I thought this might be a fun project and informative for those that are interested in how it's done or for those that are thinking about doing it. From what I gather, guys are spending over a $1000 to get their Paramounts painted. I couldn't tell you for sure how much it costs because when I ask for the total they are apparently embarrassed to give me an exact number. A $1000 dollars is enough to buy the equipment and the paint supplies to do it yourself. After that you can do as many bikes as you want for the cost of material.
There are as many variations on painting as there are guys doing paint jobs. Here is mine.
This will be a running project weather permitting until completion. I have an unheated homemade paint booth and will not shoot primers in temperatures lower than the mid 50's or top coats lower than the upper 60's. If temps are expected to drop significantly, I'll take the frames once they start to cure inside the house for the night or however long is desired.
With the exception of the red oxide primer, I will be doing this project with base coat clear coat modern materials. The Sierra frame will have the decals applied the Schwinn way on the surface of the paint. The Superior will get a clear coat over the decals.
#1 The first thing is to locate where the decals go before you strip the paint. The orange Sports Tourer has been converted to Schwinn Superior specifications so this does not apply. Just a couple photos for examples.
#2 Chemically strip the paint followed by an immediate going over with red scuff pads drenched in lacquer thinner. Garden hose the mess off the frames and blow dry. Touch ups with the stripper and lacquer thinner are usually needed followed by another water bath.
#3 Sandblasting is only used to clean areas that are very difficult to get at and for rust pitting that has occurred from exposed metal caused by scratched and missing paint. I do not want to create a texture on the metal so use a fine white silica sand blast media at pressures not exceeding 70psi. I use a pressure blaster because I have it. An inexpensive siphon blaster would be excellent for this also. Of course you can spend the extra time doing this by hand to avoid the cash outlays.
#4 After the blasting I thoroughly sand the tubes by hand with 80 grit. The idea is to remove as much of the texture you created with the blasting and further clean the frame. You do not have to worry about texture in the tight areas like the BB area because it will not be a problem. Just sand what is easy to get at, mainly the tubes. A heavy texture in the metal will come back to haunt you in the final finish of pearl and metallic paint jobs. This is not a problem for solid colors.
#5 Priming. Wipe down with lacquer thinner, let dry, then wipe down with wax and grease remover and dry with a rag. I put a fan on it and blow it off to make sure it is absolutely dry and dust free. The first primer coat is mainly used to keep the frame from rusting and provide a good base for the coming top coats. It also highlights any dings or gouges that need to be fixed. Let this dry a couple weeks before you start sanding on it. If it's warm and sunny, let it sit outside and bake in the sun and you can shave a week off of that time. If your sandpaper gets clumps of paint on it when you sand, you have not waited long enough. There are other catalyzed primers that cure faster but this is cheap and it works well. If you are in a hurry I recommend PPG K36. I use that on car projects where only the best will do. For this Sherwinn Williams Kem Kromic thinned approximately 4 to 1 with xylene.
http://www.paintdocs.com/docs/webPDF.jsp?SITEID=STORECAT&doctype=PDS&lang=E&prodno=B50NZ6
4/15/16
#6 Sealing. The sealing stage is optional in this case because there are no compatibility problems with fully cured Kem Kromic primer and the base coat. I do it because I usually sand off too much primer smoothing out the frame and looking for imperfections in the metal. Bare metal should be primed so instead of applying more KK primer that will add more texture, I use a sealer that by design goes on very smooth. It also is tinted so it closely matches the base coat. Medium gray is a good color for any light to medium dark top coats, especially silver which is the intended first base coat on this job. Two coats of silver base coat will easily hide it.
#7 preparing to seal. The KK primer cannot be wet sanded so dry sand the tubing to remove texture with 400. You only need to do the easy to get at lengths of tubing on the frame. Hard to get at areas like the BB use a red scuff pad. If you find dings or burrs, now is the time to fix them. File off burrs and fill dings or gouges with bondo. Make sure any filler work is cross hatch sanded smooth with 400 on a block. You can see the one I use. It was a full size rubber block I sawed to make a narrow block. This works great on bike tubing. You will also need this for final wet sanding of clear coat.
#8 Sealer. I use PPG K36 reduced as a sealer. It is also great for use as a primer surfacer . This is not as thick as polyester spray filler so its use lays somewhere in the middle of regular primer and spray poly. The good thing about it is that it can be wet sanded and it provides excellent adhesion on almost any cured surface. This job will receive two coats of sealer for more sanding in a couple days. This is what separates show quality VS very good. It could all be done at once sealer to top coats but I do not want texture in the pearl coats.
http://www.myrv10.com/N104CD/paint/p-169s_k36s_Sealer.pdf
Spray gun. You do not need to spend a lot of money. This is what I use sealer to top coats for bikes. You can prime with it also, I have another gun for that but you don't need it. Line pressure 60 psi. Pressure at gun 25-30 psi trigger pulled. Keep it clean and lubed and you can get a lot of paint jobs out of this $37 spray gun.
http://www.amazon.com/Grip-HVLP-Air-Touch-Gun/dp/B000GFIB8W
4/22/16
#9 Wet sand tubes and other easy to get at areas with 600 to remove texture. Use a block on the flat parts of the tube and hand in tighter areas. Avoid sanding edges. Avoid sanding through to red primer. A little exposed primer is OK. Rinse frames thoroughly to get rid of powdery residue from wet sanding. Towel and blow gun dry to remove all moisture from crevices. Use a gray scuff pad dry to remove any shiny areas. I only scuff around the BB, no wet danding. Wipe down with wax and grease remover and dry with a clean cloth. Tack rag and it is now ready for paint. Re-mask any compromised masked areas you do not want painted. You do not want paint build up in areas like the BB, headtube, kickstand tube and cable stops. These areas should have the first coat of red oxide primer only. If you get paint in these areas it will need to be sanded out for components to fit and not chip the paint installing or removing them later.
