Think twice about using colourtech for reprays

I recently used colourtech (in crayford) to respary my frame and i wanted to share my experiences with others.

The reason i used them was becasue of the dodgy reviews about vaz and the hassell of getting frame sent to bob jackson or mercian; colourtech is a 30min train journey rom london bridge. also, condor and widcomb use them + teh guy seemed very helpful and friendly.

Price to get a (7) braze-ons off, reprayed in a metalic colour and to get all the lugs lined came to what i thought was a litte dearer than expected £130. But i thought "F*ck it. i'll get a good job done"

I got the frame back after (just over) three weeks and on the face of it the finish was amazing. on closer inspection the lug linning was't perfect. When i called to ask about the it, instead of offering to have a look at it and maybe touching it up, all i got was (polite) excuses and even when pushed i felt somewhat fobbed off. he blamed my frame - which is a poor excuse given that the problem with the lining was that (albeit it was only at one point) it varied in thickness.

secondly after dropping a 4mm allan key 20-30cm, a 3mm chunk of paint chipped. Now i know that was my fault for dropping the allan key but i wouldn;t have expected such a big chip. I;ve bashed the end of my chain on other frames and haven;t had chips.

and finally, he lost the bottom bracket that i had on the bike (to be honest i was going to chuck it anyway so i;m not to bothered about that but i thought it seemed pertinent to mention since i was having a moan)

all in all, the frame does look good and perhaps i am being a bit picky but at the end of the day i did hand over £130 and the service wasn;t 100%. i;d therefore recommend that people bare this review in mind when decided who to use for their resprays.

i think this is a better place then any to review such companies...im sorry to hear of the poor service.

probably little consolationd to you now fella but the guys at mercian advised me to leave the newly sprayed frame for 3-4 weeks before building it up as this enabled the paint to 'cure' and harden making it less vulnerable to chips.

bit late for you but it might be worth pointing out for others

The question is, why didn't colourtech tell him that?

that is a question and quite a good one might i add

I have my detectives hat on today.

wayne_f14 probably little consolationd to you now fella but the guys at mercian advised me to leave the newly sprayed frame for 3-4 weeks before building it up as this enabled the paint to 'cure' and harden making it less vulnerable to chips.

bit late for you but it might be worth pointing out for others

Yep !

Wet spray (professional job + aerosol auto-paint + rattle can enamel / lacquer etc etc ) = all will read "touch dry in 30-40 minutes / fully dry in 3-4 hours" - but you will still be able to leave a mark in the finish with your thumb nail for a few weeks if you really press it in - I always leave my stuff to dry for 4 weeks or so to get a really tough result, then rebuild, just did a rim like this and it is rock hard.

If you want a genuinely super tough finish that will not chip (even if you hit it with a hammer!) = get your frame/parts powder coated, this has the added advantage of not yellowing or fading in the sun and is fully cured/hardened the same day as it is sprayed.

Powdercoating rules!

you watermarking your photos now you tart?

Nah, that's Vegemite from '05 when I used some other batch image processing to do my pics. Don't use it now - Picasa for me.

My mate collected his vintage Bob Jackson frame from colourtech today, i'll find out what he says about the quality of the finish tomorrow.

He kept the bottom bracket. Either to sell on, or for a friend.

Did Colourtech loose your invoice, e.g or how much you had to pay on collection? Damn right they didn't. Don't get mugged off buy these thieves.

Business is business.

ummm its not like a bb is inconFUCKINGspicuous.....

hippy Powdercoating rules!

fk hippy, i had that saddle on my hardtail mtb for 4yrs. got it from vicmtb's yearly sale for $10...haha...cheap sht. dont know why i stuck with it...guess i was just a tight arse. it's rock solid...might as well sit on the top tube!

@prototype - luglining is done freehand so no matter how skilled the person is, it would be very hard to keep lining thickness uniform. £130 does sound a bit expensive tho for quality you're not happy with. and is that price just for one colour? but hope you're happy with it (when viewed from 1+m!)

ive chained my bike (done by vaz) against railing and other hard surfaces and surprisingly came out ok. it's got some tiny chips tho but they're from the times ive dropped it

Yep.. vicmtb garage sale jobbie aka "razorblade saddle".. this pic was just after making it rideable and before a proper saddle (Flite) went on.

If it is a bike to be used and not hung on the wall then powder wins hands down every time. If you want the best, shiny showroom look with endless choice of colour blends, lining and fancy finishes it has to be wet paint (Argos). But for a far more durable, everday good value finish it has to be powder.
Any decent local coater should be able to do a frame for around £30 - £40 and the finish will be super durable compared to wet paint. This subject comes up all the time, bit late for you I am afraid but this might be of interest:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16647

I'm trying to find a decent (bike friendly) coaters in London but if you don't mind a few quid postage then these guys come recommended:

http://www.triple-s.co.uk/

They did a ropey job on my DaFonie.

When it went back for rectification it was just bodged.

Oddly, the last thing Barrie Wtcomb shouted at me as I was leaving his emporium was;

"Well you find me a decent enameller!"

Paint on the CONdor seems fine though.

Armourtex up in hackney [no website :( ] do powder coating.

14-16 Rowe Lane, London, London, E9 6EL - 0208 986 2028

Oh ho!

http://armourtex.tripod.com/services.html

Max Oh ho!

http://armourtex.tripod.com/services.html

Cheers, not seen that before.

kowalski They did a ropey job on my DaFonie.
When it went back for rectification it was just bodged.
Oddly, the last thing Barrie Wtcomb shouted at me as I was leaving his emporium was;
"Well you find me a decent enameller!"
Paint on the CONdor seems fine though.

Colourtech also do Condor's paint work. -The paris weird thing at the show was by ColourTech too. I've used them once, took ages! But was a great result.

They should have told you to leave it a week before doing much to the frame though. :0(

i have a condor acciaio and the paint looks lovely, but bits flake off faster than a leper's fingers.

when putting a bottle cage on i slipped with a teeny allen key, resulting in a big chip.

the seat stays have a number of gouges out where i think a stray rizla blew across my path. i wouldn't mind, but for well over a grand i expected a paint job, not a light dusting of icing sugar.

I had a similar problem with my CONdor.

It turns out they only spec 2 layers of paint and 1 of lacquer to keep costs down... Roberts & Witcomb use at least 10-15..
I took mine back to colourtech for re-spraying. -Took 4 months to get it back...

yeah, i get the impression the finish on my condor isn't very hard-wearing -still waiting for that first chip, at which point i will adopt the foetal postion and regress to the womb.

mercian do a pick-up and redeliver service for £20-25 ;) . lug-lining as mentioned b4 will never be perfect and be a bitch of a job to do! you're maybe a bit hard done by, but be careful making big comments on a forum ;)