Crash-n-Burn
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- Joined
- Aug 14, 2014
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My three year old son's great wish for Christmas is a Mickey Mouse bicycle. We have a perfectly acceptable Cars-themed bicycle, so I'm looking to change up the theme. I'm looking for some advice and tips on changing the paint scheme and decals over. I found some articles on the internet but I trust all y'all rocket hooligans over the pintrest crowd.
Rough plans in my head-
First step will be to sand down the frame. I don't think going to bare metal is necessary but a decent clean and scuff-sand will help new paint application. I should be able to get through the clear coat somewhat easily. The challenge here is that I don't know what to do with the existing decals. Scrape them off? Sand the edges to blend them with the frame and paint over?
Next step is to paint. I guess I wouldn't need to shoot primer unless it would serve a greater purpose (adhesion?). The thing about painting is that I don't know what paint was used on the frame and I am just barely knowledgeable to recognize that paints don't play well with others (acryllic over lacquer over enamel). I think I could reasonably assume (but let me know if you think otherwise) that the base coat of the existing paint job is enamel. It would be my plan to shoot enamel over the bike... maybe I should test a spot to determine compatability.
Once base coats are done I can have my wife print some decals. Or I could just go with stickers. Either way, I will need a top coat. I could shoot some Polycrilic product or polyurethane itself... really not sure what to use here. Any idea for a top coat?
All advice is welcome, thanks all for bailing me out on this one.
Rough plans in my head-
First step will be to sand down the frame. I don't think going to bare metal is necessary but a decent clean and scuff-sand will help new paint application. I should be able to get through the clear coat somewhat easily. The challenge here is that I don't know what to do with the existing decals. Scrape them off? Sand the edges to blend them with the frame and paint over?
Next step is to paint. I guess I wouldn't need to shoot primer unless it would serve a greater purpose (adhesion?). The thing about painting is that I don't know what paint was used on the frame and I am just barely knowledgeable to recognize that paints don't play well with others (acryllic over lacquer over enamel). I think I could reasonably assume (but let me know if you think otherwise) that the base coat of the existing paint job is enamel. It would be my plan to shoot enamel over the bike... maybe I should test a spot to determine compatability.
Once base coats are done I can have my wife print some decals. Or I could just go with stickers. Either way, I will need a top coat. I could shoot some Polycrilic product or polyurethane itself... really not sure what to use here. Any idea for a top coat?
All advice is welcome, thanks all for bailing me out on this one.