Repainting Frames

[trailrunner]

I powder coated a frame at a industrial place in Manassas, probably 10 or 15 years ago. They did an ok job. I think they missed a spot, and were a little overzealous on some of the holes, but the price was low. Not too many choices of colors and won’t do anything fancy, but very practical and durable.

Another frame I had painted I sent off to a mail-order place. Price was right, but the quality wasn’t so great. The paint started bubbling within a couple of years.

When I decided to repaint that frame again, I found a guy in Richmond who paints for a hobby. He had a little shed in the back that he converted to a shop. He used automotive paint, and I told him to choose a color and surprise me. I was pleased with the result (see photo). If you’re interested in him, let me know and I’ll dig out his name.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21618[/ATTACH]

[drevil]

If this person wants to try DIY, I recently discovered that Squid Bikes sells their paints for amateur and pro use: https://spraybike.us/

If you’ve never heard of or seen a Squid bike, their paint jobs are craaaaaaazy cool: https://www.instagram.com/squidbikes/

[Judd]

@drevil 202035 wrote:

If this person wants to try DIY, I recently discovered that Squid Bikes sells their paints for amateur and pro use: https://spraybike.us/

If you’ve never heard of or seen a Squid bike, their paint jobs are craaaaaaazy cool: https://www.instagram.com/squidbikes/

Came here to say this. I believe LhasaCM may have spray painted his daughter’s bike with this before. I seem to recall that he painted over the old paint which is what SprayBike recommends.

I previously stripped a steel frame with paint stripper and then spray painted it with Krylon. I recommend suspending the parts from a coat hangar to access all the sides of it more easily and get an even coat.

I seem to recall hozn painting one of his kid’s bikes as well.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Judd]

I was able to find hozn’s thread. It’s here:

http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ewashingtonareabikeforum%2Ecom%2Fshowpost%2Ephp%3Fp%3D139885&share_type=t&link_source=app

He said he got the paint done at NOVA Powdercoat in Chantilly for $120. Appears that their name now is NV Coatings and their website is nvcoatings.com

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tovahrovah]

@drevil 202035 wrote:

If this person wants to try DIY, I recently discovered that Squid Bikes sells their paints for amateur and pro use: https://spraybike.us/

If you’ve never heard of or seen a Squid bike, their paint jobs are craaaaaaazy cool: https://www.instagram.com/squidbikes/

I was the original person who asked H.D. the question by email. Now I’ve joined the forum. (@ H.D. – Thanks!) For context, the bike’s a mid-1980’s Biancha frame (beautiful steel lugs, but sadly, it’s manufactured in Japan, not Italy). I think it’s a Brava model, but not enough decal survives to be sure, and I’ve not yet asked the expert on BikeForums.net based on the serial number on the BB. It’s not in great shape paint/rust-wise, but I want to save it.

Some follow up questions:

1. I was familiar with the Spray.Bike product — from other online fora. Has anyone ever used Spray.bike or known anyone who’s used it? As durable as powder coating? While powder coating is a comparatively expensive and complicated process, I’d prefer to not have to strip down the frame again any time soon.

2. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get close to one of Bianchi’s “celeste” colors with the powder coating process? Know anyone that’s ever done it? (I recognize the shade of this color is a moving target over the last century.)

3. Anyone had an experience using phosphoric acid to arrest rust? (It’s an active ingredient in both Naval Jelly and Coca Cola.) Just want to do a sanity check, before moving forward.

My current thought is I can either pay someone to sandblast the frame or use a edge grinder to remove paint, bathe the frame in phosphoric acid to make sure there are no remaining, unseen rust spots, and then either powder coat or try this Spray.Bike product.

Really appreciate your collective wisdom & advice.

[Rimas]

https://www.youtube.com/%20oldshovel

[huskerdont]

@trailrunner 202034 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21618[/ATTACH]

That’s a beautiful bike/color. It’s rare that “surprise me” works out so well.

The guy in Roanoke who built my custom steel bike actually shipped the frame to Colorado for painting because he was not happy with local results. We weren’t happy with the results from Colorado either. Paint flakes off way too easily, and I ran out of one touch-up bottle within a couple of years. I had no idea that properly painting a bike frame would be so challenging.

