Mario Vaz resprays

kind of.

in the past, enamel were pretty tough, take any old frame and it's not easy to try and chip it, but due to Health and Safety (and quite rightly so), the enamel nowadays are very weak, so even the slightest touch can chip a frame nowadays.

Yes.,..however the equivalent of powder coating was *stove *enamalling which was different to just painting it and air drying, even if the frames had been heated, it was only a slight cooking similar to how you do two pack now. It was enamel that was used and not paint per se, air drying paint being different to 'cooking' enamel. The propellant in the paint (thinners) has a different content level and the faster you cure the paint the better the shine, it 'freezes wetter'...ie more glossy.

Usually things were painted using 'standard' paint then heating it, ie spray with a gun then send through an open oven or use heat lamps, where as stove enamalling was heated to 120c in a closed oven (which is damned hot....)
The differences in the toxicity of 'paint' has also affected the enamel which is used in stove enamalling, as well as 'standard' cellulose. Other finishes that came about ie acrylic, two pack were 'harder' paints though harder to apply (acrylic being very wet and easy to run, two pack being as toxic as fuck...
Powder coating was never a paint as such, it was an industrial coating that was very hard, though not that good a 'finish' (ie thick, heavy, hard to polish, not able to blend well, add detailing...where as enamel you could keep adding details and then recook)
These changes have led to it becoming very chippable where as before, pretty much any old cellulose paint was really quite tough, it would scratch rather than 'chip'...when you scratch two pack paint it 'fractures' like glass, this is similar to stove enamel, where as powder coat will almost dent, as it is more like plastic and not 'paint'.

I apologise for the terrible grammar. Only a little though, it's a comment about paint not shakespeare.