Day 2 & 3 Combined - Strip Paint, Prime and Respray

So having abandoned manual paint removing, I resorted to a power sander. Using primarily coarse grade sandpaper, I managed to pretty much clear the frame of paint in about 3 hours:

There were still areas around the joints which were almost impossible to sand with the sander, so I left them. I then primed the frame using Wickes Metal Primer: One 400ml can was enough to prime both frame and forks with a few coats:

The next day I was ready to spray on the colour. Looking back I should have taken a little time to sand away a couple of patches near the head joint where the primer had run, and then re-prime, but through sheer laziness decided to crack on with the spraying. I sprayed the frame and forks over 2 sessions, and used about 1 1/2 cans of 400ml Montana Gold spray paint purchased from the London Graphics Centre on Aldersgate Street. This was the result:

It's come out pretty well considering it was my first time doing this. All that's left now is to apply lacquer and then put the bike back together. Watch this space for the finished article.

Day 1 - Deconstruct bike and strip paint

Jonny (my housemate): "Sure so bigman, are you not going to get a power tool to strip the paint off your frame there?"
Me: "No, that's not necessary, I'll just use paint stripper and then scrape it off. It'll only take half an hour."

Unfortunately my confidence in that last statement lasted approximately 15 minutes.

I had assembled all the necessary equipment - Nitromors (to strip the paint), a wire brush and sandpaper, safety equipment including goggles, breathing mask and gloves. I started by taking the bike apart:

It was going well at this point, and I subsequently removed the other pedal arm and the forks. I was raring to go and very excited - note the happy, almost demonic expression:

Finally everything was ready to go - frame stripped to its bones and given a clean - next came the safety precautions. I was to be using nitromors to strip the paint, which is extremely dangerous if ingested or got on the skin, so I was taking no chances:

I also had a breathing mask (not pictured). So I began. Off came the top of the nitromors, in went the paint brush, and on to the frame and forks did it go. Then I waited.....and waited.....another application of the nitromors....more waiting.

After about half an hour of essentially waiting for paint to dry, not a lot was happening, although I could see a few areas of paint starting to peel, more so on the forks, so I started on them with the wire brush and sandpaper. Needless to say, it was tough going, although I did manage to get a fair bit of the paint off.

Annoyingly I can't seem to find the picture I took of the forks - I'll take another one tomorrow - there's more metal than paint, but it's not completely stripped. Let's move to the frame:

As you can see, essentially nothing has changed. There are areas where some of the paint has come off, but after about an hour of waiting for my copious applications of nitromors to actually do something, I gave up and called it a day. The wire brush was useless, the sandpaper not much better. I might give wire wool a go but I think I'll have to listen to Jonny and employ the use of some sort of power tool.

Thought for the day: Why did I think this was a good idea?

Judgement day imminent

So after many months of raging at the fact that so many other people have my design of bike, I have decided to respray the frame. This will involve taking the whole bike apart (except the bottom bracket which no amount of exertion will loosen), stripping the current generic, off-the-rack paint job, priming, respraying and finally putting everything back together.

Tomorrow I am going to go and buy the spray, the colour of which I have decided will be a moderate shade of purple. Upon return I am going to strip the bike down, including removing the forks (the thought of which terrifies me), then remove the current paint job using nitromors (which I also need to buy). Once the paint is removed I will apply the primer in preparation for the respray proper in a couple of days.

During this whole undertaking which I hope to have complete by friday, I will update my progress here regularly, including copious pictures of the inevitable fuck ups and tears. I hope you enjoy.