davei1980

Can you/should you powder coat a bike frame?

alan s 

You could, you should powdercoat. Been reading Dr. Suess lately?

davei1980

Aluminum ok? And yes, I have 4 kids!

Alligator

Yes. I know someone who restored a bike and powder coated the frame. It is a very, very tough paint job and looks incredible. Just make sure you cover openings where other parts need to fit as the paint can be thick and change critical dimensions.

StarBiker

My Girlfriend always liked Hop On Pop.

CrankyOne

Dutch bikes like Workcycles and Azor are powder coated. Much more durable than other options. Azor has rust boxes with very salty air and salt water sprayers. Even frames with deep gouges in them only rust at the gouge with the rest of the powder coat maintaining its integrity.

Craptacular8

We had an aluminum frame/cromo fork bike media blasted and powder coated by a local shop earlier this year. We made sure that we had something in any of the braze on attachments so that they wouldn't potentially get clogged up during the powder coating process. Turned out absolutely beautiful. We had reproduction vintage decals re-applied with clear coate over them, can not tell that it isn't a brand new bike....of course it was getting all new components, so it IS a brand new 1989 bike, lol.

Aubergine 

I have powder coated several steel bikes and am very pleased with the results.

irwin7638

I had my TREK 560 powdercoated then detailed the headtube and lugwork with Testors. It turned out very nice. It certainly is a durable finish.



Marc

fietsbob

step 1 ) Blast the metal clean , don't touch it, skin oils are going to make the finish uneven.

The powder, a plastic, is stuck to the metal by electro static clinging.. then its melted in an oven to Pizza scorching temperatures.

can /should you? I Don't know about you, industry uses powder coat, a lot, now.




....

davei1980

What's a fair price to expect?

dedhed

I paid $75 one color.

fietsbob

get a lot of things done at once,, the power to make the heat is the expensive part.

davei1980

I was thinking about calling a couple shops and seeing if they would throw it in with somebody else's larger job like a car frame for some outdoor furniture. I plan on doing white so that's a pretty common color so hoping that I can find a "piggyback" job to go with it

AlmostTrick

Purest don't like powder coat because it is thicker than regular paint. It will fill minor details like any cut outs in lug work, or similar.

Having said that, I've had several frames/forks powder coated and was always very happy with the results. Cost was around a hundred $... a bit more for extra top coats, (clear with sparkle, etc.) but wow did they turn out nice! The cost always included sandblasting the old finish off.

Find a shop that regularly does bike frames and you have nothing to worry about. They know what to block off and how to do it.

RubeRad

I heard auto body shops can powdercoat quickly/easily/cheaply

Korina

I was thinking that, as there is an auto body shop almost a block from home. So tempting.

RubeRad

You would need to strip all the parts off, and clean off grease and stuff, maybe even take a stiff wire brush to it.

davei1980

Purist I am not - I am building an everyday rider, a utility device, not a collector's item.


That said, what's lug work? And, for that matter, what does "triple butted" refer to?

RubeRad

In irwin's big pic above, the pieces of metal that are stamped 'TREK' are lugs; pieces of metal that receive the main tubes. It's the old-school way of making bike frames that has been replaced by directly welding the tubes together (except for a small number of craft/custom frame makers). Sometimes people like to highlight that their bike has lugs by painting them a contrasting color, or painting their edges. Sometimes lugs have shapes punched out to reflect branding, like Colnago would have a club/clover. AlmostTrick is saying the powder coating being thick would fill in those details and make them less visible. Or again in irwin's example, the 'TREK' might become illegible, and maybe just be an oval dimple.

Butting refers to tubing that has different thicknesses, usually thicker at the ends for welding and strength, thinner in the middle. Double-butted is thicker on both ends. Triple-butted is double-butted with the two ends being different thicknesses. Here's a good explanation.

And this is worth a thousand words:

InTheRain

I had stainless steel fenders powder coated. Still running strong in the wet conditions of western Washington after 10 years.

davei1980

I lived in Bothell for 1 year and loved it!

Bike Gremlin

+1

It leaves a rather thick layer of coat.

This is my winter, powder coated, "project". Planed to clear the threads, but didn't put headset cups before powder coating, so had to use some sand paper to remove a bit of paint before mounting new headset. Had to do the same for down tube shifter mounts.

White arrow - vintage road bike project - Cycle Gremlin

davei1980

looks like a badass project! Great job!

dim

powder coating looks dull to me .... have your frame sandblasted/cleaned, the take it to a car bodyshop/pannelbeaters and have then spray/paint it then they add the decals and add a clear coat ontop

class .... a proper job but only do this if you a have good frame