Bicycle Frame Painting

Painting a frame is a really tricky area of bicycle restoration. The main problem is finding a paint that will be durable enough to withstand inevitable knocks and scratches. Secondly, preparing the frame for painting is fairly hard work and messy. Thirdly, getting a good finish can be difficult. I painted frames by hand at home for many years, and was rarely completely happy with the result. I'd think it was pretty good until putting the bike near a similar model that somebody else had spent a lot of money on; then I'd feel insecure about it. There's no question that other people do look at your paint finish almost before anything else.

An excellent solution for bicycle frame painting is the tough, colourful and glossy finish that powder-coating can give you for approximately £85 plus VAT. There is a huge range of RAL colours to choose from and different paint effects too: metallic, pearlescent, metal flake for example. A company such as Redditch Shotblasting will prepare a perfect surface before applying the coating and they are experts at painting frames in all kinds of vehicles. It's nice having somebody else do all the hard work and get the bike frame back looking just as you had imagined it. Also, you don't have to buy any paint or primer, no undercoat, no colour coat and no laquer. You won't have the nearly-full tins sitting on the shelf. Furthermore it will last for many years and look marvellous. Powder-coating is money well spent- providing that you actually have the money.

Many of the bicycles that we might consider restoring do not have a high monetary value, although prices are steadily climbing. Some of those shown on this website were bought for £5 and even after a complete restoration might only fetch £150-£200 on ebay. Deduct the selling fees and money for parts like tyres, tubes, cables, bearings and chain from that and you are going to be out of pocket. Now, this could be a reason why people do not bother restoring bicycles.

To cut a long story short, if you think of bicycle restoration in purely monetary terms, you miss the environmental value of repair and re-use. In other words, we should not just keep buying new imports of poor quality and throwing things away. It is amazing how rapidly mountainbikes have disappeared from British roads. Chances are, if you are reading this then you have some sympathy for this view. You may well have very little money to spend and simply not care that much about cosmetics such as paint finish. It is only skin deep after all.

I have gone around the houses, but what I'm saying is that bicycles are for riding, not hanging on the wall. We absolutely should be able to brush some paint on ourselves and not feel guilty that we have done a bad job. Hand painting is creative, reasonably cheap and can protect the frame well against rust. And you can get some very acceptable results with the right equipment. I'm no expert, but I'll tell you all I know about it.