frame painting advice needed
Matt Egger
to do something to prevent oxidation, but I'm not sure what my best option
is.
The bike is a '99 bean green surly cross-check. Having the fork match the
frame would be cool. I've been searching the web for frame painters. I'm
pretty overwhelmed by the choices and could use any suggestions from anyone
with experience.
The other option I've been mulling over is painting it myself (probably
black). Any advice for this route?
TIA,
Matt
Matt Egger
news:6yznb.23699$4O1....@nwrdny01.gnilink.net:
Just painting the fork only...
Matt
Grenouil
news:6yznb.23699$4O1....@nwrdny01.gnilink.net...
If you want something fairly economic, save on shipping
costs and check the yellow pages or do a web search for a
local powder coater,.
I got quotes locally from $50 to $120 in the Nashville
area - the painters offering lower prices generally have a
limited selection available - depends what they're running
at the time. Black should be very easy to find.
I ended up paying $75 for frame and fork, and am very
pleased with the job.
S. Anderson
need
> to do something to prevent oxidation, but I'm not sure what my best option
> is.
>
My opinion is to have it done professionally, powder coated or painted.
Home paint jobs just never work right...I've seen many and they've all been,
IMHO, crap. If it's worth putting paint on in the first place, it's worth
$40 to do it right.
Cheers,
Scott..
ant
> to do something to prevent oxidation, but I'm not sure what my best option
> is.
>
if its aluminum, you dont really need to paint it. when it oxidizes,
it will just look dull. it wont be compromised or vulnerable the way
steel is.
> The bike is a '99 bean green surly cross-check. Having the fork match the
> frame would be cool. I've been searching the web for frame painters. I'm
> pretty overwhelmed by the choices and could use any suggestions from anyone
> with experience.
go crosscheck! woohoo! we will rule the world!
>
> The other option I've been mulling over is painting it myself (probably
> black). Any advice for this route?
been there. done that. i would do it again if:
-i still had access to a nice air compressor
-my left over paint is still good
-i could find a spray booth to use
-i have a lot of time to burn
its a lot of work, to do it right. for a small part like a fork, i bet
a local powdercoater would be your best bet, especially if you want
somethign simple like black. should be fairly cheap. to paint it
yourself with industry standard stuff it would cost you a lot of
money, becuase you cant buy very small quantities of any of the
various paints and chemicals, etc. you could do a rattle-can job. the
archives of rbt, and of the framebuilders list, has various posts on
this. definitely the framebuilders list. to get a good finish with
spray paint ive heard advocates of post-spray baking. this is
generally pooh-poohed by folks who couldnt fit a frame into their
kitchen oven (without s&s couplers..). but youre only doing a fork..
whatever works,
anthony
David L. Johnson
> My opinion is to have it done professionally, powder coated or painted.
> Home paint jobs just never work right...I've seen many and they've all
> been, IMHO, crap. If it's worth putting paint on in the first place, it's
> worth $40 to do it right.
Absolutely. I pissed away more in spray cans, and exposure to known
carcinogens, trying to paint my own frame than I did, subsequently, when I
took it to a powder coater.
--
David L. Johnson
__o | Arguing with an engineer is like mud wrestling with a pig... You
_`\(,_ | soon find out the pig likes it!
(_)/ (_) |
Zog The Undeniable
> if its aluminum, you dont really need to paint it. when it oxidizes,
> it will just look dull. it wont be compromised or vulnerable the way
> steel is.
Unless they salt the roads where the OP lives. This might accelerate
cracking.
Werehatrack
may have said:
>I just got an unfinished kinesis crosslight fork (aluminum). I know I need
>to do something to prevent oxidation, but I'm not sure what my best option
>is.
>
>The bike is a '99 bean green surly cross-check. Having the fork match the
>frame would be cool. I've been searching the web for frame painters. I'm
>pretty overwhelmed by the choices and could use any suggestions from anyone
>with experience.
Aluminum is a pain in the neck to paint. It's hard to get anything to
stick to it for long unless you have access to professional materials
and equipment.
>The other option I've been mulling over is painting it myself (probably
>black). Any advice for this route?
How about a good coat of wax instead? Nice, shiny aluminum is pretty,
and if it's going to corrode, not having an opaque coating on the
surface will allow you to see it happening sooner...and in my
experience, with available consumer-grade paints, you're just as well
off to leave it bare in the first place. YMMV.
--
My email address is antispammed;
pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Yes, I have a killfile. If I don't respond to something,
it's also possible that I'm busy.
