Having sent my aluminium road frame to Argos (who i trust and respect) and discovered significant pitting and corrosion i am left with having to paint my frame (it already has undercoat courtesy of argos on) myself. It’s along story!
How easy is it to get a decent result?

Any helpful Do’s and Don’ts?

Good paint recommendations?

thanks

Yes- dont go out on the lash the night before.
Painting with a hangover is a recipe for disaster.

Also,choose the best quality paint you can get. Cheap stuff will kill it.
And get the laquering done professionally- it will make your DIY spray job look like its from a factory.

Wear gloves. I ended up with more hand spraying than bike spraying

Preparaion is key to a good finish, you’ll never get a good finish with a lousy prep no matter how good your sprayer is.Wet flat the primer, spirit wipe it clean, and tak-rag it to remove dust particles before spraying. Don’t handle it once clean, as you’ll leave greasy finger marks, don’t spray in a cold or damp environment as the paint will probably bloom, and if you get dust/dirt/insects on the wet finish, then leave them until dry, you’ll make more mess removing them when wet.

Use a 2 part paint, ie paint and hardener, this will be shiny. do not use cellulose. Try to apply dusting coats to begin with and build up the colour slowly.

I did an alloy ht with plastikote. Came out nice. Needs good month to harden off, somewhere warm. The Plastikote worked well as its quite thick. We have a powder painting dept at work, but they only do matt black, so used that as an undercoat. I’ll see if I have a pic somewhere.

some decent advice here – not sure if you will be able to use a 2 pack paint as you’d then need a compressor and spray gun, and it sounds like you’re at home?

Make sure you prep your primer properly as coatsey says – if you have intricate areas you can’t get to get your self some grey scotchbrite just to key the surface.

If you’re planning on using a rattle can you’ll only get 1k (acrylic) or celulose paint – this will be ok but not very tough. a 2 pack finish will be much more durable.

some more information would help, such as the colour you’re planning on chosing and what kind of equipment you have.

What coatesy and pinches said if your doing it yourself. For what it’s going to cost you by the time you have bought paint, sand paper, de-greaser, tack cloth and t-cut for final polish it’s not a lot more to have it profesionally sprayed. As pinches said it won’t be as durable as not 2-pack imo just not worth the time and effort to do it yourself.

Do not even think about 2 component paint unless you have the correct health and safety equipment and proper equipment. The nicely atomised isocyanates are very bad for your health and you should use proper air fed respirator equipment when using them.

If you absolutely must spray it yourself then do it somewhere warm and dust free, use decent paint and take your time with the prep and the spraying.

Warm the spray can up in warm water 1st as the spray will cool as it comes out of the can which can cause it to condense water in the atmosphere.

Nice smooth strokes starting off the frame and finishing off the frame and do not apply too much in one go.

if you get a blemish do not add more paint. Wait for it harden then rub down the affected area.

Do at least 3 coats – probably more tbh.

Metallics – I always polish before the lacquer as it brings the particles to the surface like you get from propper electrostatic spray equipment.

Lacquer I like it nice and thick and tbh it is the hardest part.

I use polyurethane lacquer on wheels as it is more durable. Halfords do it in the wheel paint section these days.

polish before the lacquer with metallic? in what context are you saying polish? as that’s the last thing i’d be doing to a metallic base coat.