Frame Painter Recommendations?
 

I'll be attending United Bicycle Institute's chromoly brazing class this month, and coming out of it with a new lugged touring frame! Very excited.

Anyway, the frame will be bare, and I don't know where to start looking for a paint job. Definitely want a decent professional job, but nothing super fancy. I'm located in New Orleans, LA, but doubt there's much around here for frame painters. Any recommendations? I'd be willing to ship if necessary. Thanks,

-Brian

Man, if you built the frame, then you should paint it. It's not that difficult or expensive to do it yourself. Get a detail auto paint gun and practice.

I would drop it off here:

http://www.keithandersoncycles.com/K...on_Cycles.html

+1

if only to shake his hand for doing that 'Fred(dy) Mertz / Eddy Merckx' frame...hilarious!:lol:
plus his 'serious' painting ain't bad, either!

No offense...but...I wouldn't pay a lot to have your first frame painted...better to be able to easily/cheaply deal with mistakes/corrections/repairs.

The suggestion to try your hand at painting the frame as well is a good one.

If you're gonna pay to have it painted find a shop that paints custom "harleys", as at least they have some experience painting tubular frames.

My 2c.

If I were you I would get a professional (but not stoopid-expensive) wet paintjob. I'd recommend Chris Kvale in Minneapolis, or maybe Ed Litton in California, but there are a lot of others. Some very good $300 paintjobs are available out there, with a little search work.

Please DO NOT get a cheap powder-coat paint job.

+1

Chris Kvale will do my paint work till he retires.

That is expensive bicycle finishing. I'm sure it is top of the line but out of my price range.

How about Peter Weigle? Or does he do only restorations and his own frames?

Why give your own work a discount paint job?

Peter is on the other coast essentially, in this case why spend extra on cross country freight?

Home built frame deserves a home paint job too...

Here is a good paint: http://://www.bikeforums.net/showthr...int?highlight=

Let me know if I can help you design a Gettocal logo - I would be happy to do it: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...light=gettocal

Because it's only money? Makes sense to me! ;)

I may be a dissenter here but a GOOD powder-coater can give your bike a nice "paint" job for $100 or less - particularly since your bike doesn't need extensive prep. Plenty of custom steel builders use powder and when done properly powder can look as good as paint (metal flake being an exception) and will be more durable. If you go this route make sure that the powder-coater has lots of experience with bikes. As mentioned previously, round tubes, lugs, and the numerous threaded bits give the inexperienced guys a lot of room to f_ck up.

I was thinking time, and I would much prefer speaking in person to the painter. But I did not spell that out exactly.

Powder coating vs. wet paint has been debated here very often.
The chances of an inexpensive powder coat job being as effective at preventing corrosion as a professional wet coat paint job are not that great.
It's in the physics of the film thickness, and porosity of the coating layer vs. layers.
I have stripped three powder coat jobs, and have one to do. The one on the to do list I know will have rust below. the others did not SHOW rust, but it was really evident upon chemical stripping.
The failure was from small essentially microscopic holes or bubbles in the coating that allowed moisture to enter over time. Also, maintaining film thickness at sharp edges is not going to happen unless the part is well over coated to the point of hiding detail, its in the physics of how the powder changed phase over time.
A multicoat powder job should be effective, but the chances of hiding detail rise much. And the costs increase.
Maybe on a lugless frame.

The concept of doing your own paint is directly dependent on your long term plans to use the sunk cost equipment repeatedly and your ability to devote time and energy to the task. And have a place to do it.

you can hurt (or kill) yourself trying to use pro paints. Depending on what you get, it's not unheard-of to spend $10k getting to the point where you can paint a bike, and paint in small quantities costs around $200 for a frame. BITD, framebuilding included painting, and I love to paint. But I have decided that I'm not going to invest the money for the painting equipment right now. I'd rather spend what it takes to get a pro do it.

My guy: http://www.porkchopcustoms.com/discography.html

If I ever get another Y-Foil, he's doing it in purple with flames.

+1000 (due to inflation...).

Two words, Benjamin (i.e. OP, which was not Dane): Chris Kvale.

my Diblasi folder was powdercoated from new, that film lasted no more then one year in the marine enviroment before the flaking and rust started under the paint.

sure it is quick and cheap- that is why the cheap frames are done this way- saves money for the manufacturer, hard as iron to clean off threads,
cant touch it up,
cant repair it,
no rust protection,
fades fast

why dont people listen!

http://photos.svhelloworld.com/2012/.../IMG2118-M.jpg

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...N_0XYz4TkmR7dz

I've seen the same thing in non-bicycle applications. To be fair, though, even professionally applied paint fails. Just look at all the cars on the road with peeling clearcoats. I have a prime example sitting in my driveway.