BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

what's going wrong?

At home this weekend I'll see if I can't round up some stickers - I get lots but never manage to put them anywhere. I can't paint worth a darn either, I'm sorry to hear you're frustrated!

Dbacklover what happened??? The pic you posted on the other link looked really good.

I have experience with automotive refinishing I might be able to help.

my problem, and it has been my problem for as long as i can remember is an in depth knowledge of how to do and what to do and a total lack of patience in actually doing it.

First time I picked the wrong paint for the accent and it looked awful compared to the orange. (my bad) all other problems have to do with not giving the paint im using enough time to cure. I know in my mind that I need to wait at least three days for the paint to cure and harden before I can do anything and even knowing this I cannot help but to try and hurry it along.

That way leads to madness.

I may try one more time. and I thought about just getting the frame and forks powdercoated but the whole Idea was to do this myself.

My total lack of working room has also been a problem but my goal is just to get the painting done before the weather gets to bad to paint. (I have to take the frame out to the big empty lot behind the house in order to paint it.)

Granted the Sticker-Bike is also a project I have 'on the books' so to speak. As I work on my bike or see something online that sparks my interest I make notes of things I want to try.

some of them are

Sticker Bike

Tile mosaic bike (this would be more art than function)

Jigsaw puzzle bike (white bike with hand painted puzzle marks on frame)

I have some other ideas but I need to learn to weld.

possibilities have always been the curse of a curious mind

Sticker bike will get ratty real fast if you don't put some lacquer over it.

Painting gets to be easy when you've done it enough times. The advice I give people when it comes to painting is the few times you've done it, the more time you should expect between coats.

Basically the more familiar you are with the tolerances of the materials and chemicals you're working with, the less drying times matter, and when it comes to painting, a solid cure is your best friend. Need to strip? Let it cure. Need to recoat? Let it cure. Messed up somewhere? Let it cure before fixing it.

When I paint a steel frame, my primers 'dry time' is 6 hours, paint 'dry time' is 48. I can prep, prime and paint with a cure well enough for shipping in about 3 hours.

If you want to give painting another shot I'll be happy to bestow some pro-tips

I know in my mind that I need to wait at least three days for the paint to cure and harden before I can do anything and even knowing this I cannot help but to try and hurry it along.

I'm like that with cooking. If I don't keep my meals really simple, I'll end up sitting there eating half-cooked rice and a vegetable I didn't mean to have (quite so) raw. Not fun. Not as depressing as a lost paint job, but I feel for you.

question about painting - would it be possible to locate hot-pink (or any color pink, or purple) reflective paint? I would like to paint my bicycle something that would make it... less likely to get "borrowed" since I'm adding more and more very cool and useful looking things to it. I think a reflective pink frame might do nicely to increase visibility as well.

Is reflective paint possible? Would I have to strip the frame first, or could I just paint over top of it?

dback - if you decide to go ahead with the sticker concept, let me know. I have a half dozen or more I could probably donate to the cause.

eleanor

ever seen my bike? that was my intent as well. but i was lazy & didn't use primer. so the hot pink on black came out unsurprisingly as salmon. so be sure to primer or at least add a coat or two of white before the pink. i used rustoleum hot pink, the kind that construction crews use. $5 at home depot.

I did manage to get it painted (red instead of Orange)

dback - that's pretty!

Noah - I like your salmon bike! But I think I'll prime first. Is the reflective stuff a coating that goes on top of the paint then? I would like to shine like the road signs

the road signs are made with special paint that has tiny glass beads suspended in it. i don't know if you can get spray paint like that...

ok, plan B is to bedazzle it with rhinestones.

so the plan is then:

prime white (2 coats)

pait pink (2 coats?)

bedazzle with rhinestones in pink, clear, purple

clear lacquer (2 coats)?

If I take it apart, and it really needs three days to cure between every coat, could I reassemble and use it between (cleaning carefully before painting again)? Or is it simply I must not touch the bike for 18 days while this process is going on?

oh i didn't realize you wanted reflective paint. rustoleum makes a spray reflective paint which you could try. it works better with a real thin layer, so you might be able to just gloss over the pink?

Is this your new bike? I think you can get it powder coated with sparkly stuff in the powder coat.

@ejwme- you know that reflective tape that big box trucks have on the back? I have some and have used it on my other bike. It looks white normally, but when it's dark and headlights shine on it = very bright! It's very durable considering what it's intended purpose is. Pretty sure it's also available in black (that glows white when lit).

@db- your bike looks very nice

this is the new bike. It's very classy right now (black and white, like a cycling tuxedo), and I'd like it to be sassy instead (like a roller derby in a sequined tutu). I thought powder coating was expensive... three cans of paint I'm hoping will be cheaper.

thank you for the tip - Rustoleum does make a reflective finish: http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=125

Looks like I can top the pink with that... It'd still be awesome to bedazzle it a bit with hearts and lightening, maybe in glitter paint rather than rhinestones, but I'd need to experiment to see what will shine through the lacquer. perhaps prime, pink, bedazzle/glitter, lacquer, reflective finish?

oi, this is a project.

edited to add - Tabby, I've got some reflective tape too, that's for the fenders I may scrap the "bedazzle" step in favor of reflective tape. but I like bedazzled things. sparkles make me smile

That reflective tape is almost certainly brighter than any reflective paint you can buy.

So here's what you need, 3M Scotchlite reflective film, it's adhesive, peel&stick, colors (maybe not pink?), reflects like the sun, what they use on road signs.

Find out who the local product rep is, tell them you're an engineer and you need samples. You could probably get enough to do a bike frame for nothing.

http://storeapps.net/search/3MeStore/?keyword=film+680

Alternatively, you might find a sign shop that uses the stuff and just scoop their scraps.

A friend of mine told me about a guy who got a huge quantity of yellow paint, either really cheap or free, so he painted his house. Turns out it was the stuff they use on the streets. Now every time a car goes by at night his whole house lights up.

really nice db.

awe, no pink OR purple tape. *sniff*.

wait, google found these for me: http://www.streetglo.net/sizzle.reflective.tape.strips.html

and they come in purple. Now would those have to be lacquered on like the other stickers mentioned above?

bikefind - that sounds AWESOME. Like a super hero in disguise by day time as a mild mannered cheery yellow home, at night out comes the Pizazz! It'd be hilarious if he hooked up speakers to a light sensor so that every time headlights hit it, it reflects and says "Sha-ZAM!"

Designer Fluorescent Hot Pink $12(toward the bottom of the page)

link

nice... recommended for bicycle fenders and helmets - any reason I couldn't bestripe my frame? That could be even better

ejwme, I recently had a frame powder coated red at Thick Bikes. He has a rack of samples for all the colors they work in and they have a very bright hot pink!

I'm going to buy a bunch of that tape and re-tape my rear tire rack - the hot pink (and non-reflective) duct tape is getting dirty