painting frame

1st off big thanks to everyone giving me help fixing my bike....i have to get a bar welded in to replace rusted out frame fron kickstand to front of engine i was thinking i may aswell paint the whole frame while im at it ...i was wondering does everything have to be stripped to do so ...and mainly wondering considering powder coating is exspensive here whats the best cheapest paint for a frame or most durable ...

 

It's up to you. You can mask of a million things and paint, or strip it all the way down which makes it easier to cleanup and paint. It's also easy to move ad hang a bare frame.

Good old enamel works well for a frame. There are more expensive options, Eastwood makes a nice kit with primer and paint. If you do strip it bare, I highly recommend you look into sandblasting. I had my frame and swingarm blasted clean for about $35. Glad I went that route after 2 hours of trying to strip down and clean up in my driveway. Some blasting shops will also spray them cheap.

Be warned, if your frame turns out nice project creep will set in! Every dirty piece you start putting back on the frame will have you thinking about redoing it.

 

Most people have the frames blasted and start with an good primer and paint coat. Others like powder coat because it's a hard coating and difficult to chip or scratch. My guess it's all what you want in the end. I personally would blast the frame and go with an epoxie type paint job. Eastwood has a chassis paint that is super hard but I have not looked into all the details about it. A friend did his truck frame with it and it looked real nice. Super hard gloss black.

 

+ 1 for epoxy type paint. I always use "appliance" paint, its available in White and Black. Dries super hard, I use it on vintage MX bikes all the time and it stands up to off-road abuse very well. Oh, and its cheaper than paint at an auto parts store

 

It's riding season. Use a brush and paint the repair with a decent gloss black enamel. Save the frame refurb for winter.

Oh the original paint is pretty darned durable. Oven-hardened enamel is so much easier to repair than powercoat or epoxy, and no matter what paint you choose they all end up needing chips and scratches fixed eventually (but do like me some appliance epoxy when I have to rattle-can anything).

 

thanks for the input i will go with epoxy