I have an old hack frame in the shed I want to build up as a third bike so don't want to spend much money tarting it up [all the bits are lurking in the shed already].
Anybody sprayed a frame with aerosols? What are the pitfalls, what paint to use etc.?
Does anybody know where to get custom decals to finish it off?

I have done one

http://spankmonkey.pinkbike.com/album/Retro-Marin-Restoration/

used palasticoat, primer 5 coats then 4 caots of colour and finally 5 protective coats..

pitfalls – you need a ventilated room and a very steady hand, luckily mine did not run anywhere, you really do need a lot of coats tho or it will chip easily, that said some heli tape will sort that out.

Cost me around £20 all in and a lot of time, you will need to nitromore your frame and sand it down with very fine sand paper, any bits on the frame will show, I took 2 weeks sanding and polishing it. All in just over 1 month of stripping, sanding, and spraying to get a nice finish! but tbh the finish is very good for that effort!

What Crash…test…Rider said…the more time you spend on it generally the better the end result.

Having some way to support the bike whilst you do it that enables you to get all the way round the bike is important too.

As they said – given the amount of time and the amount of money in paint and so on it might be better to get a cheap powder coat done

No need to remove sound paint.

I did it with nitromors then direct-to-metal spraypaint. Did couple of coats, which was about 3 cans worth. It's not very durable though, several bits of paint now missing on the top tube from leaning it against things.

Depends on what you want really – for a nice deep, durable, shiny finish paying a pro is probably worth the cost. Powdercoat makes for a good, durable (if heavy) finish at less cost.

only if it is A1.. any scratches etc will show up badly! I did not strip the forks and it was awful so i stripped my pain job off and the original paint and started again! yes it's a pain but the satisfaction is worth it! I preferred doing it myself rather than hand £60 over to someone. That said if DIY is not your thing then def go to a local sprayers!

Simon – I got around 7 coats from a can, all thin layers built up. I agree it chips easily compared to a pro job, but I will def be getting some heli tape to cover the frame

Thanks, I was thinking about it but this thread has confirmed it's a waste of time! I'll spray-hammerite my frame to get through winter and in spring pay for a strip + spray.

Cheers, al.

I did it-it cost as much as powder coating but I couldn't get the BB out so had to do it myself. Apart from 1 run it looked good, but didn't seem to hard wearing (3 coats primer, 4 paint, 3 laquer) but I don't know because the bike was stolen exactly 1 week after I did it- after 10 years loyal service 🙁

problem i found is stopping dust sticking to the frame – although i know you can rig a spray booth with wet bed sheets if thats your thing!!

by the time you've bought thr paint and spent a day doing it – i'd rather bung £35 to the sprayer and get a top quality job – if your not bothered about colour speak to them, sneak it in a runa nd get a further discount.

<<Cost me around £20 all in and a lot of time, you will need to nitromore your frame and sand it down with very fine sand paper, any bits on the frame will show, I took 2 weeks sanding and polishing it. All in just over 1 month of stripping, sanding, and spraying to get a nice finish! but tbh the finish is very good for that effort! >>

you could get a decent powder coater to dip, blast and coat in for £45 – armourtex in hackney, london for example on a 3 day turn around..

saves the labour and you geta decent durable finish

Yup, DIY spraying fundamentally makes no sense unless you have the kit already, or you're happy to half-ass it, or you just like the project. With the cost of powdercoating, which is also simply a better finish, rattle can jobs are pretty impossible to justify normally.

Still, there's a lot to be said for the £5 matt black BBQ paint respray, looks great if done right…