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Perfect, thank you for the comprehensive reply.
I may be in touch in the future. The frame I'd want done isn't built yet but I'd like it just raw steel as built and clear coated, no polishing just protecting.
I'll also have another 2 frames done hopefully by the end of this year that I'd just like in a single colour gloss finish. So I'll contact you about those too.
Are Cole coatings and Quinntessential 2 separate entities? and are you involved with both?
PhilDAS-
Any time.
If you just want a flat/solid single colour gloss finish on steel/aluminium, you're always better with a powdercoater (who knows what they're doing). powder is far tougher than wet-spray products.
If you're looking for fruiter stuff like metallics etc AND you have carbon forks then wet-spraying is your guy.
Cole and Quinntessential are two wholly separate things.
Cole Coatings Workshop is Dan and myself.
We work on anything that we can fit in the booth but based on our job commitments, we're only painting things we've designed; we don't have time for much else sadly.Quinntessential is Paul Quinn, former Cole Coatings Workshop apprentice.
I also work on Paul's designs, customer comms, polishing, detailing, airbrushing etc.Both use the same space but Paul is there full time so he can tackle more stuff.
general_greyharbour
If you're happy to accept that the clearcoat itself contains to anti-corrosion chemicals, then the answer is "yes".
EP or ED coatings are great for protecting steel.
Some brands do it as standard before paint.
If you go down the route of having the raw substrate cleared, I'd recommend utilising some kind of brushed effect on the surface of the metal. This will help clean the substrate and remove any contaminants likely to be the root of rusting and it will provide a key or 'tooth' for the product to bond with.
Having a high-polished or even slightly buffed steel frame clearcoated can look great but the product is just sitting on the top and it will flake off if you look at it funny... like all the old cromovelato ones you've seen after a ride or two.
We can also add inks/dyes/candies/flakes to the clearcoat so you can add just the smallest flourish.
If you want to include branding to the design, we'd apply the direct adhesion clear, key it, airbrush the graphics on, then clear and polish it as normal.
At the minute, Cole Coatings Workshop is only painting our own designs a few times a year because Dan and I have have other commitments but to have Paul at Quinntessential do it for you, it'd be £150 flat if the bike arrived in the condition you'd like it to be preserved in.
If I'm not mistaken, some powdercoaters might be willing to give you a clear powder direct to the steel, it would be potentially cheaper but this might not strictly be 100% clear and could look a bit nicotine stained in appearance.
Hope that helps.