Well, enamel gives a nice hard finish when it is baked on. Not nearly as hard as powder coating but it can have the same look.
To get a high quality finish a few factors are involved. Good quality paint is the first, paint has in it what is called pigments (which is the color basically) the more pigment in the paint the better the look and less fading. Paint pretty much starts to fade once it is on the bike. So what does this mean, say you go and touch something up and you spray with the same paint but it looks darker than the original, thats the fade part. I wouldnt worry about it with these bikes though, to get real high quality auto paint you will be spending big bucks and need to use a spray gun to apply it.
Be sure to sand everything down nice and smooth, wet sanding will help in this area, then be sure to clean all the dust off real good. Apply a coat of primer, it is better to apply in thin coats and do multiple coats than to try and do one thick one. sand/wet sand, clean, another primer coat and repeat a third time. Then do the same with your base coat or color coat. but on your last coat, wet sand real light. Then spray on 3 coats of clear at least. Follow the same rules as wet sanding, washing, but on the last coat wet sand very very lightly, then buff with compound to bring it to a shine.
If you have any scratches on the frame or body work you will want to sand and fill those as needed with body filler. Now if you are going to paint your frame you can sand down the weld marks then fill with body filler to get seemless lines. Lot more work though, but nice finish when done.
If you want something to look real good take your time and be sure to let each coat dry, unless you have an oven to bake everything in, the bike will scratch easily for the first few days to a week until the paint really cures properly.
Good luck, and lets see some pics when you are done
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Originally Posted by blueR1cag well, I am going to remove everything off of my frame before I ever ride it, so that it is way easier to prep and takes much less time. I was just wondering what kind of paint you'd reccomend.
I picked out some premium black enamel paint, cuz my neighbor painted his VW tins with some paint and it turned out really good looking, almost like he busted out his compressor/spray gun and shot some auto quality paint on it. I asked him if thats what he did and he told me he sprayed it but not with regular spray paint, he told me it was enamel I think, but when I went to the store I saw enamel and I also saw another word that sounded familiar, I cant even remember what it is now, maybe epoxy(I know thats a term for some adhesives but it sounds really familiar also).
is enamel what gives it a niec smooth finish that looks somewhat like it was powdercoated?
Im am going to paint my wheels and my frame to get a more accurate R1 look.
so is enamel a good choice or is the other thing im trying to think of better? |