There are as many variations on painting as there are guys doing paint jobs. Here is mine.
This will be a running project weather permitting until completion. I have an unheated homemade paint booth and will not shoot primers in temperatures lower than the mid 50's or top coats lower than the upper 60's. If temps are expected to drop significantly, I'll take the frames once they start to cure inside the house for the night or however long is desired.
With the exception of the red oxide primer, I will be doing this project with base coat clear coat modern materials. The Sierra frame will have the decals applied the Schwinn way on the surface of the paint. The Superior will get a clear coat over the decals.
#1 The first thing is to locate where the decals go before you strip the paint. The orange Sports Tourer has been converted to Schwinn Superior specifications so this does not apply. Just a couple photos for examples.
#2 Chemically strip the paint followed by an immediate going over with red scuff pads drenched in lacquer thinner. Garden hose the mess off the frames and blow dry. Touch ups with the stripper and lacquer thinner are usually needed followed by another water bath.
#3 Sandblasting is only used to clean areas that are very difficult to get at and for rust pitting that has occurred from exposed metal caused by scratched and missing paint. I do not want to create a texture on the metal so use a fine white silica sand blast media at pressures not exceeding 70psi. I use a pressure blaster because I have it. An inexpensive siphon blaster would be excellent for this also. Of course you can spend the extra time doing this by hand to avoid the cash outlays.
#4 After the blasting I thoroughly sand the tubes by hand with 80 grit. The idea is to remove as much of the texture you created with the blasting and further clean the frame. You do not have to worry about texture in the tight areas like the BB area because it will not be a problem. Just sand what is easy to get at, mainly the tubes. A heavy texture in the metal will come back to haunt you in the final finish of pearl and metallic paint jobs. This is not a problem for solid colors.
#5 Priming. Wipe down with lacquer thinner, let dry, then wipe down with wax and grease remover and dry with a rag. I put a fan on it and blow it off to make sure it is absolutely dry and dust free. The first primer coat is mainly used to keep the frame from rusting and provide a good base for the coming top coats. It also highlights any dings or gouges that need to be fixed. Let this dry a couple weeks before you start sanding on it. If it's warm and sunny, let it sit outside and bake in the sun and you can shave a week off of that time. If your sandpaper gets clumps of paint on it when you sand, you have not waited long enough. There are other catalyzed primers that cure faster but this is cheap and it works well. If you are in a hurry I recommend PPG K36. I use that on car projects where only the best will do. For this Sherwinn Williams Kem Kromic thinned approximately 4 to 1 with xylene.
http://www.paintdocs.com/docs/webPDF.jsp?SITEID=STORECAT&doctype=PDS&lang=E&prodno=B50NZ6
4/15/16
#6 Sealing. The sealing stage is optional in this case because there are no compatibility problems with fully cured Kem Kromic primer and the base coat. I do it because I usually sand off too much primer smoothing out the frame and looking for imperfections in the metal. Bare metal should be primed so instead of applying more KK primer that will add more texture, I use a sealer that by design goes on very smooth. It also is tinted so it closely matches the base coat. Medium gray is a good color for any light to medium dark top coats, especially silver which is the intended first base coat on this job. Two coats of silver base coat will easily hide it.
#7 preparing to seal. The KK primer cannot be wet sanded so dry sand the tubing to remove texture with 400. You only need to do the easy to get at lengths of tubing on the frame. Hard to get at areas like the BB use a red scuff pad. If you find dings or burrs, now is the time to fix them. File off burrs and fill dings or gouges with bondo. Make sure any filler work is cross hatch sanded smooth with 400 on a block. You can see the one I use. It was a full size rubber block I sawed to make a narrow block. This works great on bike tubing. You will also need this for final wet sanding of clear coat.
#8 Sealer. I use PPG K36 reduced as a sealer. It is also great for use as a primer surfacer . This is not as thick as polyester spray filler so its use lays somewhere in the middle of regular primer and spray poly. The good thing about it is that it can be wet sanded and it provides excellent adhesion on almost any cured surface. This job will receive two coats of sealer for more sanding in a couple days. This is what separates show quality VS very good. It could all be done at once sealer to top coats but I do not want texture in the pearl coats.
http://www.myrv10.com/N104CD/paint/p-169s_k36s_Sealer.pdf
Spray gun. You do not need to spend a lot of money. This is what I use sealer to top coats for bikes. You can prime with it also, I have another gun for that but you don't need it. Line pressure 60 psi. Pressure at gun 25-30 psi trigger pulled. Keep it clean and lubed and you can get a lot of paint jobs out of this $37 spray gun.
http://www.amazon.com/Grip-HVLP-Air-Touch-Gun/dp/B000GFIB8W
4/22/16
#9 Wet sand tubes and other easy to get at areas with 600 to remove texture. Use a block on the flat parts of the tube and hand in tighter areas. Avoid sanding edges. Avoid sanding through to red primer. A little exposed primer is OK. Rinse frames thoroughly to get rid of powdery residue from wet sanding. Towel and blow gun dry to remove all moisture from crevices. Use a gray scuff pad dry to remove any shiny areas. I only scuff around the BB, no wet danding. Wipe down with wax and grease remover and dry with a clean cloth. Tack rag and it is now ready for paint. Re-mask any compromised masked areas you do not want painted. You do not want paint build up in areas like the BB, headtube, kickstand tube and cable stops. These areas should have the first coat of red oxide primer only. If you get paint in these areas it will need to be sanded out for components to fit and not chip the paint installing or removing them later.
Last edited:
