Squid-in-Training' may have said:So I've been considering a little project... to repaint my grey Giant matte black like my mountain
bike. What would I need?
1. Airplane remover
2. Steel wool
3. Paint
Is there a spray-from-a-can automotive-type matte paint available? Or, could I paint the bike with
any old black, then clearcoat with a matte clearcoat (if it even exists?)?
And yes, I've read old posts about painting... put several primer coats, then a couple of color
coats, and then a couple of clear on top. Wait several lifetimes between coats so the paint fully
cures, etc. etc.
My advice: Unless the existing paint is badly scraped and chipped, just wipe all of the surfaces
well with a good solvent to get the contaminants off, sand it where needed, prime the sanded areas,
and paint. (DO NOT apply paint to primer that has been sanded; shoot another coat of primer, and
then paint over *that*.) Stripping to bare metal is seldom advisable; you have little chance of
getting your coats of primer or paint to adhere as well as what's there now, if it's actually
factory-applied paint and not a powder coat. (If it's a powder coat now, all bets are off. I've had
absolutely miserable results with that stuff, and would only recommend it to someone that I disliked
intensely. Others have had better outcomes, but I have to go with what I know on this one, and
that's a long record of excrescent results. In some locales, emission limitations are allegedly so
stringent that powder coat may be the only thing that can be had; don't damage your old paint until
you know what you're up against.)
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