Q.
C.Q.C.
"Matt Egger" <matt...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6yznb.23699$4O1....@nwrdny01.gnilink.net...
Tom Kunich
After seeing your 'advice' I suppose that you ought to actually get
some.
You don't usually paint aluminum forks. They don't degrade like steel.
Moreover, home methods of painting bicycles are not very effective
because the paints that come in cans are very soft and peel and
scratch very easy.
And painting aluminum is particularly difficult since the same minute
layer of oxidation that protects the aluminum from further degradation
makes a surface to which very few paints will stick.
Just put the fork on as is and don't worry about it.
Carl Fogel
Dear Tom,
I'm puzzled by your opening line. It seems to sneer
at Matt Egger's 'advice,' but since this is the only
post that I can find from him, this explanation seems
unlikely unless a feud is deeply buried.
Possibly you meant to sneer at the 'advice' given
to Matt Egger by earlier posters about how to paint
his fork a color that he likes? If so, the "your"
would be just a poorly chosen word.
But the earlier adice hardly seem worth a snarl. I
see six suggestions before yours: powder coat, powder
coat, powder coat, either don't paint or else powder
coat, wax, and why not anodize--with comments about
how hard it is to paint aluminum.
What baffles me is that your advice after that odd first
line seems so clear, sensible, and courteous, summarizing
nicely what some early posts pointed out.
So I'm hoping that you'll clear up this puzzle for
me--either I'm totally misunderstanding you, I'm
missing something obvious, or your mood changed
remarkably for the better after your first
thirteen words.
Just curious.
Carl Fogel
Erik Brooks
> to do something to prevent oxidation, but I'm not sure what my best option
> is.
>
I've got an aluminum fork on one bike. I have no idea what if any
finish it has on it, just as I have no idea what if any finish is on
my other alu bits, like my cranks and deraillers. In any case, they
are all years old now, and all look very nice, IMHO. The painted
frame, ITOH, has a bunch of chips by now, as do the painted forks on
my other bikes.
I'm happier with the appearance of the alu fork. Silver looks good
with any other color. Why do you think you need to do anything? Just
wondering.
Erik
Matt O'Toole
> news:6yznb.23699$4O1....@nwrdny01.gnilink.net...
> > I just got an unfinished kinesis crosslight fork (aluminum). I know I
> need
> > to do something to prevent oxidation, but I'm not sure what my best option
> > is.
> >
> > The bike is a '99 bean green surly cross-check. Having the fork match the
> > frame would be cool. I've been searching the web for frame painters. I'm
> > pretty overwhelmed by the choices and could use any suggestions from
> anyone
> > with experience.
"Q." <LostVideos-AT-hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Z5mdnYxjL9w...@comcast.com...
> Why not anodize?
I think you'll find that one-off anodizing of a bike part will be quite
expensive, more than a professional paint job. Anodizing itself is cheap, but
the guy who runs the local shop will probably pull a big number out of the air,
in dealing with a one-off order.
Powder coat is definately the way to go, for both cost and durability. Also,
have you called Surly to see if they can paint it, or send you to their painter?
That would sure simplify the color match.
> > The other option I've been mulling over is painting it myself (probably
> > black). Any advice for this route?
Forget it, unless you already do this kind of thing regularly -- painting cars,
etc.
Matt O.
Q.
>I think you'll find that one-off anodizing of a bike part will be quite
> expensive, more than a professional paint job. Anodizing itself is cheap,
but
> the guy who runs the local shop will probably pull a big number out of the
air,
> in dealing with a one-off order.
>
> Powder coat is definately the way to go, for both cost and durability.
Also,
> have you called Surly to see if they can paint it, or send you to their
painter?
> That would sure simplify the color match.
I realize one off anodizing could be expensive ... however, I've anodized
lots of little things. The OP mentioned they wanted it black, and black is
done all the time. My local anodize has no problem doing small parts in
black, since all he has to do is throw it into someone else's batch. He
makes a quick buck with hardly any extra effort. However, if the OP wants
it purple I'm sure then we would be talking a special order.
You can also anodize at home ... and powdercoat for that matter. I believe
the Eastwood company deals in a lot of that.
The only think that has kept me away from powdercoating aluminum, is the
high temperatures the metal has to be heated to.
C.Q.C.
"Matt O'Toole" <ma...@deltanet.com> wrote in message
news:Z3uob.18481$Q9.1...@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...