I want to re spray some old lowers and was wondering what paint to use and how to get a decent, realatively hard wearing finish. Key the surface, prime and automotive rattle cans from Halfrauds for paint and laquer? Any experienced home refinishers here ? Black will be the non enduro shade of choice.
I've had success with Plastikote. Key the surface and then paint directly worked for me. No laquer.
Don't bother with primer. Key the surface with wet n dry. Don't use coarse sand paper.
Halfords paint is fine. Give them 10 minutes in a bucket of warm water before spraying. It makes the paint thinner and the finish much smoother.
Try and warm up the fork legs with a hair dryer or something. Spraying onto cold metal in a drafty garage increases runs and takes forever to dry.
Just my experience, yours may vary.
"Durable"? Forget it.
Mine were fine for about 3 years... Define durable - mine got a couple of chips, same as they got with the original paint in a similar timescale.
Great stuff thanks, like the warming up tips. A quick google sees Northwind recommending Hammerite smooth which is something else to consider I suppose. Anyone had em powder coated ?
*watching with interest...*
I've diy sprayed lots, easy to get a good looking finish but its soft and marks easily ime.
I'd prefer to t cut and touch up for durability.
Powder coating is fairly tough but melts bushings etc.
I had fork legs powder coated in the past. It was much more expensive than painting them DIY. It was a nice hard, glossy finish but where you would put a light scratch on a painted fork the powder coat came away in chips leaving a much more damaged looking finish.
I've also had suspension components on a car powder coated and they got a gravel rash look almost immediately.
I'm sure it can be done well, i.e. the factory finish on some bike frames. But... I've never seen a really nice job from a local business.
I've stuck to rattle cans ever since. The halfords stuff for nice colours and Hammerite for anything black and out of sight. The quality of the end result is down to how anal you are with the preparation. I'm no pro but I've done loads of frames and forks in the garage that came out good enough for me.
Agree with cynic-al in that the finish can tend to be soft and easily marked hence my interest in the topic. Looking to respray some old silver Marzocchi's black.
I'd consider the fact that a lot of people don't even consider buying used forks if they've been sprayed. If you're going to sell them in a year or two you could be doing yourself out of some cash!
Fair point though I've never had a problem with selling repainted forks.
To improve durability then you need to find some way of stoving after paint. This cures the paint and toughens it up. Leaving in the sun doesn't work!