[EasyRider]

@drevil 202035 wrote:

If this person wants to try DIY, I recently discovered that Squid Bikes sells their paints for amateur and pro use: https://spraybike.us/

If you’ve never heard of or seen a Squid bike, their paint jobs are craaaaaaazy cool: https://www.instagram.com/squidbikes/

This product looks really interesting and I’d give it a try if it were my frame. Apparently, this stuff doesn’t run or spatter, which are the main issues with rattle-can paint jobs.

For me, a mid-80s Bianchi that needs to be saved wouldn’t need a paint job that requires shipping and costs several times the frame’s market value. If it had sentimental value I’d probably just clean it up and keep it as original as I could.

FWIW, I’ve rattle-canned a few items in the last month, and I’ve been pretty pleased with the results. No bikes, but a rusty Snap-On tool chest rescued from the neighbor’s trash, a homebrewed truing stand, and some plastic fenders for an upcoming build. For the toolbox I used a two-part automotive clearcoat from Eastwood. It worked pretty well and has a better spray nozzle than the Rustoleum cans I used for the color coat. Like all paint jobs it’s the preparation that matters the most.

[LhasaCM]

@Judd 202036 wrote:

Came here to say this. I believe LhasaCM may have spray painted his daughter’s bike with this before. I seem to recall that he painted over the old paint which is what SprayBike recommends.

You remember correctly – I used it to change the trailercycle from green to her preferred blue, with some metal flake thrown in for extra zing. I painted over the old paint, though I did go over it with a fine grit wet sand per the instructions. It turned out pretty darn well, especially given my general lack of patience and not always following instructions in spraying the proper distance away from the frame (too close and it ran a bit – especially the metal flake top coat), and in my experience, worked much better (and was more forgiving) than a normal spray paint from the local hardware store. For a DIY project such as ours, it was the perfect solution.

[tovahrovah]

@drevil 202035 wrote:

If this person wants to try DIY, I recently discovered that Squid Bikes sells their paints for amateur and pro use: https://spraybike.us/

If you’ve never heard of or seen a Squid bike, their paint jobs are craaaaaaazy cool: https://www.instagram.com/squidbikes/

Thanks. I was the original emailer. Luckily, now I have a forum account. Thanks for all the helpful insight! Some follow up questions:

1. Is the Spray.bike as durable as powder coating? (Press releases on their website are making me think the product has been on market perhaps only 4 years.)

2. Any thoughts on how to get powder coating to match the “celeste” color? Use swatches? Anyone heard of someone matching the color well? (I realize the color ‘celeste’ has changed over the years.) (I think Spray.bike has a “Celeste”-like color, so this is more an issue with powder coating perhaps. I know auto body shops have machines that can color match for *wet* touch-up paint.)

3. Any performance (paint adhesion) differences between, for instance, using an edge sander with an abrasion pad vs. paying someone to sand blast the bike?

4. Has anyone used phosphoric acid (either applied with a sponge/gloves or as a bath) to stop progress of rust? (I’ve heard of BMX’ers using a much harsher chemical too …. oxalic acid.)

5. @ Judd – The link you sent may have changed during copy/paste process. Any chance you might be able to resend?

[LhasaCM]

@tovahrovah 202044 wrote:

Thanks. I was the original emailer. Luckily, now I have a forum account. Thanks for all the helpful insight! Some follow up questions:

1. Is the Spray.bike as durable as powder coating? (Press releases on their website are making me think the product has been on market perhaps only 4 years.)

Spray.Bike bills itself as a dry matte powder-coating, and yes, it is relatively newer in the grand scheme of things. Probably not quite as good as a professional power coating, but it’s a trade-off for a relatively inexpensive DIY approach. In my experience (i.e., painting a trailercycle 2 years ago), it’s seemed about as durable as my bike’s original paint. A few dings here and there where I’ve banged the trailercycle’s frame against mine when locking it up outside, but overall it’s fine, even after plenty of weather experience. Cost about $30 (plus my time) for the one can of solid paint and one can of metal flake top coat. If it were a bike I’d be keeping for a while (as opposed to something she would grow out of within a year or two) I probably would’ve sprung for the finish coat as well to add some durability (so now we’re looking at $50 for the three cans).

