DIY Paint Job?

This is not a question thread. For once, it’s an action thread. I’m already committed.

Who wants to see me ruin a perfectly good bicycle out of boredom and curiosity? Even though it’s already painted in the best colour, I’m ready for a change.

I’ve decided I want a messy, multicoloured graffiti style finish so I went off to Halfords and the local craft shop and came back with these…

I’m not thrilled with the colour selection but it’ll do. I was confronted with a wall containing almost every shade Montana make which was totally overwhelming. To make it worse you don’t have access to the cans so I had to select them with pointing and voice commands. The young woman doing the picking would quite obviously be rather doing literally anything else so I settled on these. I wish I’d swapped the yellow for a pink but I was too scared to ask for another switch.

I’ve got some of these cheap sanding pads to remove the glossy finish.

I’m not using chemicals or paint stripper because it’s a messy PITA and I’m not going down to bare metal because it takes forever and is probably pointless. I’m just going to roughen it up and not stress too much. It’s a cheap BMX so being a bit rough around the edges will suit it.

Temperature was -6 this morning so I’ve picked the perfect time to do it.

Place your bets on the quality of the outcome now.

I’ve thought about paining a bike a load of times and have always chickened out. I’m curious how long it takes you from start to finish. I always thought it would be 20h not including drying time.

Splatter affect and baking less precious about the finish are probably what I should aim for

I was wondering this last week as well.  Would love to see how you get on along with photos of others.

I’m watching 🙂 . What’s the frame and significance of the “Jewel Runner” sticker? That’s not a brand or a model name is it?

Minus six really doesn’t bode well for a lasting finish….

The bike is a Fit Series 22. It’s a pretty basic, cheap BMX but with 22″ wheels. Looks like the real deal until you park next to a kid on 20″‘s and it’s much easier to ride for a 6’2″ body with one knackered hip and a stiff back.

The sticker is a Run the Jewels sticker in the Blade Runner font. To answer your next question….

Wish I’d never asked about Jewel Runner 😉

I hope you’ll do some paintbrush splatter as well as using the spray cans themselves, it should look great.

cans in hot water and a fan heater on the frame will help hugely

Buckets and fan heater on standby!

I’ve got some ideas for raising the temperature a little. I’m stuck at work currently so there won’t be any progress today.

that font looks to be stolen from Blade Runner

Good Luck! Montana cans are very nice to use, but as with all rattle-can jobs the finish won’t be particularly durable.

Looking forward to seeing the result.

You’ve picked a fine time to do it with the cold weather! Wait til after it’s warmed up this weekend would be my first tip. Saying that, I did a frame a couple of winters ago. Little fan heater for my makeshift garage spray booth, and keeping the frame and cans inside on the radiator.

I put a lot of effort into prepping, priming, painting and 2k clear-coating, and the finish and durability isn’t that great. I don’t know whether the temperature was a factor in that.

I posted some pics of the process on here a couple of years ago but can’t find it. TBH, I wouldn’t do it again, but you’re already committed so I’m not going to try and talk you out of it – try and enjoy the process and don’t let your expectations get away!

Spraymax 2k in a can clear coat is great. Use the matt finish if you’re not super confident in laying down a perfect gloss coat.
PPE, filtration and air flow, 2k is poison.

Sanding has commenced.

These sanding pads are pretty good. Very soft and flexible, much easier to use than a single piece of paper. The only downside is that they clog up really quickly.

I thought this would take forever but it was really easy to get a uniformly dull finish all over the frame and fork. I think this will be fine for primer so I’m going to leave it as is.

I have 2 types of IPA on hand. One for drinking, the other for cleaning and degreasing the frame.

Because it was so quick and easy to get ready for paint, I then spent lots of time just making the space to do it. So when I’m done I’ll be left with a cleaner garage than when I started.

Aldi workstand and old bed sheets coming in handy…

Primer next.

Very exciting!!!

Well done on sanding the frame so quickly – it’s not until you come to sanding & prepping a bike frame that you realise how many nooks and crannies, creases and crevices a bike frame contains!

I’d leave a bit of time aside to sort that lawn out too.

The primer stage was laborious. It took literally a whole day to get full coverage.

The Halfords tins are about 90% toxic gas and 10% paint. The paint has the consistency of skimmed milk. It took forever to build it up waiting 15-20 minutes between coats.

Still, the end result is decent. It’s very thin and even with no runs.

This is a carboard box with a fan heater at the bottom. It was enough to give me a column of hot air around the bike and make it warm to the touch.

You can see here how patchy the coverage is. It took a lot of coats to build it up.

Now that it’s done it’s very smooth with no obvious defects so I’m just going to leave it. I’m going to do zero rubbing or sanding at this point. I’m just going to blast it with colour and see what happens.

Boom! ?

I’d personally hit it with main colour blue with yellow accents.

Or Yellow with blue accents.

