Brush Painting vs Spraying?

[koolio]

Classic 70s bike.

Decided not to go the powder coating route except for the side stand and centre stand.

Have already decided to paint the bike allover as I want the aged painted look + depth of colour and not the prefection of powder coating.

I have a frame and many parts where the paint is largely intact, a little rust here and there. Wanted to simply get rid of the rusted parts or parts missing paint, sand the areas down, prime the areas and then paint them.

Question is whether or not it would be better to hand prime and paint by brush, or hand spray prime and spray paint? And why? Which is more durable etc.

I'm leaning towards brush painting at the moment.

[Johnser]

You'll never beat the original paint for the "aged" look. The knocks and rust spots all add to character. can easily be preserved with wax or regularly wiped with an oily cloth.

Brush painting will always look like its been brush painted although a relatively good finished can be achieved with some paints (coach-paint, cellulose, rustoleum)

Spraying has the potential to do a really good job or for you to really mess it up. I normally mess it up. Runs, orange peel, dust, flies e.t.c

Depending on the extent of the damaged areas, if you're desperate to paint them, I'd give the brush a try (especially if they're fairly small) keeping the areas you attack to a minimum. This way if you're not happy with the finish, you've not invested too much and can start from scratch or try again over a bigger area.

[koolio]

Pretty much spot on.

I'm doing a coach paint finish on the fuel tank and side panels. The whole bike is going to be in black but I think I'll be using another paint + primer for the frame.

Its the rest of the frame and headstock etc. that I'm really in two minds about with some people telling me spraying mist coats and letting them dry several times is better and other saying painting is superior.

Its a question of durability as well as appearance.