Restoring / Repainting a metal frame

Hi. I am hoping someone can give me advice on restoring a metal frame that has paint chipping away in few places.

A good customer of mine has a Prada frame from around 2010 model year which they really like and want to keep. However some of the paint has chipped and peeled away on the metal rims.

He is asking if I can restore it by repainting

I suspect the steps would be like this:

1. Remove lenses and silicone nose pads
2. Remove temple arms
3. Use some kind of paint thinner or spirit to soak and strip away all old paint to reveal the shiny silver (nickel?) metal underneath
4. Spray coat the frame with some kind of a primer
5. Spray coat the frame with some kind of paint

However I have no idea what sort of paints or primer products are best for this.

I would really like to get it done.

Any advice to help me achieve a good result with this restoration would be much appreciated

The best a longest lasting way to do it would be to sandblast and powder-coat the frame. It's not something you are going to do yourself if this is the only time you are going to ever do it. I have a powder-coater but suspect not many other opticians do. I would think there is a local service you can find that will do this for you though.

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Originally Posted by Kwill212

The best a longest lasting way to do it would be to sandblast and powder-coat the frame. It's not something you are going to do yourself if this is the only time you are going to ever do it. I have a powder-coater but suspect not many other opticians do. I would think there is a local service you can find that will do this for you though.

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Some Jewelry repair shops have this set up and will usually do it for a fee of course, but it's less expensive than purchasing everything you need for maybe a 1 time job.

Just no. Don't entertain these people. He needs to buy a new frame!

While I agree with Robert_S and Kwill212's post is the right way- I wonder if a model train site could fix you up with how they touch up or paint their trains. I know the metal is not the same but I wonder if it would work with an all purpose model paint.

I know Hilco used to touch up solder burns with a simple metal paint that seemed ok for the parsimonious patient who always wanted a repair before a replacement.

Back in the day someone came out wuth a line of metal frames designed by Peter Max. It was very popular with the hippy crowd and we sold a passel of them. Hardly a day went by that someone didn't present with a mangled frame. Being the good guys that we were we were able to repair most of these frames. We found the most expedient paint repaiir to be Testors model plane dope. It's readily available in a million colors and it's dirt cheap.

Its a good example of the practice of the "Close Enough is Good Eenough" principal. If they want their frame restored to "as new" condition they want a "new" frame.

Posting this recollertion of "the good old days" gives me the willies. I am going to make a nice ham sandwich and take a nap.

Some of the more important questions, in my mind, are what is the color? (is it something odd or unusual, and thus hard to match), and what is the nature of the paint? (does it seem like the result of an industrial process, etc...)

Personally, I hate painted frames. This is the type of situation that happens. People need to understand, anything painted, that takes as much abuse as eyeglasses, are never going to last, so don't fall in love with them. If you think you might, then don't get them, and save the potential heard break when they chip and peel.