I painted a bike! For a long time I’ve wanted to introduce painting to my restoration process, but I was always held back by not having a well-ventilated area to do it in. I kept putting it off until later this year when I’ll move into a proper house with a yard, but then this bike came along, with its cracked and peeling layers of clear coat, so I decided to screw self-imposed limitations and just go for it. So I took the frame and fork to an area in town that’s very popular with graffiti artists, and I did my painting there. Bonus photo of me applying primer under a bridge, like a troll.
I discovered that applying paint is easy and fun, but removing the old paint and stripping the frame down to bare metal is incredibly hard work. The saying goes that painting is sanding, and that is so right, but it opens up so many possibilities for bringing new life to old bikes that the work is totally worth it.
Since this was my first time, I decided to keep it simple and not do any special designs like stripes or fades, and to not apply any decals or stencils, and while I think the result is kinda boring and basic, it’s also pretty neat. My only regret is that I didn’t stumble upon Martin’s channel until I had already started. He’s such an incredible professional, and as I watched his videos I realized how many mistakes I’d already made in the process. But that’s okay, because I’ll apply his teachings to future builds, and they’ll come out even nicer as a result.
So here are the before and after photos of this modest city bike:
