Spay cans - any use?

[Glyn]

I wondered if a reasonable paint finish can be achieved with normal auto spray cans (undercoat, top then lacquer?)  I have a spare tank I may spray up since the paint is pretty bad. Will a top lacquer coat protect it against petrol spills etc?  Do I need to get it back to bare metal, or could I just flatten off the old paint? Never done this before so any advice appreciated.

[arfa vmax]

if the paint is chipped or rusted you will need to rub out the area back to bare metal and feather the edges out to avoid contour lines.bare metal will need primer but there is no real need to prime over good paint,just rub it down.you can get a good finish with spray cans but it means alot of work.after the colour has dried you will need to rub it down with wet and dry paper to smooth off the poor finish you get from cans.if you are going to apply clear coat use 800 grade paper,if not use 1000-1200.the clear will need to be flatted of with 1000-1200 the same as the colour then polished up with a rubbing compound.if you have never done this before do a trial on something else

[BREWSKI]

You can get good results with spray cans,however top coat had better be urethane or any fuel spill will eat the paint up,Rustolium makes an epoxy spray that would be fuel safe,but the only colors that I saw on the shelf were off white and black.A word of caution if you use the epoxy,shake the can for at least 5 min and warm the can up in 120 deg water,also it takes a long time to get hard one week to 10 days. Good luck .   Brewski....

[Rick G]

Glyn, since your half a world away , some of this may or may not apply . I have produced  really nice paint jobs with spray cans for  44 years . But,  environmental  concerns  have screwed up the paint  an enormous amount. Until the 1980's I used Schwinn bicycle paint , it came in  many, really nice candy apple colours  and the nozzle was a fan type , that produced a far better pattern  that a standard  nozzle.
Duplicolor  and Plasticoat are 2 readily available brands here, duplicolor has the fan type nozzle  and to me is a better  product. However ,they have reformulated their lacquer paint and its now a acrylic lacquer  and is NOT in the least gas resistant . I have found that Ace hardware  clear lacquer is compatable with Duplicolor and is gas resistant  ( duplicolor clear is NOT) . I suggest that you spray what ever paint you propose to use  on an old soup can and test it for cas resistance, as well as compatability  should you use a different brand of clear.  After it has cured for at least a week, at a temp of 60 to 90 deg. F.  and a humidity of 40 to 60 % , sprinkle a little gas on it , you will know immediately if it's gas resistant or not.
Duplicolor has not put any warning on the cans that the product is NOT gas resistant and I have contacted them to ask , why not.
There is lots of good information at www.duplicolor.com 

You should prefer a paint with a fan spray nozzle , this can be identified by the  small metal  actuator  pin just under the top of the nozzle  , where you depress it with your finger. Here their all blue.

Brewski is right about epoxy paint , but its only available in white black and  almond,  its great for the frame , but none of the three  appeal to me.
A final option is to paint the bike and have a professional body shop apply a suitable gas resistant clear.
Here thats about 100.  to 150. dollars.

[Blake]

Hey Glyn,

I dont know what kind of paint you have there but have you ever thought about using rustoleum?  Mainly I'm referring to using rustoleum and a dense foam paint roller.

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2331682&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

That's the thread that "started" the whole ideas a while ago.  I tried it on my old cadillac on the trunk and it actually came out pretty well.  I didn't prep any so its not great, but its no worse off than the stock paint.  I tried doing it to a trim piece on my other car (white plastic bumper guard) and it actually came out amazing if you do it properly.  Basically thin the rustoleum a little less than 1/4 with mineral spirits and roll on.  the key is the foam roller you use that allows you to not have an orange-peel like finish.  for paint on a budget id actually suggest trying that rather than the spray paint method. seemed to get less dust and bugs in the paint and actually was a little cheaper too  :)  Plus its an enamel and according to the others that tried it.. after a couple months of self curing its hard as a rock.

[Rick G]

Wow , I have to try this!! only problem is that  the colours don't translate from Canada to the U.S .  They're  not numbered the same  and don't exactly match . I like the range  of colours in Canada better. I hope that the paint is the same . We may have to get bootleg paint from Canada.

[supervision]

  Thanks for the link on the Mopar paint work!  This is almost what I have been wanting to do to my Astro van.  You can get very smooth results with a foam roller, VERY thin coats, light wet sanding.  Barb and I painted our kitchen cabinets that way.  Lots of coats, of very little paint, don't even try to get coverage, just let the number of coats build up slow.  Strike it off between, and coat again. 

[inanecathode]

The roller paint thing, i've tried it, followed instructions to the T. It doesnt really work. That is to say that if you did it ABOSLUTELY PERFECT the best you'd get from it is a so-so paint job but its incredibly hard to accomplish. All it has to do is drip once and you're done. The V, especially the tank, has such weird angles and hard lines that it catches the roller and squeezes paint out without you even noticing, leaving drips all over the place.

[ShaneSpring]

Hi Glyn,
Have you thought about using Hammerite paint, it's easy, bugger all prep needed and looks quite good. also covers almost anything and is etching so no primer needed.  I've painted a whole car in it once, and several motorcycles (everyone called me crazy) and it looked awesome and only cost about $150 for a car and way less for the bikes (last one was my wifes tzr250 in two tone black and silver will look for some pictures) Oh and I'm only down the road in hamilton from you now.... should get up your way and say gidday sometime.

[GT @ oh.]

I can confirm that neither lacquer or enamel will hold up to fuel spills....as far as reasonable results from a can I would say youd better have a place out of the weather/wind and the best quality spray cans you can get ie. there is a automotive paint store here that will make cans of what you want ie. color,type, they tell me they hold more paint then the ones you would buy off the shelf and can get a clear that will hold up to spills....I sure youd still have to rub out like others have mention to get good results.

[Rick G]

Old fashioned lacquer was /is great  but it seems to be on its way out . The new stuff is acrylic lacquer  and this stuff dosen't work at all, unless you can coat it with something else.
I have a few pieces of my bike that I painted with Duplicolor  in 1999  it was totally impervious to gas , the only effect gas had on it was to turn the clear slightly yellow around the gas cap .
I have removed several pieces of body work from "kathleen " and applied Ace, clear lacquer , It looks better that the acrylic stuff from Duplicolor . much glossier.
Gt. I've seen those , but you can't get them here in the middle of the Mohave desert, darn it.

[BREWSKI]

Minwax makes a clear gloss polyurethane,however it has a sl;ight amber color and I have not tried it over Duplicolor.

[Lucky]

Rick, you might be interested to know that of the 11,000 things Ace sells, the only thing they actualy make is paint.  Ace padlocks are made by Master, Ace lightbulbs are mabe by GE, etc, but they make their own branded paints start to finish.

--Lucky

[Glyn]

Many thanks for all that great info. Good that other people got something out of the thread too. The Hammerite sounds like a good plan. Shane - can you get that in a spray? or just paint on. I've used the smooth black Hammerite many times on frames etc. Always seems to hold up well. I was actually going to go for an Army / Olive Green look. So would not really want it glossy. Not sure if Hammerite do that colour, but I'll look into it. May even try hand painting it. Isn't that what they used to do before spray cans/guns? I'm not too neurotic about the finish. If you use a bike it gets scruffy anyway. Wonder if I could hand paint the lacquer clear also? There are prob some marine products that would be gas / salt proof? We have loads of boat (ship) shops here in Auckland.

[zore]

Ditto on the spray paint being not up to the task for fuel tanks.  I did a paint job using spray clear and base.  The clear was destroyed by fuel spills.




It was destroyed with in 2 weeks. 

[ShaneSpring]

I used the old fashion brush on hammerite to paint the car (blue/purple) and spray can stuff(silver and black) to paint the bike, both came out really well, but spray cans were easier.

[Brian Moffet]

I used spray cans (rustoleum appliance paint) to paint my frame.   Not a lot of color choice, and the black was slightly more shiny than the old coating.  So far it seems to be holding up well.  I haven't spilled a lot of gas on it though.

Brian