Cheap but looks okay if you half shut your eyes.
It’s just an old peugeot road bike, it’s been de brazed as it had about a ton of bracketry on it.
Just to do the two miles to work when I’m in the office.

spray can or hammerite. Prep is king. It will scratch easy but can be satisfying to do.

Hammerite ‘Smooth’ – limited colours and comes in a tin or spray can.

For the time spent on prep and spray cans its better to get a cheap powder coat done. £30ish. It’ll be better looking and more durable. Place in Bletchley but I’m sure there are some in your town oldgit.

Plastikote from Wilkos. Nice & thick. Don’t bother with Knacker-Lacquer from Halfords et-al’, it’s too thin. The Plastikote goes on nice & thick & stays quite flexible. For prep just sand it lightly with 800 grade & wipe over with turps / meths / IPA. Need to paint undercover in this weather, & stand the cans in warm water before use.

(Undercover as in not outside, not as in wearing a disguise, but feel free for comedy effect. The Groucho Marx look is always a good one).

hammerite smooth for me- but if it’s not already totally stripped, you’ll end up with other expenses to get rid of that- paintstripper, probably wet and dry if it’s got any dodgy surfaces, etc. So you’ll end up spending as much as a cheap powdercoat job like wingnuts says.

Course, you can just spray over the old paint.

I ground off and filed down; Stand bracket, dynamo bracket, loads of dynamo cable guides, brake cable guides (too small for any outers I tried) so there are loads of bare metal patches.

Checked. One tin of undercoat/primer, top coat and laquer and any other bits and bobs like wet and dry, thinners etc will cost more than a basic powder coat?

Plastikote doesn’t need a lacquer. I didn’t even undercoat it. Will try & find a pic in morning.

I used about £22 worth of materials from Halfrauds for my full susser. Time on prep and patience laying the paint/laquer on, and you’ll get a result. 😉

+1 for the plasticote stuff, I did some forks and they came out really well, a year or so later they still look good so are quite hard wearing

(Undercover as in not outside, not as in wearing a disguise, but feel free for comedy effect. The Groucho Marx look is always a good one).

Ha Ha the vision of an urban terrorist with a spray can is quite funny 🙂

plastikote.

rough up the old paint with fine wet and dry, wash well and then three coats of paint.

This is about 4 years old now (just the purple) and has very few marks.

For the time spent on prep and spray cans its better to get a cheap powder coat done. £30ish. It’ll be better looking and more durable. Place in Bletchley but I’m sure there are some in your town oldgit.

This for me all day long. If you want a half decent finish you’ll need to spend almost as much buying the gear to do it yourself.

£30:

P3250508 by T*inbred, on Flickr

£25:

PB271093 by T*inbred, on Flickr

Local paint sprayers all the way, included strip, will last much longer and look much better than DIY

if its a proper hack bike you dont want a decent finish.

hammerite over the bare metal patches, then rattle can matt black anywhere it wants it. Accept you are not going to prep it properly and that as and when, you are gonna reapply patches of matt black.

Matt Black, thats all you need.

Matt Black, thats all you need.

Matt Black, thats all you need.

wilko own brand plasticote stuff – costs a fiver or so and does a good job just thoroughly de-grease and rough up the old paint as people above said. i’ve done a few bits and bobs but not a whole frame with it as i tend to get frames powder coated for a harder wearing finish. a good powder coating will be £35-£50 depending on extras like forks etc too, but obviously the finish will be good. if it was a hack/commuter i’d be tempted just to spray with the plasticote stuff and if you c&ck it up you can get it powder coated and you’ve only lost a few quid