Posts will be picture heavy but we all love pictures, I don't intend it to be a how-to but I always like reading others threads when they go a little more indepth.
Like an idiot I forgot to take good pictures of the frame all fillered up and smoothed down, there are some earlier on in the thread and a few rehased below. Suffice to say you apply filler, sand it, apply more and sand it with a flat block until it is perfect. If you can feel it you will see it so it has to be top notch, the filler primer will take care of any little pinholes but nothing major. Creating a round profile with the filler is hard, this frame took a lot of filler and I really don't find it easy to work with! One thing is key and that it is it must be dry, this frame has lived indoors near a radiator for a long time, you should do everything you can to avoid getting water on the filler or it'll bubble up (weeks) later.
I have 2k epoxy primer followed by 2k filler primer, then 1k white, 1k 'snow' white pearl and finally 2k clear coat.
The 2k paints are dangerous, especially the clear coat. I have a half mask that claims to be good enough but a lot of people wouldn't use it so I'm not advocating this; it is a risk I'll take. I have suit, gloves, sealed eye protection and the mask, I have created a crappy booth with plastic and am forcing air through it. It kinda works, I have positive pressure and good airflow.
Underneath the can is an activator button, you hit that and it releases the hardener from a 'can within a can', shake it for a bit and then you have 2k activated paint that'll cure inside the can in ~12hrs so you have to work quick.
Normal aerosol paint is solvent based, it can always be removed with another solvent such as petrol even years later, it is soft and not very chip resistant either. This stuff is real car body paint, it relies on an activated hardner not evap of the solvents. It should be as strong as anything you can buy ready painted. I didn't want to powder coat the frame although I admit the extra work is ten fold, I'm only doing this because I like to play
Two coats of epoxy primer on, filler primer to follow later..