I’d key (sand) that primer. Doesn’t matter if it ends up a bit patchy or thin in spots, but your next coat will stick better.

Oddly I did my scandal with Halfords etch primer and it went on really well.

Didn’t bother sanding the whole frame, just sanded down any scratches and chips till they were smooth/bare metal.

Problems started when I decided to use up some old cans, the paint went on really badly.  Ended up using a couple of blue lacquer cans from Lidl of all places. Went on really thin and took forever. But after a few coats it looks ok*, and so far hasn’t chipped.

*Would not recommend it, best described as “deliberate orange peel”

The Halfords paints are great – done two bikes. The pearl white was hard as it needed a perfect primer coat – i.e. no colour differences as the top coat was translucent.  The primer and ‘ford grey’ was great on my commuter MTB. Easy to apply, and used much less paint. Stood up to two years commuting, so far.

Actually, I did use the normal white primer on a previous project, and do remember it being crap.

On non-bike stuff I’ve just used the rust eating stuff that turns the steel purple/black and then painted directly and can’t think of any times it’s failed though.

Well, the fun part was over pretty quickly to be honest…

Thoughts;

Montana paint is a joy to use! I haven’t used it since I was in a tunnel somewhere at around 3am and that was a lifetime ago in a another world. It’s thick, fast and bright. I covered the whole frame in minutes. It’s so satisfying that I wish I had a line of white bikes ready to go.

Four colours might have been one too many. There’s not a lot of room on these skinny tubes. I fitted the headset and fork so that the spray patterns line up.

The finish is pretty much exactly what I was aiming for. Next time I’ll spend more time choosing better colours.

Even after sitting for 24 hours it fails the finger nail test. It’s very soft.

Next I’m going to dump a whole load of Halfords clear laquer on it. I’m not doing 2k because I don’t have the protection and don’t want to poison myself.

It’s both bonkers and quite subdued 😀

The Mrs thinks it’s a “hideous mess” but she’s got no vision.

When it’s built it’ll look like I bought it like this!

I wish I’d swapped the yellow for a bright pink. Also, I thought the dark blue was more purpley but it’s very blue blue.

OoooI really like this

I see you wanted to go all out different to the norm and how well you’ve done it.

Props ? ?

Damn emoji fails

I think it’s looking cool! Love painting bikes.

reminds me of this galaxy one a did a few years ago:

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The plan was, after the coloured paint was cured, to cover it in clear lacquer and buff it to a glossy finish. I spent a couple of days adding lots of coats of lacquer and the finish is a little textured. Not unpleasant but not silky smooth. It feels like an egg shell but it looks more shiny than the Montana which had a matt finish.

I used some 1000 grit wet & dry to gently rub the surface and see if I could make it nice and shiny, which I did for a second, and then it went straight through to the black paint beneath. So that’s how thin the paint is. I’ve decided to leave it slightly textured! I’d have to put many, many more coats of lacquer on to be able to buff it and it takes forever so I can’t be bothered. Maybe next time.

The finish is much harder now after sitting for a few days so I’m just going to build it.

I wanted some nice outdoor shots of the bike in daylight but it’s so miserable outside that it’s nicer in the garage.

I haven’t ridden it yet, I’ve been at work.

I’m happy with it, it’s exactly what I planned to do. Wouldn’t mind some cool decals at some point.

This time last year I had 4 black bikes in the garage. Now I have sparkly disco black, John Deere green, Yamaha blue and this thing. I’ve successfully brightened up my life.

I might get some riding shots on Sunday or Monday.

Looks great. It can take some time for the paint to become hard – mine was a few months with a pearlescent white as it needed loads of coats.

Great job bud

Nice bike. You’ve pulled off a better finish than I ever have.

But tell me about your garage roller door – what brand is it? And how draughty is it?

The garage door is an insulated Hormann one. Flexy rubber seals all the way around means zero drafts. It’s had the effect of making the whole ground floor of the house warmer.

Can’t remember how much it was. Over 2k but luckily our insurance company covered it after the old one was destroyed by scrotes.

I’m itching to paint another bike now!

Very nice!

How many hours did do you think it took you in total for prepping the room, bike, the paint and lacquer?

I’ve got two kids with 4 bikes lined up for them. Two paint jobs are fine, but the bigger two bikes have seen some use

Bit of a guess but maybe 20 hours all in. It took a full week of squeezing it in after work, apart from the day off when I spent all day doing coats of primer.

Most of the time is waiting in between steps. If you were doing multiple bikes at the same time it would be much quicker per bike.

I’m already looking at used bikes for the Mrs so I can have another attempt. Next time I might find someone to lacquer it for me so I can get a thick coat of 2k suitable for buffing.

It’s either that or build a temporary booth and splash out on respirators and overalls and everything.

Impressive dedication ( thumbs up icon if they’ve stopped working)

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