Powdercoat or Paint?

I've bought a frame that has part-painted/part-chromed forks and chromed seat stays. Would it be better to:

a) Search for the impossible i.e. a frame sprayer who won't make a mess of it or,
b) pay a visit to Armourtex?

And before you lot chastise me for not utfs, I did and it came to nothing. Mario Vaz is lucky to still be in business for all the negative energy that flows in his direction and as for the other "phantom" frame sprayer recommended a couple of weeks ago.....?

Can powdercoating work on frames that are partly chromed?

I look forward to your ever-constructive comments.....

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Have you tried lipstick?

send it to a reputable frame builder/painters if you want a high quality finish. They often have prices for masking out chrome in their standard pricelist. It'll cost more but it can't hurt to get a quote. enamel offers a deeper and more attractive finish than powdercoat anyway (although, yes, powder is cheap and durable etc.).

I'm not entirely sure how powdercoating works with chrome... The process involves a much higher temperature than stove-baked enamel. I think. I would make some quick phone calls. I'd probably ring Argos or Mercian to start with, but only because I can't think of anyone else. I'm sure there's probably a thread here somewhere with other places. Based on what I've heard I wouldn't go with Vaz.

Coolio, will do.

Like I said, cheers temper_temper for the ever-constructive comments. That's why I love lfgss.

all in all i think you got away lightly...

what kind of frame is it?

YouTube - Shakin Stevens - Lipstick Powder and Paint

Have you tried lipstick?

Man that's the first thing I thought too!

Argos will arrange for the frame to be picked up which is nice, I think you have to arrange to get the frame to Mercian.

Both will be around or beyond the £200 mark, however both will do excellent work.

You get what you pay for really- although modern enamel is not as tough as old enamel due to COSHH etc.

This one, bought from joe1984. Still new to all this lark, but a good deal, I thought.

In my experience stove enamel, although brittle and more prone to chipping, is far more durable in terms of maintaining finish/colour depth over many years.

Powder coat is more soft & rubbery, fades in colour & is prone to peeling off with aging especially if left outdoors.

Enamel seems to stick to frame & maintain colour even if the bike is permanently outdoors and is even heavily rusted.

I would still however choose powder coat for street/commuter bike that I cannot imagine owning for more than 5 years.

If you want a more complex colourscheme & can get a decent price go for enamel but get some chopper tape and place it on likely to be chipped areas like downtube & wherever you place your lock.

Thanks people. All noted, all good advice.

Argos will arrange for the frame to be picked up which is nice, I think you have to arrange to get the frame to Mercian.

Both will be around or beyond the £200 mark, however both will do excellent work.

You get what you pay for really- although modern enamel is not as tough as old enamel due to COSHH etc.

Pretty sure Mercian, Bob Jackson and pretty much every one of the usual suspects will arrange collection

After a bit of forum searching on various respray options I thought this thread might be worth briefly resurrecting. I spent some time over a beer last night discussing the relative merits of my brother's Holdsworth paint (resprayed by Vaz) and my Raleigh 531 daily ride (powdercoated by Armourtex). His bike has the better finish but even with commuting abuse mine is still immaculate.

And now I'm about to get a Colnago repainted and can't decide whether to live with the thicker powdercoat finish in order that I don't suffer chips. Is that sacrilege? I'm not one to keep a bike for show - it will get ridden - which is why the durability thing is important.

Any more views/experiences on this appreciated...

Depends on the frame really and what you want to do with it. If it's got ornate tube shapes and beautifully detailed lugwork then pay more (get it painted, re-chromed etc) and then build it to the original specification. If it's gaspipe then powdercoat it and ride the shit out of it.

It's a 78 Super with Columbus SL. It's been repainted before so I reckon the little bit of chrome normally visible on the fork crown isn't in great nick any more. I want to build it up and ride it fixed for a few years with a view to restoring to original spec when I have more time. Another reason why a (cheaper) powdercoat might make sense for now?

If you go to Armourtex (sp?) it's much quicker and cheaper - maybe £100 at the most. Depending on the original paintwork, you might pay £400 for recreation of the original look. Mercian, Argos (no, not that one!) and Atlantic Boulevard all do decent jobs but charge top sheckles. Mario Vaz also has an entire thread on here devoted to the good/bad/ugly results that his efforts have produced.

Powdercoat it until you're ready to invest your hard-earned into stove baked enamel.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks. Might see you at The Ship tonight if you're about - and work doesn't keep me too late.

i know he has a bad rep, but mario vaz is apparently alright if you make sure he knows exactly what you want doing, and he's cheaper than armourtex.

also the aesthetic properties of traditional enamel are always nice (until they chip!), and if you plan to get it done properly in the future, it will be easier to get rid of..

c'est ton choix

I recently had my Gios frame powder coated. I was all set for some stove enameling but was talked in to powder by Keep Powder Coating (Uckfield). I know this may be frowned upon, but really, it was a £100 ebay frame and I didn't want to spend loads trying to match 'Gios Blue' when I knew a nice RAL code that is close enough (been meaning to post in the Armourtex thread). They convinced me that they could get a better gloss with powder and a 2K clear coat, better for the environment and all that... Paid £60 for it.

It looks quite nice but you do notice it is thicker. Pretty sure the laquer will fall off as it chips fairly easy, but it looks good for the money. I think you get what you pay for.

It probably didn't need the clear coat and would have been more durable without it. (pre clear coat pic):

It's quite thick on the BB, but its way better than the previous rust + nail polish that the previous owner installed:

Anyways, it's getting used. I think I would have rather had it stoved by a reputable company, but the price would have been double / triple the cost. If I still have it in a couple of years, maybe i'll do that.

Paul, thanks for the pics, think maybe the powdercoat is the option. Forgot to mention the last repaint my frame had was a powdercoat, so that's got to come off anyway (it's not a great job at all).

Pasipanopane, reckon you are right about Vaz. My bro's Holdsworth is a lovely job and Vaz is spraying his TJ Quick track frame almost as I type. There's sense in sticking using him if I am going to respray in time, just know how gutted I'll be when it does chip.

with proper prep i dont see why spray paint isnt an option for a non-restoration job. Most of my beater commuting bikes were bought for $20-$50, stripped to individual parts, new grease in all bearings, new tubes/tires/chain, prepped for paint, sprayed with a rattle can while hanging from a coat hook, allowed 24 hours to de-gas and cure, then clear coated, allowed 24 hours to cure, then reassembled and ridden hard and put away wet. never had any issues, and with proper prep work, and a little artistic ability, they all looked great. Maybe spent $10 USD on the paint jobs and they held up fine.

My two cents, paying 15 times as much, give or take, to powder coat a frameset, that i plan on having professionally painted later is a bit batty. but to each his/her own.

15 times as much?
where do you get your spray paint/powdercoat from?

$10 wont even buy your can of primer in the UK.

$10 wont even buy your can of primer in the UK.

exactly.
you're probably looking at £30-40 at doing a good job at home, (using chemical stripping)..

15 times as much?
where do you get your spray paint/powdercoat from?

assuming my $10 USD for my paint job, and around $150 for a powdercoat job. didnt feel like looking up the actual conversion rate, but earlier in this thread someone quoted 100 GBP for powdercoating. Turns out its actually $163 USD, so over 16 times as much.

as to where i got my paint, it was cheap stuff, at a little hardware store called taylors do it center. roughly $3 and change per can, 1 can primer, 1 can color, 1 can clear. so about $10. For high quality paint, maybe $6 per can, still less than $20 for a paint job. Good lord stuff is expensive in England.