How do you guys prep your frame sets for powder coating?

I take all the components off. The rest is up to the p/c shop. The guys in Queens who did my Trek did a gorgeous job. The guys in Trenton who did my Falcon did a crap job. Same price.

Most powdercoaters do all the work. If your bike has stick on vinyl decals though, peel or scrape them off, and use acetone or some other solvent to remove all signs of adhesive. I had one place blast the paint off, left the adhesive, and powdered over it. Also scrub every tiny speck of grease and dirt off of it.,,,,BD

I hope you didn't pay them.

I was worried about blasting the thin tubing, so I went to the trouble of chemical stripping. Then the guy told me he was going to lightly blast it anyway - he called it "dusting" to make sure he had a thoroughly clean surface for the bond.

If you have any doubts about their experience with bikes, make sure you put bolts in eyelets, bottle bosses, etc. and tape off the crown race and BB threads. A good shop with experience will probably do this stuff for you.

is $150 to much to pay? This includes all the prep work from an accredited shop. I offered to strip the paint but they prefer to do it themselves.

If you have seen examples of their work, ideally something they did several years ago, it doesn't seem unfair. I paid less and it's OK, not perfect. I have also heard of $200+ jobs. If it's quality work that lasts 20 years, a few dollars here or there isn't going to mean much ultimately.

Pretty typical rate, depending on your area.

Sorry $150 cdn $122 us.

Both frames I've had done were $120US, one a metallic and the other one not.

$150 seems like a good price- I looked around Toronto a bit and only found way more expensive options. In the end I just did my own rattle can job because that's all I really wanted and needed.

May I ask who offers this price?

Let the shop do all the prep work, but make sure they understand about keeping the powder off the threaded surfaces (Bottom bracket, top of steerer tube). If they do a lot of bikes, they will already know this, of course. If they don't often do bikes; they might not.

Hand a completely stripped frame and fork over and then lots of discussion and mutual agreement on process. Taping off chrome, filling in threaded holes with the high temp wax they use or taping off completely in the case of larger threaded tube openings, sand blasting the ID of tubing where possible, etc. they need to do a LOT to do a good job particularly if your prior paint job is pock marked with rust or you have corrosion in your bottom bracket, head tube, or other areas that will create a border with your coating. I hand sand mine down in trouble spits with a medium grit if I can see visible rust before I hand it over for media blasting.

Scrubbing the frame with solvents is useless. The best preparation by far is sandblasting. Painting must be done within about an hour of surface prep.

The more you can do for my coater, the better he'll treat you. I buy the $6 can of stripper and go at it, just to save him a little time blasting, and to identify any potential problem areas. My guy does not mask. I mask and prep what needs to be done, and he gives me a good blast and coat for a good price. He's not a bike guy at all.

I've learned that he's better at some colors than others, or perhaps some just cover better, thinner, etc. He's best at red; probably all the Farm-All work he gets,...

My powdercoater only requires the frames to be bare of extra parts, and preferably with any stickers peeled off. An unmolested coat of paint is easier to media-blast off than paint and stripper residue. He does all the masking, and does so perfectly, no slop or overspray...he knows exactly what needs to be masked, he's done a lot of bikes.

Given all the different stories people are giving, OP needs to talk to his powdercoater first to see what he/she prefers to receive.

Never had anything powder coated before, but I've heard that it's good not to let the coating into any threads or threaded holes, as you will have a hard time threading anything on to the frame (bottom brackets, rear derailleur mounts, water bottle mounting bolts, fender and rack stays on rear dropouts,.....etc..) being that PC has quite a bit of thickness to it and is quite hard to take off....
So remind your powdercoating to block off those holes before they apply the finish. It could even be a problem with unthreaded holes on the frame where a close tolerance slip fit for components is required, like the brake caliper pivot bolt hole on the fork and seat stay bridge, so protect those from powdercoating too. Same with downtube shifter bosses, you can't have powdercoating on those and in their threaded shift lever mounting holes.

howdy
here's my prefered prep method:
1. chemically strip (then wash, nasty stuff)
2. some 80~120 grit emery clothe to get the tough stuff (wear a dust mask, for cryin' out loud)
3. sand blast to get in the tight corners (everyone already said cover the threads, so no need to repeat that)
- i don't like the sand blast because, as mentioned, nice frames are thin walled tubes. So a 'dusting' seems like a phrase indicating the painter is finalizing a nice consistent surface to give a consistent paint finish.
4. Wash with TSP to get any oils from my hands washed away.
5. Pre-bake to completely dry the frame. At least 150C.
6. REALLY clean the spray booth, so nothing falls off the rack on to the frame into the freshly applied powder. (ggrrrr! that happened on a Gunnar I just coated - i'm still mad. not happy with the results. a few pics in the link below)
7. Coat at a low volt setting; second coat at a higher voltage
- maybe a more experienced person will comment about doing a second coat after baking the first coat. I DID NOT do that on the first 2 frames I tried, but the third (the Gunnar) I did. I'm still the most happy with the blue Nishiki (badge Detroit Bikes) in the link below.

Thanks for reading!
First few bikes: Nishiki turned blue; Raleigh turned green; Peugeot on deck.
Third Bike: Gunnar turned desert sand; Cannondale in the dug out.

Do you care to name the guy in Queens?

Last winter I actually used a shop in Williamsburg, BK on my Pug U08 and they did a fantastic job. I prepped the bike by cleaning it thoroughly and removing all the components minus the headset cups. They masked them off perfectly for the blast and powder coat. The decals were ruined and I was replacing them with new decals so I did not have to consider that. Their quality work for $100 in NYC really was a great deal.

Yes, that's correct. Add things like canti studs and fork crown to the list of things to mask off. It's a hassle to remove the powder coat from those areas if they're not masked off, but it's not an insurmountable problem. Chasing with a tap or die should clean up threads pretty easily. I've used a utility knife, emory board, and sandpaper for non-threaded spots.

I had a frame & fork blasted and powder coated locally for $50 this past spring. They did a decent enough job, especially considering the price tag. I've got a few other projects (bikes and other stuff) to send their way.

Skydog, where are you in Upstate NY? It might be worthwhile to make a trip from Ottawa as I have a few bikes that I'd like to have done and the price is definitely right.

Cheers, PK

How do Decals adhere to powder coating? I notice on H Lloyd Cycle site they issue a warning against powder coating.

H. Lloyd's FAQ advice is that decals need an overcoat for durability, and that powdercoaters don't "do" such clear coat; may or may not be able to handle overcoating with some other product.
H Lloyd Cycles - FAQ's. PLEASE READ!

Durability being that there aren't as many tiny pores in powder, for the decal glue to adhere to. They begin to peel sooner or later. If they are vinyl press on decals, you'll have no problems at all.,,,,BD