Originally Posted by
bargainguy
$275 for powdercoating a frame/fork seems kinda steep.
Like many others here, I've done DIY frame painting a few times. It's just like any other painting job - everything depends on prep. It's definitely doable, but more time and effort than most people want to put into a home project. My only recommendation there would be to have the frame media blasted first, lot easier than stripping it yourself.
$275 is too much for a powdercoating job, half of that amount sounds more typical for my area.
If you're going to go through all the trouble of sanding, primering, paint matching, fixing mistakes, etc., just to do a partial paint job, that's probably more work than just stripping the entire frame and painting it all at once (though at least you probably won't need new decals). If you're any sort of perfectionist, you probably won't be happy with the results. Exact paint matching is extremely hard to do well, and there will always be certain kinds of light when the color won't quite match.
Stripping paint using chemical stripper is not that hard, though you will need a wire brush for nooks and crannies. And some good rubber gloves to avoid chemical burns. Or just have the powdercoater media blast the frame.