From Evan Sultanik

Painting and assembling a bike

I recently finished painting and assembling a bicycle for my lady friend. Painting the frame was one of those projects that I’m happy I did once, but for which I’m not sure I’d expend the effort ever again. (Click on the thumbnails for larger pictures.) Here is a “before” picture, which will hopefully motivate the necessity of re-painting:

First I tried chemically stripping the paint using an aircraft stripper:

Unfortunately, the stripper was more successful in dissolving my latex gloves than in removing the paint. I had to finish the job with a sander:

I later got a “real” face mask. Here’s a picture after the stripping:

After primer and the first coat of paint:

Masking and detailing the lugs:

Finished frame, after clear coat:

And, finally, the fully-assembled bike:

We still need to wrap the bars and adjust the seat and stem height. Here are my thoughts:

• This project took three times as much time as I had originally anticipated, particularly because I had to wait a day or two before the paint had dried enough to mask out the lugs (even though the Rustoleum paint I used said it was handleable within an hour).
• Properly masking the lugs was a PAIN.
• The bike looks good from far and far from good. With that said, both my lady friend and I are very happy with the way it turned out, given the fact that it was a do-it-yourself job.
• A heated garage is a must when doing this in the winter.
• The aircraft stripper from PepBoys didn’t work as well as many people had claimed. I ended up having to make extensive use of an electric sander.
• Properly sanding and priming the frame is very important.
• Wait as long as possible between coats.
• It’s easier to apply multiple thin coats than to try and undo the effects of few thick coats.

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