frame paint?

[I-Bunder]

hi can anyone suggest a spray paint for my swinging arm and frame going to do it black

[0ddball]

Get it powdercoated/sprayed professionally imo. Do it right or don't bother.

I take it you're going to strip the bike to the bare frame?

[chris-red]

[Mark65]

Ive just resprayed my swing arm, cleaned and sanded original finish, 2 coats of red oxide, 2 coats of black enamel, paint was plastikote, its just drying now, will it be ok, who knows but it looks better than the original.
Mark
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07 Yamaha YBR125, 07 Honda CG125 , 15 CBR300R (Chocolate Crank, Deaded), 16 CB500FA, 19 Honda Forza 300, 70 Suzuki SV650

[I-Bunder]

ok i have no idea about the cost of powder coating it any one got a rough idea ?

[Mr Krispy]

[Bull]

[flat spot]

If you're doing it at home plastikote spray will be fine.

[chris-red]

Yyou will need new bearings but if you are striping the bike down that far it is probably worth replacing all the bearings. I took a load of bits of a local powder coaters they didn't specialise in bike parts but for a loads of little parts they charged £30, I reckon if I took a frame and swing arm they would charge about £60-70 to shot blast and paint the lot. then depending on the bike you are looking at £40 -£100 worth of bearings. Plus if you have any other bits you want painted in the same colour they can do them as well and it will hardly cost any extra.


Trust me thought the finish will be far better than any other, it will probably be better than when it was new.
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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[0ddball]

The way i see it is it's worth a shot rattle can painting bolt on bits like calipers, top yokes etc. If it peels you can easily unbolt the bit and try again.

If it happens with a frame you have to either live with it or spend a few days totally stripping the whole bike again. It's a big job so you want to do it once and you want it to last for years.

If you were planning on just masking up and trying to do it with the bike built just leave it as it is because when you come to sell, half a job will scream covered up frame damage.

[chris-red]

You might as well powder coat those little bits Imo, if you took a frame to be coats and brought along calliper and a top yoke the difference in cost would be less than the rattle cans.

Triple s, whose prices aren't cheap charge £12 to do a top yoke a raffle can would be at least £5 for shit paint. Do it properly.
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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[Ingah]

Sorry for the slight hijack but as it's related:
What's the point of frame painting/shot blasting/powder coating - what does it do? (apart from to perhaps cover crash damage)
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-- Ingah

[Mr Krispy]

[Paxovasa]

I would get it powder coated
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Suzuki GSF600 K3 (in the fastest colour, black).

[chris-red]

[Bull]

[Teflon-Mike]

Round me, Shot-Blast Acid-Dip and Powder-Coat, is approx £50 for a frame, £25 for a swing arm.

Compared to rattle-canning.... it's good.

For a 'blow-over', job, two coats of paint on a typical tube-frame and arm, your looking at two three cans of paint, that's about £25's worth. Chuck in a couple of rotary wire brushes and a flap-wheel, and the cheap electric drill you'll invariably kill, loading the bearings side on, where they aren't very strong, and then the hassle and elbow-grease..... its an awful lot less hassle, and not that much more expensive! BUT, you will have to replace bearings etc. AND having got a really nice looking finish o nthe frame, and then spent money on new bushes... the costs start ramping, as you look at the bits you are about to bolt onto your nice shiney new frame, and think... "Hmmm I think I'll paint that first!" or "Thats a bit manky, I'll get a new one of them" and so it goes on, and what started off as a £100 tart up job, rapidly becomes a Two-grand Restoration! (see Snowies' Pup thread on Show & Tell for how it goes!)

Alternative is to brush paint.

Thirty years on dirt bikes, Finnigans Smooth-Rite has done me proud!

