Painting carbon frame

[peetee]

Can carbon frames be taken to a spray shop? If so what type of paint can be used?

[Lance Dopestrong]

Yes.

Any good frame painter or even a decent car body shop will be able to safely do it.

[Brucey]

Adding paint can increase the weight of painted carbon parts significantly. I have heard of F1 car bodywork parts that were sent off for painting and came back looking beautiful, but they actually weighed about twice as much as they had done before....

A chap I know very carefully stripped the paint off his CF frameset and then polished the clear coat that was over the CF from when it was made. The end result was quite distinctive-looking and noticeably lighter than it had been. I'm not sure it is an ideal solution because not all CF frames will have a thick enough clear coat to allow this without damage and of course without the paint on it the CF will see more UV which could potentially damage it.

cheers

[fastpedaller]

Yes.

Any good frame painter or even a decent car body shop will be able to safely do it.

All very well - but how do you know they aren't any good until they've wrecked the frame?

[David9694]

I thought you had to choose a painter who doesn’t stove bake the frame if you want to paint carbon. I don’t think there’s any danger of your carbon frame getting accidentally frazzled as the providers who specialise in cycles (and who bake) won’t accept a carbon frame.