DIY Painting a Bike Frame: Is it possible?
I'm not an expert on this, but I do have a friend who immaculately restores vintage bicycles. I've helped him on a few projects and this is roughly what he does. (My friend started out 5 or 6 years ago with an old cruiser and cans of spray paint. Wound up becoming obsessed and ended up with a spray painting set-up that he found on Craigslist...)

Basically he starts with your steps 1 - 4 for paint removal, although more advanced. My friend has professional grade spray painting equipment and uses industrial grade coatings, so he's not using rattle cans of spray paint.


After the paint removal, he re-tapes with a finer grade of masking tape.
Usually 2 coats of epoxy based primer.
2 - 4 coats of color, which is an industrial grade polyurethane paint.
During the color phase, he deals with lug detailing and decals. This part is tedious and time consuming.
Finally, 3 coats of clearcoat. And then the frame hangs in the paint shed for 24 to 48 hours.


If you're serious about it, I can find out what brands, etc he uses.

And for powder-coating, another acquaintance recently spent ~ $200 USD on a frame.

Yeah, totally possible However, sending your bike frame off to the paint shop for powder-coating ceases to be DIY. ;~)