Topic: Painting my frame

[Bankerdanny]

For outdoor bikes 15 minutes of polishing every couple of months will keep your cases and fork lowers looking good. I recommend finding simichrome polish.

Paint wise we have had this discussion in a number of threads. My favorite is a chassis black sold at Harbor Freight. It has a satin finish that is almost an exact match to factory. I have painted whole frames and also used it to touch up factory painted frames and you have to look hard to tell what is new paint vs original.

[jlh3rd]

Steve O you think that its better to leave unpainted (clear) even tho that's how they have them from the factory? Why do you prefer not to paint?

I've seen pics of the clear coat yellowing over bare aluminum, and I would not want to risk that.
My bikes stay in the garage every night, so there is really no need to coat them for the elements.  If your situation is different [?], then coating may be a better option for you.

+1 on not clear coating your finished aluminum pieces. Like i said, i've never restored a bike but have worked on aluminum pieces. It's easier to keep these pieces looking good just by polishing them every now and then.
Honda's original clear for the aluminum parts , was likely a good ,strong lacquer. That was the primary type of paint being used. I've tried various " clears" today , and not the inexpensive stuff ( i use eastwood products a lot) and i feel they do tend to yellow...and " spider" .My eastwood clear did that. So, it would suck to finish your parts and have that happen.
one final note, i'd take a scrap piece of metal and spray it with whatever primer you may use ,if you decide to, ..and then spray your black paint just to make sure they are compatible. It would also suck if you primed the frame, then began spraying the black and watching it wrinkle up....just fyi..

[jakec]

Ok I am happy to skip the clear coat on the forks. I was going to use 2k. This bike once finished should never see the rain anyways, unless I get caught in it.

As for the paint I have already purchased the appliance enamel. I am happy to do  primer but i had read previously that you don't need it with this particular paint, and there is someone in this thread saying the same thing.

[jakec]

Has anyone had experience with curing the appliance epoxy in the over? I put my sprocket cover in the overn at 250* when i painted it with VHT duplicolor, to protect from gas. I'm wondering about curing some of the pieces, like the triple clamps, to harden the paint. When i torqued these parts before the paint flaked off. The directions do say not to use on parts exposed to heat. I was thinking of curing at lower heat like 100*. However I'm not even sure if my logic is correct, that curing paint would make it less like to flake off when the parts are torqued.

[calj737]

Probably they flakes off due to lack of adhesion. Painting aluminum is tricky. If you polish it up, it’s awfully slick and the paint can’t bite. That’s when an etching primer comes in handy. Curing in an oven below 300* is perfectly suitable for nearly every epoxy that I’ve encountered.

[Don R]

 I've painted a few race car tube chassis, I used DuPont Imron pitch black in a spray gun. After it's painted I fill the cup with the remaining paint and some reducer and wet down the entire fame to melt in any overspray.  It looks like powder coat but easier to repair.

[kerryb]

I semi-polished an aluminum head cover, cleaned it carefully with paint prep, then painted it with duplicolor self-etching primer.  After the finish color went on I was so disappointed with the adhesion of the primer, I sandblasted the part and sprayed again without primer.  It looked good and held up well.

[seanbarney41]

I semi-polished an aluminum head cover, cleaned it carefully with paint prep, then painted it with duplicolor self-etching primer.  After the finish color went on I was so disappointed with the adhesion of the primer, I sandblasted the part and sprayed again without primer.  It looked good and held up well.

yup, I used the duplicolor self etching primer on my cylinder head, and to be fair it held up for 3 seasons/about 30,000 miles.  But last season it seemed to just kinda spectacularly fail all at once, and now it flakes off from the impact of a gnat and looks pretty bad.

[RAFster122s]

A good 2k over your painted frame and motor parts will make them fuel proof and much more durable. It is important to test compatibility and generally it is going to take longer than the paint label will indicate. Just have to give any layer plenty of time to harden and cure.
 Not doing so can cause issues of bubbling or wrinkling, etc.
David

[jakec]

I just painted my first pieces, brake disc (want to send it off soon) and battery box. I can say the paint goes on really nice. Even on the disc which was mostly bare metal.

[jakec]

Quick update with advice needed on fork polishing:

Updated pic of the disc with the masking tape removed, right before sending to true disc.


And onto sanding the fork lowers. At first i forgot to lubricated and it was going terribly. Once I added wd-40 it was awesome. First pic is 600g next to my roommate's 400.


600g next to 800g. I think 800 is the highest I will go. Sanded at 2k rpm.


My question is, how to get rid of swirl marks from the orbital sander? Adjusting the speed down seemed to make them worse. Adjusting it up seemed to also make it worse...

[calj737]

Wet sand by hand vertically, 1500 grit. 200 grit increments is too similar to remove the prior grit scratches. Double your values 400-800-1500-3000

[jakec]

I sanded vertically by hand with 1200g, which is what I had originally bought. Like you said there are still scratches however they are more subtle and least they are all vertical now. I don't want to go too high with the sandpaper because I don't want to get a mirror finish, ideally I would like to have them stay the color they are now just without scratches. What should I do? I can get more sandpaper as soon as it stops snowing here.

[calj737]

Get some large green ScotchBrite pads and rub them vertically to put a “brushed” finish on them, also periodically use it to maintain the finish.

[jakec]

Ok, research says that green scotchbrite is equivalent to 600g. So I would be making pretty  pronounced markings with it. I'm happy to give it a shot though! Do you suggest that I sand it wet as I've been doing?

[calj737]

Not needed with ScotchBrite pads. Gently draw them down the leg, making sure the leg is chemically clean first.

[rocs]

The rust oleum appliance epoxy is very good without primer...I think it sticks even better to bare steel than with a primer.  This is quite different from most any other paint so if you have never used it before, it goes against common painting knowledge that you need to use a primer.

If you do insist on priming, I suggest finding a black colored primer so that any chips or scratches might not be so obvious.

I ended up using Primer with my appliance epoxy. Worked out well for me.

[jakec]

I finally started painting last weekend as temps finally hit 70* out of nowhere after weeks of 40's.

Amazed how much paint it was taking to get coverage on the frame. Not to mention the overspray. I have not flipped it over to get the underside yet. Just two coats on top.

One question I have is regarding the long-term cure time. How long does it take to reach a full cure, like the original paint on the frame?

Another issue I'm dealing with is dust. I had to repaint a few pieces that got dusty while they dried. There is also a guy doing drywall work in the garage this week so I am delayed.

[arncruz]

Has anyone used KBS paint system before.  I tried it on a CB750 frame and it seemed pretty solid.  Just wondering if anyone else has used this product on their chassis.

[jakec]

Does anyone have experience baking the appliance epoxy to harden it? I am having this problem where the paint comes off when you torque bolts down. Paint hardened naturally for about 2 weeks.