Sorry if there's a painting tips topic already but it didn't leap out of the search and then the search seemed to break, saying I can't use it at this time. Here's what I was told or wish I was told:
- Paint isn't a quick option - mine needed two coats with a few hours each coat and a coat a day, assuming you can hang the bike so it can all be painted at once (no frame clamps or dropout mounts) and a week or so to harden - but it can produce an acceptable finish on an old frame you don't want to powdercoat.
- Beware the paint directions. The one I used needs to be above 10 centigrade, so a room heater was needed.
- Use a ventilated but not draughty workspace - messing up a frame because something blew onto it would be annoying.
- Use at least four lamps positioned around the bike to see as much as possible even when standing in front of one lamp. A wrist-mounted LED torch can be useful. Head lamps aren't great as you could easily transfer paint to your head.
- Paint roughly top to bottom - paint don't drip upwards - and back to front.
- Large plates (chainguard or mech brackets) welded on are useful things to hold if you paint them last. Small welded-on things like cable stops and pump pegs mainly either create corners that are awkward to paint or gather paint that drips out later: don't trust them.
- Paint pairs of things (stays, forks) together, painting the insides first. Paint the rear dropouts while standing behind the bike.
- At a couple of points on the bike, you may need to join the coat - for example, it's hard to paint seat stays, top tube and seat tube all at once. The places where tubes join seem easier places to join the coat than the edges of the lugs. A bit too much paint on some tube joins (some seem hard to paint anyway, especially around the bottom bracket) seems better than filling the edge of a lug, especially if planning to highlight the lugs later.
- Leave the paint can and brush in a safe position when moving other things (lamps or whatever) around.
