How many cans?

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ferball

New Member
Apr 8, 2010
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NH
I was planning to repaint my bike with what ever I could find in the garage/shed, but my wife wants has some thing against the smurf blue and puke yellow that I found so I was told to go buy some paint. How many cans does it usually take to do a bike? I am planning on trying out that Rustoleum Hammered stuff.
 

Elmo

New Member
Sep 3, 2009
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Mississippi
Two should do a regular bike. It took two and about two thirds of another one to paint my loooong bike.
 

bairdco

a guy who makes cool bikes
Aug 18, 2009
6,537
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living the dream in southern california
a cruiser frame and fork takes about 2 cans. 2 fenders and a chainguard will take 1 and a half.

i usually buy at least 2 cans more than i need. that way mistakes, touch-ups, and little brackets or whatever else you aren't thinking of is covered.
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
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Littleton, Colorado
It also depends on how many coats you plan to apply. I used two twelve ounce cans of primer, six, eleven ounce cans of color coat (two colors), three ten ounce cans of clear. I did no less than five coats of color and clear and a couple of primer.
About $70.00 for paint, total.
That's for the frame, fenders, fuel tank, chain guards, two of them, headlight housing and front fork.
Tom
 

ferball

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Apr 8, 2010
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I am a one coat kinda guy, I know my work is not pretty, but I like that "rustic" appearance. If my welds were neater and the frame not all rusted and pitted I might take my time and do it right, but it is getting warm and this is gonna be my daily driver, so I just want to get it on the road, so I am planing just to rough up the existing paint and scuff off the rust then spray away. Plus I was only planning on spending 20 bucks on paint, the most expensive part of this project so far.
 

ferball

New Member
Apr 8, 2010
598
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NH
Keeping with the recycled theme of my build, I ended up just stealing a couple of cans of leftover paint from my dad's garage. Can and a half of silver paint. I had another can and a half of yellow just in case, I still may spray it with some yellow to really give it the ghetto look. But the a can and a half covered every thing, not super thick but looks good enough for me.

I also tried one of those Gator Striping Wheels from Lowes to remove the paint. It worked awesome, made a quick job of cleaning off the metal, but it won't make it through two jobs, rough edges tear it up pretty kick.
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
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Littleton, Colorado
Ferball,
Send us some photos of the finished job. Actually, yellow and silver doesn't sound all that bad. When I was a kid I saved some bucks and had the seats in a 34 Ford roadster done in yellow and purple naugahyde. I thought it looked cool but my dad said it looked like an Easter egg :)
Tom
 

matthurd

New Member
Dec 13, 2010
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manchester NH
forks in yellow, front of the frame in silver, tone into a yellow on the back side? or something similar.

would look good and work with what you have, just my 2 cents...
 

mixkwikis1st

New Member
Apr 24, 2011
4
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Victor Idaho
Hey there Ferball, did you paint er up yet? I just joined this forum today while searching for info. Your thread caught my eye because I've devoted the last 4 yrs to aerosol painting. I had to mix up a case of Rustoleum hammered spray paint and found it to be a very heavy pigment and hard to mix. Long story short, I patented a sawsall accessory for mixing spray paint and it really makes the paint job a lot easier and better quality too. You end up using less paint because of the great pigment blend. I'm not trying to sell my tools on this site so I wont insert a link, but if you want to know more about it feel free to email me. Good luck, kb
 

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