Paint versus Powder Coating (Dr Deltron) ...
 

Okay, Dr Deltron, another project I'm going to start working on in about a month or two beside my 5 speed Buzz Bike project is building a stingray bike for my niece. It will be patterned after this one which I borrowed from the Schwinn Forum yesterday :

http://www.schwinnbike.com/heritage/...chmentid=28824

Great job, huh ?

I'm considering powder coating for its revered toughness. Unlike the bike pictured, among the changes I would like to make are to powder the rims in the USC gold color. The bike would basically be scarlett in color with the trim and rims in gold just like the bike pictured. Other additions would include a springer fork, nickled spokes and a custom seat with a USC logo, but that's way down the road.

Several obviously questions come to mind. Here they are

1) How much would it cost to powder coat a bicycle versus an epoxy job for instance ?

2) Are USC colors available in powder coat (Scarlett/Yellowish gold) ? One hears of powder coating having a limited color spectrum.

3) Can one pinstripe or paint text over a powder coat job with paint ? If one can, can one then follow up with a clear coat ?

4) Where would one go to get a bicycle powder coated ? Do paint shops usually take on such small jobs ? I'd send the rims and bike cross country if the price was right and I couldn't find it here.

Thank you in advance!

Palanirides

That bike you pictured looks beautiful! Of course, my fixed-gear bike (see link in my sig) has a beautiful Carolina-Blue paint job that was original to the bike!

Two downsides to the powder-coating process are that it's very difficult to do the bike in multiple colors (and you've already planned for this by getting your two colors on the frame and on the rims), and that available colors are limited. Most powder-coating places will mix custom colors for you, or buy special powder for a certain color, but powder is purchased in bulk and you might have to pay for the whole bag of powder if you want a color that the place doesn't usually use.

Usually, people find a machine-shop that does powder-coating of parts for whatever (automotive, industrial) applications, that is willing to run a bike on the side.

If you want frame/fork powdercoated, and then rims powdercoated a diff color, expect to pay over $100 if you have the place strip/sandblast the stuff first for you, maybe $65-90 total if you strip everything yourself.

You could paint over a powdercoat, but I don't know how well this holds.

If you know exactly what you want and are willing to pay for it, I'd recommend going to Spectrum Powder Works. They do multi-color powdercoat jobs, beautifully finished, and will get the bike exactly as you want it. Probably close to $200. But they're worth checking out, especially if the bike and componentry are in good shape.

Oops, I'm still trying to get a handle on how to work all the bells & whistles on this forum.

If you don't mind me bringing this up.... A guy at the shop had his vintage trek powder coated white (built up with black components looked good).. Anyway he had left the drop out adjusters in and some bolts for mounting the a rack... he was making a single speed too so the loss of the drop out adjusters was terrible and he had to break them off. He also had to hone out the seat and stear tube as well as chase the threads in the BB. How can you prevent this from happening? I guess the place didn't really do bicycles but if you stuck cardboard and tabe in the tubes and BB etc.. would you be able to get it out after? Maybe supervise the process and have a long chat about instructions with the coater? Has this ever happened to anyone?

The powdercoater that I used in years gone by had special tape that he masked the BB threads & seat/head tubes with. As for the little holes, i.e; rack eyelets, bottle bosses etc, those can be retapped easily with a little finnesse. Start the tap CAREFULLY! Granted, the drop-out adjustment screw holes are kinda tricky, but rarely does the powder get into such little holes.
As for using cardboard, DON'T! It will likely ignite when the frame is baked. Unless, of course, it was used when the powder was applied and removed before baking.

Thanks for bringing up this very important question. Powdercoaters take note!!!

Cheers, Dr.D