Weight Weenies

Hi,

I am thinking of having a small project making a titanium 29er.
I would like to have the frame blasted to have the sateen finish and then paint some paint onto the frame.
The problem that i have is that my painter is having difficulties in painting the titanium frame due to the paints not sticking onto the titanium surface. Most probably, this is due to the wrong primer being used.
Searching on the web, it says that a acid based primer need to be used.
Could anyone give a recommendation on what acid based primer are good for usage on a titanium frame?

Thank you

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hand sand with 180 grit the areas to be painted, mask the rest pretty good.

Have your painter shoot the highest quality epoxy primer he can find, let it sit under the sun for a day or two. Hand sand with water grit 600-800 depending if the color is solid or metallic and finish the rest as usual.

Are you in the states by any chance?

How many grams does paint add?

Too many variables to get a straight answer, but I reckon at least 100/120 grams.

Using etch primer on Ti and then single stage paint would give you the lightest paint job, but durability might be compromised. Then again I've only sprayed two bicycles, my specialty is cars.

Hi,

Thank you for replying.
My idea is to have my painter to mask the areas and that i dont want to be painted.
After that, i am going to take the frame for some blasting process to get a nice sateen finish. Afterwards then i can start the painting process.

Can you give me some recommendation on good epoxy primer to use on ti frame?
My painter has been having problems with titanium frames as his results always flake or peel off in the end.

The best epoxy primer that I've used is from www. southernpolyurethanes. com - SPI. Although a smaller less known company compared to the majors, they make top notch stuff, many restoration shops use their products.

Epoxy primer is a completely different beast and you have to be careful not to spray it on cold metal, make sure that frame is at least 70• F. when they spray it and at least a few hrs. after.

Hi, thank you so much for the information. You have been a great help

One of the forum threads (on another forum) was talking about painting Ti frames some years ago. I vaguely remembering the mention of Aluminium paint primers that are used on boat hulls. They are supposed to be acidic and have an etching effect in that it will bind with the base material better compared to normal primers.

Maybe you can do a search in that direction ??

That would be called a "self-etching primer" - and it is used for most metal applications.

http://southernpolyurethanes.com/Produc ... primer.jpg

The epoxy primer that I mentioned has etching properties in it, and yes it is the way to go with anything bare metal, I have shot it over aluminum, sanded chrome, steel, galvanized crap, with very good results.

Etch primer is basically nothing more than lacquer primer with some acid added to it, it is not catalyzed and much weaker than epoxy primer, the only reason to use it is in high production work because of its fast dry times.

If you go the epoxy route and he uses basecoat/clearcoat, make sure he activates the base with whatever clearcoat hardener for maximum paint adhesion and durability, as little as 5% clearcoat activator in the color makes a great difference in the end.

Feel free to PM me if you need additional info.

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Thank you for all your inputs, especially bibicieta. Your informations has been invaluable.

I will ask my painter to do a epoxy primer as the first layer and then put another base layer with the clearcoat hardener as the second. Hopefully, this will yield great result.