xiaoman1 

The photos confirm the issues pointed out about PC, if cost is an issue PC is a great cost is the main option, if the detail of lug work is important PC is hit or miss and requires a deft hand to apply it "thinly".

I realize that "wet" paint can be very costly and suffers the same quality control issues that PC presents.

I do regret the fact that I did a total restoration on my 1956 Dual Quad Nomad (paint and all) I wish that I would have left the history on the car it those in the future to enjoy..this is the reason why my other classic car a 1958 Fuel Injected Corvette still wears its original paint and primer from scrapes and a few mishaps from years now forgotten.

Personally, I have never completely restored a bike by doing a complete paint job (cost outweighs the value of "my bikes") nor do I intend to.. I say to each there own.
I ride my bikes with their battle scars and road chips, touched up chips with nail polish and fine with that, others may not be soooo do what you like.

Do what you can afford and what is important to you in order to make you smile when riding your bike and looking at the road through the top tube of your pride possession... it's yours enjoy what it takes to make you smile.
JMHO, Ben

RobbieTunes

A spray-on tan for masochists.

unterhausen

I really wish that I was set up to wet paint. But I wonder if some of my asthma isn't due to my wet painting back in the '70s. It wasn't as widely known how dangerous urethane was, and certainly not at the auto parts store where I bought my paint.

I recently saw a powdercoat job by the local shop. It was pretty nice. I have seen worse wet paint as far as lug definition. The frame I'm working on now and the next one will have powder because of $$, and I'm not too concerned about appearance, only function. I have a couple in the works that are getting wet paint. As someone pointed out in this thread, a bike with thinned lugs probably isn't a good candidate for powder.

Hudson308 

I've had the same experience as @gugie with regard to durability.
My wife's PC'd Fuji gets loaded onto the bike rack and banged around quite a bit. Not a single chip or scrape so far.
PC WILL chip or gouge if subjected to any sharp impact that would also damage plastic. I just haven't experienced that yet.

nlerner

I'm very pleased with the PC work on my Gugificazione Raleigh Int'l, in terms of both lug lines and durability. @gugie had this done at a shop local to him. I've been using this bike as my winter commuter, and the finish has held up really well, and that includes being locked to polls, racks, and other tube-scraping surfaces.

gear64

Thanks for the info. I was just in Hood River this past summer. The Columbia River Gorge is an awesome area to explore. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to explore Portland itself.

gugie 

Closest powder coater to you that I've used is Groody Brothers in Kansas City, KS, only 4 days from you by the Katy Trail.

Mark Rainey does really good work there, will add braze-ons for you, decals and clear coat for a very reasonable charge.

metalrideroz

This is powdercoat. The type of powder used matters, some have that thicker plasticy finish regardless of how much is applied.

repechage

Andy_K 

Joining late, but here's my 1972 Motobecane Grand Record. The powder coating is a bit thick in places, but overall I'm thrilled with it.









(autofocus on my phone must not have been working this day)







(color chosen to match the fenders)





For the patina lovers among us, here's how it looked when I bought it.

metalrideroz

Not down to metal. It has proven to be very durable.

KenNC

Here is a 1981 Peugeot I did for a friend, powder-coated on the recommendation of the bike shop that added the water bottle bosses. She was very happy with it:

biketube guy

Having worked in bike factories that did wet paint and powder, the main considerations for us were:
- Powder is heavier....several ounces (for those who care)
- Powder is more environmentally friendly, since almost all of it gets pulled on to the frame, whereas there is a lot of overspray with wet paint that ends up in the environment. CA law prevented us from doing wet paint on any sort of scale. PA law did not.
- The options for colors and effects are much more limited with powder (although there are some pretty cool powders available). This includes masking/paint breaks, which can be trickier with powder.

Eric S.

I bought my De Rosa used in 1992 and it had been raced hard...the white paint was pretty beat up. Long before there was an interest in vintage steel I had it powder coated for $60 in 2002. I rode it "blank" until 2009. The coating did fill in the identifying features on the lugs too much to add white highlights but it's holding up great.

ItsTimeToBike

It's usually a difficult decision weather to powder coat or keep it original. In this case, the bike wasn't a "collectible", and to me,enhancing it to the preferred Celeste not only added a premium value (in my opinion) but gave it an aesthetically improved appearance. In addition, the components and wheels that came with the bike merited the investment in a new finish. It's also nice to have the branding verification maintained via seat-stay and fork pantographs. Yes there's a bit of thickness evidence in lug seams etc. but I couldn't be happier with the results. I had some decals but chose not to apply them. In addition, disassembly was worth the effort as I was able to inspect, clean, and re-lube all parts.

Bianchi Limited before powder coat

Bianchi after powder coat








Before and after shots

Artmo 

I wish I had had my vintage Maclean powder coated. The wet paint job can chip just by looking at it!

