Dropped my frame off at the powder coaters here in Lawrence today for a much needed refinish. I decided to go with signal white as it was the brightest white they had in stock. Should look good. I need to figure out what I'm going to do about new tires. Thinking Gatorskins from PBK, any thoughts?

Also, has anybody ordered a set of decals from Vintage Cannondale recently. I ordered a black set yesterday and haven't heard anything, not that I expected to yet though. Mostly I am just wondering if others have been happy with them and what I should expect in terms of wait time. I guess decals are not that big of deal just going to delay me posting pictures.

Just excited to get it back and built up.

if it's any consolation, any rattlecan job (my refinish of choice) takes a month to cure. im sure you can get everything in order in the same amount of time.

Very true. I should have everything by the end of next week I think.

PS is that your bike as the avatar? Looks awesome.

it's a miyata 1000 chrome fork i picked up at a swap meet for $10. it was NOS and beautiful.

i have a miyata 1000, but that fork was too short unfortunately. i ended up selling the fork for a nice profit.

Conti Gator skins on their way across the pond.

Where did you take it in Lawrence to get it powdercoated? And how much are they charging?

Custom Coatings and Metal in North Lawrence for 100 bucks they are blasting and coating. I'm curious to see how it turns out. Email with them is spotty but I expected it with a shop like that. We will see how it goes, they did have a really awesome shop cat though. I was quoted a week, much better than the last frame I had coated, that one took like 5 months.

Thanks. That sound pretty reasonable. If it turns out good I'll keep them in mind in case I ever wasn't to get a bike powder coated.

Here is an idea of what I am starting with. Threads with out pictures suck.

Got my frame back from the powder coaters today. They did a good job of masking everything but somehow missed the seat tube. Not a huge deal just needs to be reamed. Going to drop it off at the shop tomorrow to have the new fork and headset installed. Might be slow going on this one as I am trying to get a car ready to sell at the same time.

Pictures!?!

I'm thinking I might have my 2.8 frame coated at some point, the factory paint is starting to give up the fight in a couple spots.

I cant wait to see how they did, post picks soon!

I put black Cannondale decals on a polished R800. They took about 10 days to get, and no clear was necessary. Take your time measuring and mounting, or else it'll bug you to no end....

So.

I have some issues. I took it to the shop and when I was taking it out of the car I noticed what I thought were scratches on the top tube that were not there when I left the apartment. We checked the car and there were no sharp metal edges and nothing really that seemed like it should be able to scratch a powder coat. I had the guys at the shop looking at it and they thought it looked like it had flexed and cracked the paint or possibly that there was grease or dirt that didn't get cleaned off of the frame. It was too uniform and too light to be scratches. We also looked it over some and found a few more places that looked like it was cracking. I have it sitting on the back porch to see if being in the heat is causing the problem. I can't get it back to the coaters until Wednesday so we will see what happens in the mean time.

Has anybody else heard of this happening? I am pretty bummed. I was excited to get my bike built back up.

Here is a pic of the defect. There is grime smeared across it so I could get it to show up on the pictures. This is how I noticed it in the first place. The grease can be wiped out with some degreaser. Its t he shape of it that bugs me. Its like all of the lines could form complete circles if they continued. Click on the image for a giant full size shot.

To be honest...a REALLY good powder coat guy is hard to find. I pay about double what you do but my guy gives me perfection every time.

Re: Vintage Cannondale decals- Brian is a classsy guy, responds VERY quickly send stuff out right away. I have purchased untold sets of decals from him (you can thank me for the availability of red now, I think) and they are...flawless.

oily fingerprints?

That is possible I hadn't thought of that.

To me it looks like the powder has stretched and formed little channels that the grease fill in the picture.

Do you guys think I have a legitimate complaint or am I just being really nit picky?

i know $100 for a powdercoat is on the cheap side, but if i spent $100 on anything i would want it done right. i would just talk to them. maybe its worth $20 off to you and to them. maybe they will want to do it over...

however, getting your first defect/scratch out of the way can ease up your angst and get you on the bike and riding without worry about it.

Thats basically my sentiments and I am more worried about i being a deeper seeded problem and it propagating than about it being a scratch, you know what I mean.

WNG has an interesting point, It almost looks like a thumbprint to me.

UPDATE
Alright, all is well now. I am actually fairly pissed at myself for being so petty as I could have the bike back from the shop today if I hadn't of been so worried about the powder.

I did wind up talking it back to the coater's and they really were not super helpful and thought it was a scratch. I can't for the life of me think of how I might have done it but whatever. I grabbed some 2000 grit and wet sanded it and then hit it with some polishing compound. There is one small mark now that is deeper than I wanted to risk sanding but nobody would notice and I would have a hard time finding it to point out.

The guys at the LBS are awesome and are going to get my frame back to me tomorrow or Friday rather than a week from now. Not only that but they had the Cannondale cable guides in stock. So a big thanks to Sunflower Outdoor and Bike here in Lawrence to give credit where credit is due.

Update 2. So once again the guys at Sunflower are awesome. They called me about 20min before 7 and told me that they got it done and they even stuck around for a few minutes after they were closed so I could pick it up. I was a little late because I stopped to pick them up some beer.

I have work to do for class tomorrow and I bolted up few things but have to force myself not to do it tonight. I almost wish they would have called me tomorrow.

Teaser.