Updating this thread on the painting process! Since Saturday, I've stripped, etch primed, high-build primed and (today) painted the frame. It's been a fantastic process, something I've always wanted to try. I learnt a lot from
@enc's Youtube videos, and then later his more in depth threads. If you're interested in painting your frame, his threads are as insightful as they are entertaining. So thanks
@enc! I've filmed some bits of my own process, and might put them into a video of my own if all goes to plan.
Here's the frame mid-strip. It took around 3 hours and a can of Autotek stripper to remove it all. Three paint jobs added 107g to the frame, which isn't as much as I'd expected (skinny tubes take less paint i guess).
It was nice to reveal all the small details of the frame, especially the brazed sections.
Rust treatment on some spots of the frame. There were actually a number of patches where the frame had begun to rust, a good few rust worms that must have crept under the numerous coats of paint. So I'm really glad I took it down to metal to address them.
First couple of coats of etch primer bought out the little imperfections in the frame, of which there weren't many! You can definitely tell where I missed spots of paint, mainly in harder to reach areas. These were addressed with some sanding and the high-build primer.
I added the high build primer, then splattered it with black acrylic as an indicator for wet-sanding. I went over the frame with 800 grit until all the splatters were gone. Really recommend this technique, I picked it up from a car painter on YouTube.
Here's the first coat of paint! The metallic looked super metallic. Almost too futuristic. Like a robot costume for a fancy dress party. Now it's had a few coats, and the decals put on it definitely looks a lot better!
1996 blue decals have been put on this morning, they look AMAZING. I am super pleased, and will share the result once I've cleared over the whole frame this weekend. Just got to find a respirator, as 2K turns out to be nasty stuff