Fellow enthusiasts -
The products we carry are not limited to automobile rims. The same concepts found within our How To Guide apply to a multitude of other uses as well. To prove this point, I decided to take on a somewhat different modification idea: Painting a bike frame and spoked wheels. In this case the “victim” was my son’s very used-but-new-to-him bicycle. My biggest concern of this task was the stainless spokes as I figured they would be difficult to prep and paint. More on that later.
I won’t go into all the details here, but the basic steps as outlined in our guide apply to this process as well.
1. Dis-assembly / Prep
2. Prime
3. Paint
4. Clearcoat
5. Reassembly - After a few hours of drying, I started to put the bike back together. Since I was not in a rush, I decided to take my time and reassemble over a two day time period.
Lessons Learned
Well, the bike came out looking really nice as you’ll see in a picture below. But, since this was a very used (see “free”) bicycle, I didn’t go crazy and use something like aircraft remover to strip the old thrashed paint and silly dinosaur stickers off.
Remember, anything on the surface of what you’re going to paint is only accentuated by a layer of primer and paint. So, if you want a perfect finish, make sure you strip off everything. That being said, there are a few rough spots on the bike thanks to sticker residue, but hey, it’s a kids bike and I’m not entering it in any shows. I knew that going in.
As for the spokes, well, they turned out nice. The use of etching primer and wipes made all the difference. One has to be careful and ensure full coverage by keeping the can moving, but it was not that difficult. The spokes have no missed spots that I can see.
I’d say the total project time, including dry time between coats is roughly 4 – 6 hours for someone experienced with bicycle dis-assembly and assembly.
As you can see the bike has no crank/pedals/chain. That’s on purpose as this is a new fad in “trainer bikes” for kids. It allows them to use their feet for balance and “propulsion” (without all that other junk in the way). All that stuff can be re-installed later anyway. The seat tube was chopped down about 1.5 inches too.
Flat black frame on bronze rims. Check it out.
