I’m gonna use paint stripper on my bike but I’ve heard if it gets into the pivot points where the bearings are it can damage them. Is it easy enough to take the frame apart into bits and reassemble? TIA
by vochi1
I’m gonna use paint stripper on my bike but I’ve heard if it gets into the pivot points where the bearings are it can damage them. Is it easy enough to take the frame apart into bits and reassemble? TIA
by vochi1
7 Comments
You should be fully disassembling it if you intend to strip and paint it anyway. Probably a good idea to replace the pivot bearing while you are in there.
If you don’t want your paint job to look like complete shit and cause a bunch of problems, you need to disassemble the entire bike.
All that hardware needs to come off before you start messing with the paint. And you need to protect the faced surfaces as well, unless you have the tools to reface them.
It’s not a hard process, but it can be tedious and require speciality tools depending on the frame.
Make sure you have the right tools for the job (usually 4-6mm hex wrench), and the torque specs and torque wrench for reassembly. Lots of spots on the bike can be torqued by “feel”, but pivots should be torqued properly.
If the frame has pivot bearings, they may be press-fit and require an extractor tool to remove safely.
If you tighten that pivot bolt back down incorrectly it can void your warranty. I assume that you have none left of you’re talking about repainting, but figured I would throw it out there in case.
Good luck, custom paint is always cool
Now I dont want to discourage you but in a 50 year career in bike shops and worked also in a frame builders factory with in house painter… I never saw fit to recommend paint jobs. Basically these reasons . ….
Your question shows like most people maybe you dont grasp the scope of the job. Full Overhaul means stripping completely and replacing worn parts plus reassembly. That alone for a full suspension bike is hundreds.
Then stripping old paint sandblasting then primer coats finish work before paint color baked on is like the way to go unless you are doing powder coat.
One bike is way more work than one in an assembly line at the factory. Trust me. Plus still no decals and if you don’t do the overhaul correctly or the paint job is second rate too…
You will be regretting and wasting money too.
Nobody matches a factory paint job for less than about five hundred unless it’s a hack job that comes off with a fingernail. Youll see…
I recently repaired a bike which had been painted without removing wires or anything, gears and brakes barely worked because the wires were coated with paint.