Want to upgrade your old peeling paint on a bike? Maybe you want to add a touch of creativity to the appearance of the “iron horse”? No matter what your purpose is. But if you are wondering “how to paint a bicycle”, then here you are!
We will say right away that special skills are not needed to make your vehicle more attractive. Even a student can handle this if he has the following:
- Thinner for removing old paint.
- Emery paper for various types of surfaces (large, medium, small).
- White spirit for degreasing surfaces before applying paint or primer (sold at any hardware store).
- Primer for durability of "tuning" and uniformity of coloring.
- Paint (acrylic is ideal).
How to paint a bike. Stage One: Preparation
Preparation of the vehicle for painting begins with a parsing: the bare frame is painted. A prerequisite is a thorough washing. If there are various labels, badges and other attributes on the frame that need to be preserved unchanged, it is recommended to seal them with paper tape (its edges should not go beyond the picture, otherwise there will be unpainted spots). To remove the old layer of paint, you need to use a solvent and sandpaper with a gentle surface (with small grains). Such actions must be carried out with gloves so as not to damage the skin of the hands, and in a well-ventilated area. Next, you need to degrease the surface of the frame with white spirit.
How to paint a bike. Stage Two: Primer
To carry out this process, it is better to suspend the bicycle frame in such a position that it does not touch any other surface, but access to it was easy from all sides.
The primer can be applied with a brush, sprayed with a spray can or with a special gun with a compressor. Drying time is usually no more than a day (at a temperature of at least 5-7 degrees).
After this, the frame must be re-sanded until a flat surface is obtained on it.
How to paint a bike. Stage Three: Paint Application
If you don’t know how to paint the bike, we hasten to inform you that the best option is acrylic paint.
Its main advantages are a perfect even layer when coating, quick drying, a bright palette of colors (sometimes the most difficult is to decide what color to paint the bike in) and resistance to high humidity.
The paint is applied in small strokes (to obtain a uniformly painted surface, do not “pass” more than two times in one place).
If you want to get exactly the color that is shown on the bank, then you must first paint the surface with white paint.
The drying time for paints of different grades is usually different, so it is better to leave the frame for several days. After that, you can collect your bike and enjoy riding on the updated vehicle.
Now you know how to paint a bicycle so that it is not only beautiful, but also durable enough.