Yet another: Powdercoating question
 

So you sand down a somewhat rust-eaten frame, and it's got some pits of varying sizes. You send it to the powder coater, they sandblast it and coat it. It comes home. The new condition of the frame is:

A) All the pits are filled in and the surface of the frame is smooth and beautiful, via the magic of powder coat, which seeks its own level, like water.

B) The smaller pits fill in completely, but the bigger ones now appear as little dimples in the finish. It's not as good a finish as you could get with epoxy and paint. But the bike looks better than it did before, and at least it doesn't keep rusting.

C) Your bike looks like the surface of the moon, only less dusty, and one uniform color. It looks awful, but at least it doesn't keep rusting.

Eric

I got one of my old roadies powdercoated a while back. It turned out fantastic. No dimples, pitting or surface of the moon that you speak of. Just a nice, smooth durable gleaning finish...

If the metal is actually pitted you will see pits. If it is pits from the paint coming off that will be removed when they sand blast the bike. In this area they are going to blast the bike no matter how you bring it in because they cannot see your finger prints on the bare metal. If they were to coat the bike without cleaning every place you touched the bike would show up as a flaw. In this area you will get charged for the blasting as part of the price. Roger

Thanks, rhenning. Yes, I'm talking about the metal being a pitty party. I'm assuming they will sandblast it. The frame I have in mind I have already sanded down myself (removing both rust and old powder coat) in anticipation of painting it myself. The sanding has improved the pitting somewhat, but not altogether.

Leigh- do you have before and after pics?

I believe that there are some metal based fillers that powder coat will adhere to. If the pits are that deep ask you powder coater about it.

You may want to treat the inside of the tubes withthat rust stoper stuff. I forget the name of it. Try to find a place that does auto parts thay should has some experience with pitting.