Hollow Leg’s Bikes (Mason Resolution, Dolan Tarck Bikes, Brompton, Local Framebuilder Specials; Fixed & Gravel)

I'll try and do that where ossible, also will try and tack in multiple places but then it's a balance of more tacks = less places to start that are away from tacks.

@vthejk for me, powdercoating seems to be a common denominator in frames needing repaired. I think there are multiple reasons this could be the case,
1) There's no anticorrosive propertiers to most powdercoat jobs. It is possible to add things to the powder or to prime the metal but most of us are going to coaters more used to doing garden gates and radiators and they aren't offering these things.
2) Powdercoat does a really good job of sealing your frame away from the elements...until it doesn't. Then it does a really good job of holding onto moisture and hiding what that moisture is doing to your frame from you. It could be a flaw in the original coating job (see garden gate powdercoaters who aren't doing amazing quality of work) or some damage inflicted upon the coating as you use the bike but one water gets in there it can travel under the powdercoat and sit around in there.
3) Damage caused at the prep stage. I've spoken to platers and sheet metal workers who have said you can't just blast one side of a sheet because the blasting basically hammers the metal and spreads it out so your sheet/plate gets all warped, you have to blast the other side to get it flat again. I can see correlation between this and frames that have been blasted, coated and have then cracked. Again, most of us will be dealing with coaters that are used to blasting paint and rust off of garden gates not thin walled cycle tubing so while I recognise this is something that doesn't have to be a problem (do it with the right pressure,media and care) I think it commonly is.

If you look at a raw clear coated frame this is what’s happening under your powder coat. That enough for me to use wet paint.

Yeah totally.

I remember bitd reading/hearing some kind of statement along the lines of “No framebuilder worth their salt will do a clearcoat finish” but I think that at least with clear coat you can see what’s going on.

Oh my. Well you’ll never guess what kind of powder coat mine has…..
Super interesting though, I’ll do some digging. There have been the odd ding or two to the coat in the last two years or so but I’ve never noticed it materialise into anything else. Like you say, at least with a clear coat it’s right in front of you!

@M_V This is very interesting and I think you raise some good points that, to be honest, I’ve never considered before.

Luckily Matt has offered to paint them for us which now seems like a much better option than powder coating. We don’t want anything fancy, just a single colour for each frame and fork. We will also send the frames off to get ED coated for extra protection.

I’m now working my way through the hundreds of photos I took with my camera…

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Great photos. Are you planning to keep the fillets raw or file them in your own time?

We are going to leave the fillets on the main triangle raw and Matt is going to tidy up any braze ons that need it. Matt was very much of the mindset that these are the first frames we have brazed and we should proudly show our fillets in all their glory.

Excellent, that makes a lot of sense. Looking forward to seeing them built up!