Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - painting chrome!!

any successful stories of people powder coating chromed bikes? because i want to

Id say, as long as the chrome is good it should be OK? If the chrome peels the powder coat will prolly come with it. How much would it cost to have it stripped?

give it a transparent color powdercoat so its really shiny (whatever color you want)

what about a 05 pista with the decals removed? would that be ok to just take the decals off and then paint?

(sorry if there is another thread, im a noobie. trying to learn as much as i can on the forums.)

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=115110&highlight=painting+chrome

Thanks crank. Got a lot of mixed opinions in that thread. Guess I'm going to call around and see about sandblasting and powdercoating, because doing it myself (being a complete noobie) doesn't appease me as I don't want to ruin a bike. :\

best of luck

If ya got all the stickers off, and the bike is new, you could get the chrome anodized! It would make it like...umm colored chrome. Just a suggestion.

Anodized? Never heard of that and you could be pulling my leg, but I'm going to go with it. How much would it cost? Where do you go for it?


EDIT: www.google.com... Works wonders. Couldn't really find a price or opinion. Anyone ever done it?

IMO only, but the "chrome" on a pista is got to be one of the worst plating jobs that i've ever seen. If I were to paint one, I would definitely sand blast the whole thing and then go thru every mm by hand. Then would come the powder coat or whatever else you like.

Please do not take this as anything against pista's or the people who ride them. I just think that the build and plating quality is rather poor. I can picture the porosity just typing about it.

Anodize is for bare alum only.

Gotcha. Best way to do it then would be to sandblast the entire thing (don't know where to go for that :\) and then powdercoat it. Thanks cow.

No biggie, sandblasting and powdercoating is readily available, fast and cheap (at least here) Took me a week in all, cost ~$25 for frame +fork. Chrome should make no difference, I suppose.

i spoke to the guys that powdercoat IRO frames and they confirmed that you can powdercoat over chrome, so no need to sandblast unless you are having issues with your chrome. i certainly haven't noticed any flaws in mine that would warrant poopncow's appraisal of it, but he seems to know what he's talking about. still, i haven't seen any pistas with peeling chrome yet. anyway, these guys charge $60 and will mask off certain areas, if you're interested in a cinelli-style chromed-stays look. Colorlife in Long island New York. 516 433 1222 ask for John.

Thanks for the pricing. But I'm not in Ny yet. :) I'll check locally.

Check with the motorcycle and mod import cars crowd...tho they may be overpriced. You may also look for an industrial jobber to keep price down, but you may end up with one of their "stock" colors.

I didn't mean to be harsh, but I was just not impressed with the Pista's and SASS's displayed at the shops here. Maybe, it was a bad batch and things have improved, I actually hope that they have. IMO only, if something is going to shine, the surface finish should be SMOOOOOTH. :)

BTW the hand sanding I suggested was to remove the weld splatter esp at the top of the seat post and the seat stays. Cheers :)

BTHS BPoly