I Have my Ugly old Chrome Torker, And i’m not fond of the color orange (summit trials)
So Someone tell me… What is the best Way to paint a unicycle. What kind of paint is best and what method should be used?
(Hope this thread helps other people besides me.)
I did a couple of Chrome Yuni’s (one pearl white, one red). With Chrome, if you want it to stick, you’ll have to sand it really good. After that, I’d recommend an epoxy primer. A poor primer job will result in a poor paint job.
Uni Painted Right
Here are my plans: I will take mine and have it sandblasted. There are commercial sand blasting machines everywhere. Just look and you can find them. If you can’t find in yellowpages, look up Monument (Tomb Stone) Companies. Most of them have a sandblaster for engraving the headstones. It will take them just a few seconds to totally blast ALL chrome and crud off your uni. Warning: If there is any grease on your uni, use a good de-greaser before having it sandblasted. Sandblasting doesn’t work well on grease.
OR
Find a big trucking company that has a “Bead Blaster” for big truck tires. This is a self-enclosed box that has a glass front. They load a wheel in and then blast everything off the rim, then powercoat them with paint. They might stick your uni frame in there and blast it for you that way. Warning #2: A sand/bead blasted frame will rust very easily, so take extra care to keep it perfectly dry, even away from humidity, if you can.
Second: Find a very busy and custom paint shop. Better yet, a motorcycle custom paint shop. Take your freshly sandblasted uni frame to them and ask them to paint it for you while they do their next (you name the color) car. They will primer it, paint it and seal it with how ever many coats of clear coat they are putting on the car/motorcycle. I have two shops that have told me they will do this for me.
Result, you have an awesome and one of a kind, yet quality, paint job on your unicycle. --chirokid–
PS: BTY, I think the Orange Summit Trials is Beautiful, but it’s your uni…
I took one of my unis to work and sandblasted it. I used 180 grit brown aluminium oxide and it took seconds, you’ll need to be very careful. Two coats of a metal paint and some Klear Kote and the colour seems to hold on quite well.
I’ve also used a spray “anodizing” paint (from Canadian tire? on another uni and it works ok. Multiple coats and lots of patience for that one.
I also cheat a bit and cover the painted uni with clear shelf paper to give the paint a little more durability.