For a bike that you strip down to bare metal, it gets more and more expensive since you would (per their instructions) want to add a primer coat. And potentially the smoothing putty before that if there are any other imperfections you want to smooth out in advance. So it really depends what you’re up for.

[josh]

@tovahrovah 202044 wrote:

5. @ Judd – The link you sent may have changed during copy/paste process. Any chance you might be able to resend?

Remove some extraneous spaces, percent decode, and you get this.

[Judd]

@josh 202047 wrote:

Remove some extraneous spaces, percent decode, and you get this.

Thanks for cleaning up the link. Tapatalk doesn’t handle pasting URLs very well.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[EasyRider]

@tovahrovah 202044 wrote:

Thanks. I was the original emailer. Luckily, now I have a forum account. Thanks for all the helpful insight! Some follow up questions:

1. Is the Spray.bike as durable as powder coating? (Press releases on their website are making me think the product has been on market perhaps only 4 years.)

2. Any thoughts on how to get powder coating to match the “celeste” color? Use swatches? Anyone heard of someone matching the color well? (I realize the color ‘celeste’ has changed over the years.) (I think Spray.bike has a “Celeste”-like color, so this is more an issue with powder coating perhaps. I know auto body shops have machines that can color match for *wet* touch-up paint.)

3. Any performance (paint adhesion) differences between, for instance, using an edge sander with an abrasion pad vs. paying someone to sand blast the bike?

4. Has anyone used phosphoric acid (either applied with a sponge/gloves or as a bath) to stop progress of rust? (I’ve heard of BMX’ers using a much harsher chemical too …. oxalic acid.)

5. @ Judd – The link you sent may have changed during copy/paste process. Any chance you might be able to resend?

1. Probably not.

2. No, but maybe you could have the bike powder-coated gloss white or gloss black and use celeste replacement decals, cable housing, bar tape, etc., as accents. Those are pretty easy to find.

3. I have no experience with edge sanders or media-blasting, but I think all the prep that happens after those steps could matter just as much, like how clean is the surface, was a primer used, how skillfully was the topcoat applied. I would guess that Spray.Bike could look quite good with practice, and careful prep work, even on bikes where the existing paint was just scuffed up a bit and and coated with a thin layer of primer.

4. I have used Evaporust and can recommend that for DIY rust removal. It’s practically non-toxic and so easier and safer to use than a corrosive like CLR or naval jelly. You can saturate a few rags with the stuff and wrap them around the frame for a day or two, with plastic wrap over top that. Evaporust will make cleaning and sanding more productive, though it won’t do that work for you; it’s not sand-blasting in a bottle, for sure. You’ll really want to scrub and wash the bike several times.

FWIW, I rattle-canned a 1970s Raleigh Grand Prix about 15 years ago. Prep consisted of washing the frame, sanding off specks of surface rust and old decals by hand, washing it again, then wiping it with a tack cloth before spraying. I took my time so turned out OK. But also, I knew I couldn’t make it look great, so I didn’t try. I painted it primer gray with a clear coat, to communicate the important thing about the bike was its function. Unfortunately, being an old Raleigh with a worn out, proprietary-sized headset and bottom bracket, it didn’t function very well, and I traded the frame for parts a short time later

Whatever way you go, consider spraying the inside of the frame with Boeshield or FrameSaver, and drilling a hole in the bottom bracket shell if it lacks one.

Good luck, and post some before and after pics!

[Judd]

For matching the Bianchi Celeste color, Google tells me that the Pantone color for Bianchi Blue is 332 or 333. I’ve never had anything powder coated, but I would imagine that a powder coater would be able to match pantone colors. It also appears that you can buy spray paints mixed to specific pantone colors: https://www.myperfectcolor.com/paint/379480-pantone-pms-332-c

If you end up redoing the paint, please do post results to the forum for the next person considering a paint job.

[Author]

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