Senior Ryder 00 

Hi folks,Aside from the barbs being tossed about, this posting makes a valid point. Bike refinishing depends on the planned usage as well as the quality of the substrate. My bikes are all “regular riders” and from a reliability standpoint, I prefer PC. One, a Paramount Anniversary Edition, would never be powder coated. Another, a vintage club racer from the Merseyside area of England, that could use refinishing, but I would have to think long and hard about before powder coating it. Some of the others would be an easy choice.
The first bike I had PC’ed was in about 1989 and could be considered a mistake. The frame was a 531 tubed custom built sports tourer that I had done specifically for riding centuries. The bike was about 11 years old, had cover lots of miles and its Imron paint showed it. At the time I was working with a PC company on some industrial application. They claimed that their specialty was race cars and motor cycle frames. While the smoothness of the coating was good, they didn’t understand protecting the openings and threads. As a result, all of the threads had to be chased and the seat tube & head tube had to be honed. On the plus side, this coating has survived many more miles as well as lots of less than ideal transport and still looks great. The next bike coated was a 1990 Gary Fisher Super Caliber MTB. This was done in 2011 because it had numerous scratches and the tri-color fade had faded badly. While the coating surface was about the same as the previous job, this company did a fantastic job protecting the uncoated areas. Although this bike isn’t used as much as before the PC, it is holding up well. Bike #3 was a 1984 Bianchi Nuovo Racing that was done by a local shop here in Salem, OR. While not the smoothness of a quality paint job, it was very, very good. Nice and smooth with the proper protections. I attribute the quality and the fact that it was done in Celeste to a quick and profitable sale. I’ve had a 1977 Eisentraut Limited waiting in the wings for a while and decided to have these folks coat it. Haven’t gotten it back yet, but expect to to be as good as the Bianchi. Plus, it will be one of my regular riders.
Bottom Line: For nice looking, regular riders, powder coating is the way to go. If it’s a special or collectable bike, invest in a proper repaint. As with all things in life, you get what you pay for!

Cheers,

79pmooney

I've had 2 frames powder coated. First was my winter/rain/city fix gear, a ~1983 400 something Trek that crack its seatstay caps. The local who was at that time PCing for TiCycles did it in the common light sky blue. Since this was my workhorse bike, show meant nothing. I ordered 10' of blue reflecting 3m tape. (The tape with a checkered pattern on it.) Applied all 10'. Fork, TT, HT, ST, stays and more. To my surprise, the colors match near perfectly and in the day you don't see the tape at all.

That was about 7 years ago. Paint is holding up really well and the tape surprisingly so except at places like at the pump on the ST.

Ben

gugie 

^^^This.

And now that we know you're in Salem, it would be great to include you on some of our rides and get togethers! At least three of us are doing the Cookie Monster Metric Century if you're interested, or at least an excuse to get together after.

Chombi1 

I guess the question will eventually have to be asked.........Are there actual builders out ther that are powder coating the frames they make? If not, why? If there are, is it becoming a "normal" option from the frame builder community?

mixteup

The effect of this job is just lovely - But I have a question.
You said it was done over bare metal, with a transparent powder.
If there was no undercoat, how could the color look the same over the steel tubing AND the bronze-brazed corners ?
Inquiring minds want to know .........

gugie 

Lots of them.

Norther Cycles
L'avecaise
Page Street Cycles (Christopher Igleheart and Joseph Ahearne)
Corey Thompson
That's just a few in the PNW that I know personally.

Why? Fast, inexpensive vs paint. If you're a framebuilder, do you want to keep most of that frame money, or give several hundreds of dollars to a wet paint guy? When I took the UBI framebuilding class, that's what Tony Periera (Breadwinner Cycles) told me. And they sweat all the time about powder coat quality, to be sure.

Almost all of the ones that do almost exclusively wet paint do it in-house (Peter Weigle and Brian Chapman are two that come to mind).

Unless you're talking about the high end, powder is becoming the standard. My 650b reconstructs almost always get powder coat, but I'm tickled pink when someone decides to do wet paint (they get the frame raw and arrange it themselves).

gugie 

You can get the "chromovelato" look with powdercoat by using a "chrome" powder underneath, and a colored powder coat over it.



Before anyone gets excited about powdercoat chrome, it looks plasticy by itself, but as an undercoat works well.

squirtdad

Dave Kirk uses Joe Bell as does sachs and rivendell

to put this in perspective with powder coat costs

base price for Imron is $750 (and goes up with flourishes over a $1000 would be really easy) base does include a lot stripping, gentle blasting, some bondo, oven curing etc and this is one of best of the best

Joe Bell Professional Bicycle Refinishing Price List

TenGrainBread 

Nate Zukas PC's his own frames in his workshop.