Building a Coast-to-Coast trail bike Part 2: Painting the frame
This is the second part in a series on building a bike to use on a Florida Coast-to-Coast trail trip. See the first part on prepping the frame. After the frame has been prepped and sanded, it’s time to paint!
The first step is to setup your painting station. I ran a rope through a piece of flexible hose, threaded it through the bike’s head tube and hung it from the ceiling of my garage. This allowed me to get 360-degree coverage without having to touch the frame.
Although, I used Spray.Bike paint and sealer for the top coats, I used a can of Rustoleam metal Primer I had laying around for the priming step. Spray.Bike does make primers, but one of the philosophies of this project is to use what I already have as often as I can.
To protect the threads from paint, I installed the old rusty bottom bracket that came with the bike and rolled up pieces of paper towel into all of the water bottle bosses. I followed the instructions on the primer can and made sure I got all the nooks and crannies painted and then let it dry. The paint dripped in some spots, so I sanded those with some 3,000-grit sandpaper.
After doing some research, I chose to use Spray.Bike paint for the project. Granted, it’s not as easy as going to Home Depot and grabbing a can off the shelf, but I liked the color selection and the fact that the paint is specially formulated for painting bike frames. I chose a purple color called Memphis. I also purchased a clear glossy top coat. Each of the cans contains more than enough paint for a complete frame and fork. They’re not cheap – $17 each – and shipping was about $15.
Painting with Spray.Bike products is different than normal rattle cans. with Spray.Bike paint, you hold the can about 2-3 inches away from the surface to be painted. The paint coverage was good and doesn’t drip at all. One it dries, if there are any bumpy spots, you just rub then out with a cloth. I did two coats of paint and it turned out great.
I knew I wanted the bike to be either purple or orange. Once I decided on the shade, I chose a complimentary color (basically the opposite side of the color wheel), so I knew the colors would match. If you’re uncomfortable picking out colors, a color expert can help.
I wanted to have some fun with this bike, while keeping it true to its roots, so I designed some decals based on the Multitrack model and number. My made up model name is “FloridaTrack” and the number is 727, based on my area code. I used a Cricut to cut out the decals on printable vinyl sticker paper. The sticker paper didn’t stick as well to the painted frame as I would have liked and I had to use some superglue in spots to get it to adhere. Looking back, I should have used plain colored vinyl instead of the printable sticker paper. But since I wanted more than one color on the decals, I didn’t have much choice.
I also purchased a Trek decal set from Etsy. These vinyl decals are 100% better than my homemade stickers, but did take about a month to arrive from Spain. With shipping from Spain, the total cost was about $25, which was worth it to get a more professional look. Just a warning that adding decals to a bike frame isn’t as easy as it looks. It took me a while to get the decals lined up, level and in the right spot. In the end, they didn’t turn out perfect, but are good enough for this project.
After the decals were applied, I hung the bike back up and added two coats of the Spray.Bike glossy clear coat. I did a few extra passes over the decals and am pretty pleased with how it all turned out. Having painted a bike with normal spray paint years ago, the Spray.Bike paint is definitely a much better product.
Again, I’m not sure I would attempt this on a frame I really cared about, but for this little project I’m learning a lot and having fun doing it.
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