[Closed] Painting a bike frame. - best paint to use??

What frame material?

I've never found a 'rattle can' paint that can last on a steel frame. If there is a product now that doesn't chip - I'd like to know too 🙂

Insulation tape and sticker. Black hammerite.

Sorry, it's a aluminium frame. I'm going to key the old paint. And then undercoat, paint.

Is the frame stripped already?

If so you want to use an etch primer like Upol that will etch into the aluminium. Then spray with your chosen paint within a decent time frame. 2k paint is best but you shouldn't do that without proper equipment (you can but I'll stick with "don't").

Some paints will be better than others and if you see a PU paint in the right colour then go for that. Otherwise go for a car paint (normally acrylic) in a rattle can if DIYing it.

edit: just spotted the 'key old paint'. so you will be sticking to the old paint. Make sure it is properly keyed and degreased (IPA wash) and try it. It may help to see if there is a primer that will help stick to old paint - eg a plastic primer. I'd probably pop into a local car paint supplier.

Plastikote. Goes on quite thick & seems to resist chipping better than Halfords Knacker Lacquer. An expensive way of doing it though.

I had my frame shotblasted(Steel Frame) then primed with Upol etch primer,sprayed it with some rattle cans from Halfords(which are quite good actually).
Left it too harden for a few days ,flatted it back with wet & dry.
Then topcoated with the same colour.
Again left to harden for a few days then cut and polished.

Looks pretty decent,will get some photos up when I have finished building it up.

Possibly not that helpful, but a distant memory of me as a young teenager painting my bike with some blackboard paint I found in my day's shed. Matt black, stealth and from seeing the growing number of BMW's and Audi's etc with similar matt finish, years ahead of it's time 🙂

Now I think of it, that bike probably predates the Mt Tam lot by a few years too, cow horn handlebars, 2 x 5 , with shifters on the bars AND 27" knobbly tyres! Yay! 😀

ATB bike's spawned in the leafy woods of south Hampshire not Nor Cal shocker! 😀

@Slackalice - we had similar bikes for riding the "bombholes" round Shrog's Wood in Rotherham. We rode them everywhere, including the dirt trails that linked the roads to mates houses c1976 - who needs the sun of California. 😀

@rogerthecat - indeed! All we lacked was the marketing nous to give it a label! We even went night riding with tyre driven dynamo lights! The 70's weren't all that bad eh?! Especially that '76 summer 8)

Thanks all for your input. Plastikote seems to be the way forward. Anyone used enamel paint?

Your looking at at least 4 cans at £4 - £5 a time.
Pop into a car body shop, they would probably sort you out.
Or look up stove enamelling on yell. They will probably sort you out for the same price as you will spend on paint.

If your near Burton on Trent there's a chap I can recomend...