Painting over paint...

My bike was painted a (hideous) vibrant pylon orange when I bought it and now I have come to the time where I am re-painting it.

I have scuffed down all the gloss with 150grit and now I'm seeking some advice.

Will Krylon Spray paint adhere to the scuffed paint well enough on its own, or does it need a primer?

I'm going to paint my bike a Matte Drab Olive color - so the orange color bleeding through isn't a worry (at least I don't think.)

i know youll want to use something waaay finer grit than 150 like 600 or the sand scratches will show through then test your paint in a small spot to make sure the paints dont react with each other and blister up all over the place

Since you scuffed the parts with 150 grit sand paper, I'd recommend you use some surface primer to fill the sratches. Then, sand that primer with 400 and water to prep for painting. There are other options.. if you are really cheap - just sand again with 320 grit or 400 and water to make it smooth for spraying paint. There is no need for primer except for covering bare metal, filling straches, helping the paint color cover better.

Um, excuse me a second...

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

Okay, I'm better now.

I'd start by wet sanding the tank with #400. It'll help smooth out the 150 grit trenches in the orange.

Yeah, get a can of primer. Apply liberally, then wet sand that again with 400. Aside from acting as a filler, the primer will help stop bleeding, and give a uniform matte surface that's certain to be easier to cover than orange.

Might even shoot a second coat of primer and sand it again, but that's optional.

Pick up a tack rag at an auto parts store for about $1. Wipe the sanded primer with the rag.

Then have at it with the O.D.

It's guaranteed to come out...green. :sick:

If the orange paint was from a rattle can you may get some lifting when you repaint,so I would primer the whole thing and let the primer dry for a couple of days, this allows the solvents to evaporate then wetsand it before I paint, OR sand all the orange off till you get to the factory color and then repaint, factory color won't lift.....olive drab ??? with all the idiot car drivers out there I would go for a color that says "hey here I am" I like black, grey, silver,or dark blue or green but out on the street you need all the visibility you can get yellows,reds, orange or kawasaki green will add to your safety, most accidents are when the idiot car driver hits the cyclist and the first thing he says is "I didn't see him"

You might save yourself a nunch of headaches with lifting paint and all that jazz if...

You find a old-time auto parts store that has a lye tank for stuff like boiling out big truck radiator cores and such.

For 5 or 10 bucks, they'll toss it in the tank and in about 20 minutes, it'll be bare metal.

Works like a charm.

I have also seen cars hit pylons, and they, along with my bike at the moment, are bright orange.

The olive drab was merely a suggestion of the satin finish I hope to get. The color is still undecided.

Thanks for the tips. I have 600 paper to wetsand - I was just unsure if I should sand the orange with 600 or wait til I have primer on to sand with 600wet.

Thanks for the help.

I don't know if you're interested in opinions, but...

1. If the color-adjustment in that photo is right, that orange isn't really a bad color for that bike - mucho superior to OD in any event.

2. I don't know how trashed the orange paint is, but in that shot, it seems that it had at least some gloss at some point - it might be possible to bring it back to life with a little TLC.

3. You'd be surprised what a spiffy black 2nd tone/stripe job would do for it. It'd look like an entirely different machine - which is what I assume you want....

4. Forgive the inference, but it sounds like you haven't done many paint jobs. Whatever your goal is, there's a pretty steep learning curve to getting there - in either satin or gloss finish. That translates to $$ and headaches - there's just no way around it - and it sounds like your budget is fairly tight.

5. Given that the paint is save-able (that #600 will come in handy there), someone with a bit more experience could shoot the tone/stripe job for a lot less in Loonies (Canadian $1 coins for us Southerners) than you'll spend in a new ground-up paint job.

Just tossing out a few ideas.

For some ideas and techniques on rattlecan paintr jobs, check out the Rattle Paint Ratings? thread elsewhere on this forum - it'll give you some notions on what's involved in setting up a simple paint job and the kind of results you can achieve...

Thanks for the options. I have painted before and had nice results. As I said before, the Olive Drab was just an idea I had.

The bike will be painted, and the results will be fine, and if not, I'll try again.

I set-up road detours for a summer job, so after working all day around that damn color, the LAST thing I want to do is ride it home. Maybe now you'll see why a color change is important.

At least people will see you;) maybe...

purerider wrote:

Thanks for the options.....

I set-up road detours for a summer job, so after working all day around that damn color, the LAST thing I want to do is ride it home. Maybe now you'll see why a color change is important.

Ahhhhh.

Yep, you got a point there.

I'd be puking up cone orange in my sleep in the same situation.

Happy color hunting, and if you've got any questions, feel free to ask away...