Who can powdercoat a steel frame for a decent price?
 

A body shop perhaps? How much would I expect to pay?
Alternatives?:o

There are dozens of decent powder coat shops in the 818; just grab a Yellow Pages.

Most charge around $100 and that includes blasting to strip the old finish (the worst part).

Some offer extras like multiple colors or metal flake.

Or, stop into your LBS and ask if they have any favorites; most good shops do.

OOPS! Powdercoat I meant!

If you choose a color that the shop does alot of (black, red, etc.) and strip the frame your self you could get it done for as low as $20

Go ask your LBS for their favorite. Usually they know the people that do the best work. Or you can ask one of the "gear heads" that have done some really good cars in your area.

There are several powder coaters in THIS THREAD.

Local guy here in Florida charges $125.00 to strip, chemical mask threads, and powder coat. Won't help you but gives a second price close to the one posted above to go by.

Fixed that for you.

If you do powdercoat, BE SURE to add a clear coat of good paint, like Imron, on top to waterproof it. Powdercoats have pores in them that water can get through to rust the metal underneath causing the powdercoat to flake off. NO kidding, this comes from both builders and painters

I've had it done recently for $35, but I sanded it down first.

New one to me. So, what I will need shortly is a guy that coats and would paint. I am in CO. Springs, anybody recommended?

There is some guy from Portland that is known nationally, but I can't remember his name...

If I was to disassemble my drive train, wheels, brakes, handlebars, who is the best powder coater to ship my steel frame to in the USA?

Hey Scrub. . .

>>> chemical mask threads

What that?

Well that's news to me.

Why would you want to increase your price by 50% instead of doing it locally?

There has to be someone near Hollywood that can do a good powder coat.

With round trip shipping of a frame ($60+), unless there is an epidemic of poor powder coaters that I haven't heard of, I wouldn't ship unless I couldn't find a reputable local powder coater.

For paint, that could be a little different since the cost of a paint job (let's say $400+) means that you're only paying less than 15% of the total cost to ship. And I would pay a 15% premium to get a painter with a great reputation.

This is the first time I've heard of this.
I will need to investigate this one since I can't comprehend how powdercoats are porous. A poor prep job and or bake can result in flaking.

Can this be misinformation spread by those feeling a threat to their business?
;)

I agree with looking for a local powder coater in the Yellow Pages. Have the frame sandblasted/bead blasted before powder coating and make sure that the person doing the sandblasted has experience with bicycles because you can easily go through a tube with aggressive sandblasting.

Yep, new one to me too? Paint is more more porous than powder? Powdercoat is a lot like a melted on plastic. Also if you clearcoat powder, you will lose the surface durability. Unless you're clearing for decal retension, what's the point of using powder to begin with?,,,,BD


That's the whole deal about having to clearcoat over the decals. The decal glue has no pores to grip to on the powder.

Poor prep is never a good idea, and a clearcoat IS a good idea! :D

What I've found is that powdercoating tends to pull back from sharp edges when baked. This leaves the very edge with very little material covering it, and that's where rust and delamination can start to occur.
So a couple of coats of good automotive clear and you're all set.

Bulletproof AND beautiful!

2 notes...
1) A metallic or pearl colored powdercoat must be cleared over! Either a clear PC or clear auto paint.
~The little metal or pearl flakes sit right on the surface, and if there is no clear, then cable housing etc can rub those flakes off. :(

2) To spray auto clear over powdercoating, the only prep you need to do is clean the frame with Wax & Grease Remover. NO sanding needed!
~The clear will chemically adhere to the PC.

And a PS...If you need to REMOVE POWDERCOATING,...it WILL come off fairly easily with chemical stripper.
The gnarlier, the better!
Wear gloves!
But it will come off, just like paint.

If you try to abrade PC with sanding, blasting, grinding etc, you can easily damage your frame.
Or wear youself out for nuthin'!

Use the chemicals!...Use the chemicals!...Use the chem.......

+1

You live in Southern California, the undisputed car customization capital of the world.

In case you didn't catch my meaning, "the 818" refers to the San Fernando Valley (aka: "The Valley") about 20 minutes from Hollyweird (2 hours during rush hour), perhaps the largest shopping center ever, especially for parts and services.

Don't believe me? There's an auto parts shop that specializes in Nash Metropolitans (remember those funny little cars with the spare tire on the trunk?); that's all they sell. I also know of two shops that will restore old automotive wire wheels (Dunlops, Borranis, etc; and you thought truing a MAVIC Ksyrium was hard!).

All this car stuff trickles down to bicycles. Chatsworth and Northridge have many powder coating shops that know what they are doing so, again, grab an 818 area code Yellow Pages and call a few.

Trust the force.

If you don't mind driving down to orange county, olympic powdercoating in orange will charge you $90 to strip and coat your frame in any of about 40 standard colors. An extra $20 will get you textured or sparkly colors.

edit: The other nice thing about olympic is that they have been doing bikes for many, many years, including some OEM work, so they know their way around a bike. Not that big an issue, but also being a car guy, i wouldn't want some of those car-types manhandling on of my bike frames.

I've got at least 4 powdercoated frames in the garage. None of them are rusting on sharp edges.:D I've also seen clearcoated frames rubbed right down to bare metal where cable housing rubs. The only way I've seen to avoid rub through is those clear adhesive "guards". Not trying to argue here, but the only powdercoated items I've seen rusting, are tubular truck steps up North. They don't powder the insides, hehe.,,,,BD

(California)

Local bike shops here in HB recommend 2 locals. I have a quote for doing my tandem from Primo:

The 2nd place is:

http://www.specializedcoating.com/

I dont yet have a quote from them, hopefully soon.

I think its a pretty good price for a large bike:

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...Bikes/tan3.jpg

Here is the bike Im getting bids on.

Oops, sorry didnt look at the dates. Mabee someone will still use the info ...