tarwheel 

Have you had a frame powder-coated and regretted it? Ff you had it to do over again, would you have left the original finish intact or spent the extra money to have it professionally painted?

My touch-up paint attempts have not been as successful as I had hoped with my early 80s Sequoia. I'm also realizing that it would be easier and less expensive to get the frame repainted now, while it is stripped down, than having to dissemble, ship, repaint, and reassemble the bike later. I can get the frame powder-coated locally for about $200. Single-color professional paint jobs seem to start about $400. Decals add about $50 in either case.

fender1

Having done multiple re-paints and powder coatings in my time, I am inclined to do neither anymore. I am not that concerned about the historical aspects, I just think it ends up being money spent for no real appreciable gain. The bikes don't ride any better when painted/pc'd and then they just start to get scratched again if you use them. I now just touch up small areas with clear nail polish and move on.

streets

For durability you can't beat powder coating. I had my beater powder coated and it's very tough indeed. The downside of that though is, removing powder coat is damn hard going. Even shot blasting struggles to remove it and if you've got a frame with nice thin-gauge tubing you wouldn't want to expose it to the aggression required to take it off again.
Mind you, $200? In the UK I can get a frame blasted and powder coated for £30. If it wasn't so cheap I'd probably have them done by another method. Powder coating can sometimes be a little thick for leaving the details of nice lug work, for instance.

greg3rd48 

I had my U08 powdercoated about a year and a half ago then applied decals and I am still very happy with the results. It is my usual commuter bike and it is not coddled in the least and still looks great. I will not resell it and it is my bike and I am not concerned with any potential value. I say do whatever makes you happy. It is your bike and your money. $200 does seem a bit steep though. I did pay $100 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Pawlus

Wow those prices are high. I powder coated some frames in the past, but it was very cheap at about 30$ (which is 1/4th or 1/6th cost of pro car paint). It looked cheap and wasn't shiny so I definitely wouldn't powder coat my best frames. However it was cheap and nearly indestructible so I'd powder coat my work horse frame for sure.

rhm

I have lovingly (and laboriously) hand painted two frames, one of them twice; and spray bombed a few in the past; and when I consider the time spent (too much), the results (pretty good) and the durability (poor) I'd say it's not worth the cost savings. So more recently I paid to have one painted, and then two frames powder coated. When I consider the math there, it's something like this: does a $150 powder coat make a $50 frame into a $200 frame? I'd say no, it does not. The cost was greater than the value added; I'd have been better off buying a frame with better paint. On the other hand, in both cases I ended up with a durable coating on a bike I intend to keep and ride the heck out of. So it's okay.

I'm going to need to have another frame finished some time in the next month or three, and I have not decided how to finish it... chrome? Paint? Powder coat?

rccardr 

The prices you quoted are exactly the same as I see here in the DC area for quality work. Good powdercoat is very, very good, not thick, takes decals well, is glossy, looks great and protects the frame well. You can pay less, but you get what you pay for. A good powder coater, like a good painter, takes a lot of time and effort with prep. And there are chemical strippers that work with PC, so no need for an agressive blast job, if the guy is good at what he does and knows what he's doing. I tend to stay away from the lawn furniture guys and look for someone who does hot rod parts, military work, etc.

My travel bike, an 88 Cannondale ST, goes all over the country with me and the frame still looks as good today (several years and several thousand miles) as the day I built it up. I've probably built 35 bikes with powder coated frames and none have had any issues.

rhm

Ah! Something tells me that's good advice.

Velocivixen

It's hard to say. In the Portland Metro area frame & fork powder coat is from around $135 to $175. Some places will charge extra for sparkle clear coat over color or the like, and others won't. Liquid painting around here has a long wait & turn around time. PC is relatively cheap & durable.

I had my first R20 powder coated and I like it, although I don't care for the sparkle clear coat and wish I had chosen a different color.

Grand Bois

What is sparkle clear coat?

jefnvk

I had a quote on a frame and fork a while back, $175-200. That included all prep (besides mass scale degreasing, he kindly requested not bringing it in without at least wiping up the obvious stuff), and all cleanup including chasing threads, for two coats (color/clear). This was a shop that had experience in bikes, though. I had some cheaper quotes from the more industrial places. He didn't charge anything extra for ordering colors, as he didn't keep much stock, and had a catalog of 8000 different choices.

