Tinted Lacquer/metal Finishes.

[Mark W]

I'm planning on spraying a frame with some sort of tinted lacquer. I've seen some BMX frames as standard with it done and they look sweet, plus I just fancy having a different finish!

I've been having trouble finding any form of tinted lacquer though, although there appears to be a lot of it on guitar finishing websites, e.g. the bottom of the page here. It's nitro-cellulose lacquer which I think should mean I can use it on aluminium - info online seems to suggest it was used for car finishes years ago? It seems now to be primarily aimed at wood finishing, but I haven't seen anywhere saying you can't use it on aluminium. If anyone knows differently though, feel free to let me know.

Other than that, I've seen water-based coloured lacquer being used on cars, but again, finding a source of that is pretty tricky.

Not got much of a clue about any of this as I've never looked into it before, so if anyone's got any knowledge to impart that'd be handy.

[Revolver]

This is barely any help, but I seem to recall Damon W getting two frames from marino once, one of which was in a clear-red finish.

So maybe marino could help you out there?

[dann2707]

Have you looked into rear light tinting spray for cars? Its like paint, mixed with lacquer. That sort of thing? :/

[CurtisRider]

Have you looked into rear light tinting spray for cars? Its like paint, mixed with lacquer. That sort of thing? :/

That, it comes in a few colours

[dann2707]

Yeah. Can get it red, blue and black I tink??

[CurtisRider]

Yup, also if you have a spray gun you can mix laquer with paint to do the same thing

[Mark W]

Would that tinting spray take to metal OK though? Most websites don't give much info about the stuff itself apart from "MAKES UR CAR LUK SWEET M8".

[LukasMcNeal]

I suppose you could try it, its only £6ish on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TAIL-LIGHT-HEADLIGHT-BLUE-TINTING-SPRAY-E--TECH-_W0QQitemZ110448053513QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=145362579290&rvr_id=145362579290&cguid=7cfcfe4a1280a0e203672e07ff6d6b0a

[Mark W]

Depends how much that's for though. Plus the guy sounds like a f**k-end so I'm not too keen.

Did a quick Google about acrylic spray paint and it seems like it's not all that great in conjunction with metal - generally need to use primer and more lacquer over the top to get it to not disappear quickly. Don't want to use primer as that's sorta defeating the point of it all, so I might stick with the nitro-cellulose stuff...

[Skoze]

When i got my old 609 off of Burrows it'd been sprayed with that, worked really well and i'm sure it'd still have been on there if i'd lacquered it/ hadn't sprayed it satin black to stop me being so protective over the prettiness of it.

[Phatmike]

When i got my old 609 off of Burrows it'd been sprayed with that, worked really well and i'm sure it'd still have been on there if i'd lacquered it/ hadn't sprayed it satin black to stop me being so protective over the prettiness of it.

And pretty it did look - that frame was gorgeous!

[Mark W]

When i got my old 609 off of Burrows it'd been sprayed with that

Is 'that' the car light tinting bonanza flapjack stuff?

[Skoze]

And pretty it did look - that frame was gorgeous!

Felt so guilty for going over it, but it was the only way it'd ever get ridden! The new one might get the translucent treatment, though...

And yeah Mark, far as i know it was

Edited September 26, 2010 by Skoze

[Mark W]

Awesome Got any photos of it before you defaced it? I sort of know in my head what I want mine to look like, but I don't know if my expectations are realistic or not

EDIT: Lurked some of Matt's old threads, found it!

[Skoze]

[Mark W]

Win! Thanks dude.

[Skoze]

No worries

Looked even better in the flesh, was literally scared to scratch it though to drastic measures were put in place.

Depending on what you do with yours, i might do the next one that colour - that or some savage multi-coloured heroicness.

Edited September 26, 2010 by Skoze

[Mark W]

I wanted to do mine a sort of medium green tinted lacquer finish. So not really British Racing Green, but not a lime green or anything. I just like the 'deep' look it has. I've always wanted a red bike, and I believe all my ability to ride my Inspired at the moment is based around it being red, so I'll probably do a red finish...#

Was thinking this green initially...

[Matt Burrows]

Not sure how much lacquer was used originally but it held up quite well. I think the surface was roughened up first to add more depth and effect to the finish.

Before I sold it to Matt I went over the frame with a silicone carbide disc on a drill to roughen up the surface (link). Then sprayed it with the tail light spray mentioned above. It took pretty well to the frame and looked sweet, but definitely needed some lacquer. Not sure how much that would effect the finish, but it should be ok.

[Skoze]

To be honest, red brings with it some major super-powers in pretty much anything that's not an infected/ bleeding body part.

I always wanted to do the same with a kinda cherry red, get a proper deep finish on it as opposed to the flatness most seem to end up with.

Do it!

[Mark W]

Interestingly, most deep cherry red finishes apparently use gold-coloured primer. At least that's what they did with cherry red Fender guitars or something like that.

To make the frame look a bit more interesting I was thinking about leaving it as bare metal for a little while to allow it to oxidise slightly and have a bit more 'texture' to it... When I first rawed my Fourplay I put some stickers on it, and after a week when I took them off there was almost a tan-mark around them.

[Mark W]

In postage related news, f**k that noise!

[Skoze]

Definitely a good call, could look sweet! Have no idea what caused it, but there was some pretty funky patterns around the headtube on the Bump that looked awesome under the coating - same with the brazes, they looked turquoise most of the time which was rad.

Bloody hell that's pricey, shirley it can't weight hat much!?

[Mark W]

I'd imagine it's for "Not exploding in a mailbag" sort of purposes. If they packed them well it wouldn't really be an issue in that it's usually a 2kg limit for 'normal' 1st class, and one can of 400ml of lacquer shouldn't really weigh that much incl. packaging. Still, that's life I guess. Sure as shit aren't buying that any more though!

[aener]

From now on, every time you re-spray your bike you should take a photo of it from the same angle, and after a while (about two months in your case ) you could photoshop a picture together of your bike through time. Oldest paintjob to the rear, then sectioned up with the newest at the front. It'd be sweet.

I realise how irrelevant that was - but thought I'd put it out there Sorry I'm no help.