Painting carbon fork

[AngryScientist]

Has anyone painted their own carbon fork?

Lets hear about some of the supplies you used and see photos of the results!

[ultraman6970]

easy...


- 500/600 wet sand paper...
- 1000 or 1500 wet sand paper.
- As for primer use primer for plastic, that will stick better than the one for metal because it will flex tad more but u can use regular acrylic primer which is expensive.
- Paint, car grade polyurethane and polyurethane clear coat, get the solvent for the paint aswell, you can paint w/o hardener but you will need hardener for the clearcoat.
- get paint polisher from 3m or meguiars, meguiars usually has small amounts but that will get you off like 25 - 40 bucks, 3m sometimes is imposible to get in something smaller than a gallon so thats NO NO obviously, ask the jobber (guy that mix paints in the paint shop) because many of this stuff os not just go to walmart.

How to paint? remove the paint... sand with 500/600 so the primer has something to adhere to... primer the thing... sand again with the 500/600 to remove all the bad stuff like runs etc... paint... sand with 600/500 to remove stuff in the surface... put clear on top... sand 600/5000 and then you go with the 1000 to 2000 grit sand paper and then you polish with 3m or meguiers paint polisher.

[R3awak3n]

I have no idea how paint anything, just came here to say I am glad you are going to paint that fork!

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by R3awak3n

I have no idea how paint anything, just came here to say I am glad you are going to paint that fork!

i have two definite problems ahead:

-my respirator i use to paint needs carts. i seriously doubt i'm going to find any anytime soon.

-i stand zero chance of matching the frame color, so i'll need to pick a complimenting color.

[skouri1]

what carbon fork are you painting nick?
You could probably send it to Vicious Cycles for ~200ish. (thats what they quoted me). They matched my friend's pegoretti perfectly.
Unless you are intent on the covid project.

I had good luck with Rattle can enamel paint with multiple light coats (krylon fusion and now i think its supermax). Held up for over a year with no real chipping or problems (except a bit on the dropouts, of course).

I would just do that honestly. Think Justin from blackoak velo inspired me--he pointed out that an enamel rattle can job can be quite good.

I thought about getting some brownells for an extra durable, olive finish for my cx carbon fork, but ultimately got a steel one and abandoned the idea.

[Tony]

I painted my fork, turned out nice, hard pressed to tell difference from frame. I bought my paint, clear acrylic from a auto paint supply store, primer from Home Depo. They filled a can (ars color) with matching paint, Benelli, color name Rosso. The clear acrylic is from Spray Max 1K. Finished with a auto polish.

[Dave]

Having done hundreds of hours of body work on my fiberglass bodies hot rod, I've used every type of special fillers and primers made for automotive work, before applying many coats of black urethane, then many hours of wet sanding and buffing.

Some place sells 2 part urethane in a spray can, in some colors, and 2K clear to go with it. Primers need to be 2K also. Anything else will chip much more easily.

The 2K spray cans must be used in a relatively short time, after the hardener is released inside the can.

[shinomaster]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

easy...


- 500/600 wet sand paper...
- 1000 or 1500 wet sand paper.
- As for primer use primer for plastic, that will stick better than the one for metal because it will flex tad more but u can use regular acrylic primer which is expensive.
- Paint, car grade polyurethane and polyurethane clear coat, get the solvent for the paint aswell, you can paint w/o hardener but you will need hardener for the clearcoat.
- get paint polisher from 3m or meguiars, meguiars usually has small amounts but that will get you off like 25 - 40 bucks, 3m sometimes is imposible to get in something smaller than a gallon so thats NO NO obviously, ask the jobber (guy that mix paints in the paint shop) because many of this stuff os not just go to walmart.

How to paint? remove the paint... sand with 500/600 so the primer has something to adhere to... primer the thing... sand again with the 500/600 to remove all the bad stuff like runs etc... paint... sand with 600/500 to remove stuff in the surface... put clear on top... sand 600/5000 and then you go with the 1000 to 2000 grit sand paper and then you polish with 3m or meguiers paint polisher.

That does not sound easy! What are you spraying with?

[Dave]

If done properly, only the primer needs sanding. Apply 2-3 coats of color and then 3 coats of clear. If it's a lacquer or urethane, wet sanding can be done the next day. Modern buffing compounds require 1500-2500 grit as the final grit before buffing. 800-1000 grit only needed on large surfaces or heavy orange peel texture.

Urethane or epoxy primers will adhere to a properly scuffed carbon fork. If clear coated, that paint should be urethane. Primers for plastic are usually appropriate only for single stage paint.

[ultraman6970]

The problem with bicycles in general is that the tubes are rounded and if you dont know what are you doing the paint runs and you go ticker in some places than other ones. That's the reason painting a bike is kind'a expensive.

As for carbon the surfaces are larger and flatter making the painting process IMO easier.

THE OP asked how... well u are right I forgot the what to use to paint...

You can use a preval unit... they do ok job.. you can use a tiny compressor and a detail spray gun... or even an airbrush but that will take too much time.

Rattle can? well is everybodys choice but I wouldnt use rattle can, the paint just sucks, bad bad stuff... same with rustoleoum car paint line of paint that is pretty much the same ^%$^&$ that you find inside their rattle cans.

You can go as somebody said 2k (polyurethane) cans, everything is mixed inside but you have just a few hours to paint once the can pin has been pulled off (activation/mixing) before the paint go too hard (or goes bad) to even been shoot. Some places sell only clear of this other places can mix you the color you want and put it in one of those cans. Ive used the clear and is ok.

Upol has clear coat in a can and is good stuff, same their spray can primers.

As for paint ive used tamiya stuff a couple of times which is water based but used it with an airbrush. You can clear coat that with polyurethane will be ok.

Paint is not hard, but you have to be methodical and yes you can skip steps and u have to be lucky aswell because some stuff is more sensitive to skip steps than others and that could lead you to a disaster like cracking paint for example.

Painted a carbon frame (chinese stuff) and for some reason always the BB area the paint was cracking after like 10 minutes. Swapped the primer for plastic surfaces primer and worked. Frustrating. Something was impregnated in that carbon that was reacting with the solvents in the paint, funny thing was that was just in the BB area, the rest was just fine :/

[pbarry]

Check your local NAPA store and see if they mix 2 part paint. Last time I painted a fender, it was about $20 per rattle can.

[skouri1]

I have had bad adherence on alu with rattle can (flaked, but of course, alu is kind of hard without significant prep/primer etc), but on carbon its not been a problem! I road it outside for over a year and like I said, had no flaking or anything, just some minor chipping on bottom when installing skewer (tire struggled to get past my midreach brakes, so had to bang down on awkwardly angled dropouts to get it in there without deflating). Look up Joost's velocolour camo fork ( https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?p=2634696). Had plenty of chipping, it happens when you use stuff, but usually your fork is not coming into contact with anything significant, particularly on the road (one would hope).

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Has anyone painted their own carbon fork?

Lets hear about some of the supplies you used and see photos of the results!

I'd give it to a painter but that's just me.

[Oo0cH]

I'm planning on trying this out too!
I want something special for my new chinese Waltly TI Frame.
I've set my mind on Spray.bike's stuff (spraybike.us), gonna go with black and silver polka dots. The standard cans leave a matte finish, with a few layers of clear coat it turns out pretty neat. Their Website has plenty of examples and guidance.
There's this guy on YT/IG called oldshovel_, his Santa Cruz renovation vid using spray.bike is amazing!

[Louis]

Doesn't look too hard to me: