Spraying a seatpost, bars and stem White, advice please.

OK, so I'm thinking obout spraying my stem, bars and seatpin white,

Has anyone ever done this and if so what was the best outcome?

Or will it look sh1t,

advice please??

Probably likely to come across clearance issues and resultant scraping of paint if you have to slide shifters etc on the bars, and similar issues on the seatpost.If you go ahead, remember that good surface prep is the key to a good finish, no matter how good the painter is, they can't disguise shoddy prep.

Take it to your local powder coaters??

take it a shot blasters to remove much of the old paint as poss then light under coat then top coat or get it anodised.

I was thinking of doing the same thing, although I have a carbon seatpost – could it be powdercoated too, or is that a stupid question?

am i on a bmx forum by accident or something?

I had a Ritchey seatpost powdercoated white, came out pretty good. Shame it won't budge out of the frame! 😳

As for carbon, no you can't. It costs a fortune to be sprayed in the proper way IIRC, different type of paint and process.

These item are old and I was going to give it a go and see what happens.

Avoid the temptation of trying to get the paint on in one coat. Following your prep, "mist" the paint on using several thin coats. The paint will build into solid colour without running if you allow the coats to dry slightly between each one.

I repainted a very worn Thomson with satin black plastikote spray and it came out pretty well actually. It wouldn't stand up to putting the post up/down but I don't really do that so it's a non-issue. For stem/bars it should work equally well. As above, lots of thin coats will give a good finish.

Will scracth adn look *** in no time, moreso with white, don't bother.

If you mist on several light costs, you get a nice flat / orange peel finish, depending on how heavy the coats were.

I assume the parts you're painting will be aluminium. So you to do it properly, you need etch primer (u-pol make it in rattle cans, they're a nice red colour). My advice would be to remove any existing paint, etch prime, then spray a very light mist coat of colour. Once your mist coat hast flashed off, your top coats have something to stick to, which helps reduce runs. Again, spray your top coats relatively lightly, as I assume you'll be using rattle cans.

Rattle can paint is very thin as an aerosol doesn't have much power. Because of this, you'll need to do several coats, but being very careful not to put too much on and let it run. Don't be surprised if you can still see the primer colour through your first top-coat.

The other issue is that any coating is certainly going alter the size of the components a fair bit. I'd advise practicing on something like an old beer can to get the hang of it.

When it's all done, stick everything in your airing cupboard for a week to get properly dry, or the paint will rip off as soon as you use the bits.

Tron is right to a point but overstating it in reality. Paint it carefully, rough up the surface first (fine wet and dry is fine) and do thin coats and plastikote or similar are perfectly tough enough.

You cannot powder coat carbon, as it needs an electric field passed through it so the paint particles stick to the metal.

The electric bit stil works (it'll even work on plastic) as its a static charge, the actual current is very small indeed, think allong the lines of tissue paper sticking to a comb.

The problem is cureing the powdercoat requires an oven at 150-200degC to melt the plastic particles (the 'powder'), unfortunately this melts the plastic as well.

You can paint it normaly though with a water based paint (or a carefully selected solvent based one), but most manufacturers probably apply a colour to the gelcoat and then just sticker up as it cuts out an entire manufacuring step.

Or buy the ritchey wet White finish components. Supposed to be v hardwearing but I can't see any white finish standing up to seat post adjustment.

Guys thanks for all the advice.

I going to try it out on my black alloy specialized stem which is rough to the touch.

So the question is….

(1) Do I still need to "rough" up the stem?
(2) I take on board thin and lots of coats.
(3) No airing cupboard 😥 where else to dry?

Thinking about it I'm not going to do the bars and seatpost just yet as I want to see how I get on with the stem first.

Do you think with a white frame, seatpost, stem, bars and wheels all in white will it look to much 8) ?

Anyway thanks for the advice and I will post pics of how I get on.

Rochey.

1) You will need to key everything. Think 1200 grit sandpaper or a grey scotchbrite pad. That kind of grade of abrasive will just take the shine off.

3) Conservatory? Anywhere warmish really to get all the solvents out of the paint. Even just in the house. Don't put it on top of a radiator though – the paint will probably stick when it gets hot.