Ran out of time to get it done then, but still planning on doing it in the off season.

clasher

I powdercoated a miyata 1000 and I don't regret it. The original paint was buried under layers of spray paint and a hard finish that looked like that speckled black paint roasting pans used to be painted with. I took it to a good shop and they did lovely work on it. I've put a lot of km on it since then and the PC finish still looks great. If a new, durable finish will make you happy I say go for it. I also have a few bikes with chips and scratches in the paint that I very much enjoy in that state too so, however they are older and I have a sentimental thing for the original finish on them.

rgver

I recently had a frame PCed a candy blue, the frame was fillet brazed so no lug details to lose. It looks great and has taken decals really well. I had nothing to lose as the paint had been wrecked and badly brush painted over that. I'm very happy with how it looks although I can not comment on durability yet as I still need to build it up.

arex

+1. I doubt I'd spend the money on a powdercoat if I wasn't planning on keeping the bike in question.

noglider 

I've had two high-end frames repainted by bike painters before there was such a thing as powder coating. With the first, the painter said I could save money by doing the prep myself. He let me use his sandblaster and everything. It wasn't worth it, because I lost a day's pay that way.

I think @rhm's question is flawed. The question shouldn't be how much will the market of the frame be. If it's something you like and plan to keep, spend as much money as you want to have it the way you like. If the paint costs more than the frame is worth or more than you paid for it, that means you paid too little and should spend the money on the paint. I'm not saying all frames are worth painting; I'm saying that market value is just one factor in the decision, and if you really love it, you should see it as worth more than the market value.

arex

Basically what it sounds like. With multilayer powdercoats, the sparkly metal powder is generally in the top clearcoat, because the base color coat is too opaque for the sparkles to show through. Sometimes the clear top coat is tinted, as well, to get some special color effect, like a orange-tinted metallic clearcoat over a racing green basecoat, in order to get an approximation of the old Raleigh bronze-green metallic.

randyjawa 

Yes! Won't do that again. Could not even see the stamped serial number once done. And what happened to the Campagnolo stamping..?



Would I have a bike professionally painted - nope! I cannot afford to do so and, quite frankly, I prefer to do all of the work on a vintage bicycle restoration myself.

Lascauxcaveman 

Looks like you took yours to the lawn furniture guy.

PeregrineA1 

Contact RobbieTunes, he uses a guy near Wilson. I used him when I was in Raleigh and the results were very good. Thin enough to see the lugs and read the serial number. I think I paid around $125 in 2011.

tarwheel 

Great minds think alike! I had already sent a message to @RobbieTunes

eschlwc

B^)

i took my falcon to seattle powder coat.

they did a fine enough job. rather pleased.

ppg677

I'm a bit torn. Powder coating doesn't look as nice IMHO. It is simply terrible terrible to strip. And the one job I had done had crappy orange peel.

On the other hand, my recent $400 wet paint job just got scraped up on the chainstay due to a "chain suck" problem :-( I wonder if the toughness of powdercoat might have resisted.

JohnDThompson 

Andy_K 

I've had two frames powder coated. One was a brand new Surly that I just didn't like the color of. The other was a '93 (I think) Spec RockHopper.

Let me show you the Surly, because this will give you an idea of what is possible. I had this done by Brooker Enterprises in Portland. It cost me $100 plus another $25 to have them braze on a rear brake cable hanger. This was about 8 years ago, so their prices have likely gone up a bit.









I applied the decals myself. You can see a bit in the second picture how the powder coating can be thicker in places. I suspect this is especially noticeable with candy coats like this. It could definitely obscured frame details like logos stamed into the seat stays.

The frame eventually got a dull spot on the seat tube where it rubber the car rack I used to transport it, but I never saw the bare metal except at the drop outs.

I had the RockHopper coated at the same place and didn't put on any decals. It didn't come out looking as stunning, but I think that's mostly down to color choice. It did come out looking way better than before it was coated.




As for cost, I can't imagine you'd ever get the money out of it re-selling. For me it was a matter of whether or not it was worth the money to me personally to have a nicer looking bike, and it was.

arex

I'm pretty sold on powdercoating, though admittedly the appearance isn't nice enough for a show-quality truly-classic bike. It can sure take a beating, though, compared to paint.