similiar thing with colour.
+1 for get it done by a pro though. I'm pretty good at painting- won prizes for my motorbike bitd- but pushbike frames are actually bloody hard to do, all those angles and niches. Prep is time consuming, painting is trickier than most and also quite high waste. And then also we're really hard on the things, even the absolute best paint gets damaged sooner or later and diy is usually not the absolute best. I can do it cheaply because I've got all the stuff but if you don't, it's not even cheap- prep materials, then all the paint, soon adds up.
Agree with the above, to get any reasonable diy finish you'll spend nearly as much as a powder coat so it's really not worth it.
There's a thread on retrobike.co.uk with a list of good/bad painters and powder coaters. I've used Triple S in Bingley and they're superb. They have a courier service too. LSN in Castleford have a reputation for inexpensive but decent quality work.