You need to thin it a bit, but brush on, and it goes 'smooth' so doesn't leave too many brush-marks. It stays a little bit 'plastic', and resists stone chip, or in my case, heavy bashing against trees, rocks, and anything else that I manage to find to run into on a week-ends romping! And you slap it on around whatever's there, so keeps it all simple. NOT the best looking finish, but better than rust, its functyional, and ecconomical. Big tin is about £12, and after fdoing whole bike frame and swinger, there's usually enough left in the tin for a couple of seasons, touching it up, during post season rebuilds! (Like when even a 'tough' resiliant paint fisih wont resist the consequences of severe numptyness!)

Poweder coating isn't the 'ultimate', though. 'Normal' powder coating, like wot they do garden gates in, tends to go hard and brittle and crack, after about six to ten years, at which point it starts to let moisture under the coating, letting the metal beneath rust and lift the coating off. If damaged in use, similar thing can happen, and its a lot harder to treat than paint. Hence not using it on the dirt bikes. Some show-builders prefer paints, for adherance and finish, and how they can control the application, often using twin-pack paints that are baked to cure, like a plastic coating, but with adherance to metal of paint, but, thats talking seriouse money.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[I-Bunder]

thank guys for the advice probs going to get the swing arm powder as it gets a lot of shit. but wiil end up spraying the frame as to much hasle to strip the hole bike and does need to be as heavy duty.
cheer

[stevo as b4]

Yeah power coating and or stove enamelling has their adavantages, but as said you need the bike to be 100% stripped and your going to have to remove bearings and blank off areas that you don't want to get coated, including bearing housings and things like threaded boss's etc.

For working at home or just doing part of a bike, then i too favour using Smoothrite/Hammerite type paints. I find than you don't need to rub down the old paint too far or strip the frame to the bare metal. Just a combination of a stiff wire brush and a quick key with quite rough sandpaper is enough to get a good paint adhesion IMO. You can use a rough grade paper, because if you use these paints un-diluted then they are quite thick, which means they cover up scratches well IMO.

You can do several coats by thinning the paint with a thinners solution, but if you just need or want to do a single coat, then brushing it on with a single thick coat using a decent brush seems to work well. I've also found good results with smalled parts by dipping them whole in a can of smootherite and hanging them up to dry. Things like caliper brackets, footpegs, and lamp brackets i've done this way before.

You can also get Hammerite/Smootherite paint as a spray can, and providing you mask up well, then they work well, but the finish is not quite as tough as brush on paint. if your going to do things like wheels and are prepared to do at least 3coats, then spray paints can give good results with a bit of work and prep. Plasticote and PJ paints are also good spray type paints.

Of course if you have a bare frame and know someone with a spray shop with professional facilities, the having parts professionally painted is another option, giving very nice results but it's more cost and time consuming than the other methods if your paying someone to do it.

[RamonTR]

right, let me get this right, so you have to take off your wheel inc tires and chain to have ur alloys powder coated/painted? oh give me a break? talkin about frame and even crankcase, dude the time u spend to strip it all and put it back on and adjustin and all that crap and sending it/ taking it to the shop and plus u gotta pay 70-100 on top oh God im too old for this. aint worth it not worth for a 125cc anyway however if had a r1 then would drop it to the shop get the rims and frame done in orange and if the guy asked me to strip it all off first then id ask him to do the paintin for free. why cant we just leave the keys and let them sort it all. whos got all that time, honestly ? not every one cares about projects and not every1 has the time for it.
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All the best

Ramon

[Mark65]

Well its been two months since i painted my swingarm and its been used and covered in oil, this weekend i gave it a good clean and the paint finish is fine and solid, so i would think the plasticote will do ok for a cheap paintjob.
Mark
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07 Yamaha YBR125, 07 Honda CG125 , 15 CBR300R (Chocolate Crank, Deaded), 16 CB500FA, 19 Honda Forza 300, 70 Suzuki SV650

[Avora]

I just hammerited my swingarm, its basically just to get me on the road until I can afford powdercoating when I strip the entire bike down after summer. Looks good, but I was slapping the paint around abit so I have some runs. That said, will still look good once its back on the bike. Not a big job to get the swingarm off anyhow, just takes some time.
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Kawasaki AR125 B8 - Getting ready for a summer time soon!