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strip to bare metal?

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lavrider
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:22 pm

strip to bare metal?

Post by lavrider »

Wondering whether it's necessary to strip my frame and sheetmetal to bare metal before a repaint. Seem excessive to remove paint that's adhered and held up for so many years.

Has anyone painted their bike (black) at home with a HVLP (I have a Finex gun) but no fancy booth?

Alternatively, any painter recommendations in Connecticut or eastern New York?

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jwonder
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Re: strip to bare metal?

Post by jwonder »

If your repainting you are spending the money so strip them. It’s not that hard!

I had my powdercoater strip them for me. He used paint stripper and followed up with media blasting. It did not cost that much. Most paint shops do not want to strip as it’s not worth their time.

I have found it in the paint shop can lay the black down very well. They are used to painting black and make it look beautiful with the new two-part paint.

Pinstripes well that’s a whole different story. You have to have somebody who really knows what they’re doing in order to do a nice pinstripe job. I have a guy on Long Island who knows how to do it very well if you’re interested. Give me a PM and I will share the information.

Don’t cheap out on the paint job do a nice one.
James Wonder
Vice President, Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners
2022 BMW Friend Of the Marque
Long Island, New York

ECJ
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 9:50 am

Re: strip to bare metal?

Post by ECJ »

I've posted about this before, but if you decide to have a commercial shop do the work, make sure they do a lot of car and bike work. Not every sandblaster or powder coater understands or is careful with things like bearing mounting surfaces or threads.

If doing the work at home, it begs the question as to the nature of your project: why are you repainting? And what are you looking to achieve? A show bike? Or are you just trying to 'improve' the bike? I'm sure we've all seen bikes that would have been better off left with some 'patina' and a few nicks and scratches rather than be subjected to a mediocre paint job.

I'm certainly not trying say that you will do a mediocre job (!), but to truly do a quality paint job that will look good and endure, is no small task, and should not be underestimated. Prepping things for paint after going to bare metal takes A LOT of work. Each step is dependent on the previous step, and it can't be rushed.

If an older bike (which I assume it is since we are in the vintage section), something to consider is a cut and buff of the original paint on the tins and frame. You would be amazed how much beauty and lustre this can bring back, and certainly at a faction of the effort of a true soup to nuts paint job.

ECJ

Daves79x
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Re: strip to bare metal?

Post by Daves79x »

A word of caution that's been mentioned before - be very careful with paint stripper on frames especially. It can seep into porous welds, only to leach back out again into your very nice paint job. If you use stripper, heat all the welded joints with a heat gun to as hot as you can get them. This will burn out any residual stripper.

Dave
Dave

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