rdlange

Have a couple older steel frames, chipped paint, speckled rust, etc. Might be worth powder coating, and need to know the ins and outs of prepping, blasting and reasonable rates for power coat a bike frame so I get good job.

Or compare to having pro repainted; vs the amateur rattle can touch up job I can do myself.

Thanks.

AnkleWork

As soon as I get to my phone I'll call around to the powder coaters near Houston and get you some quotes.

fietsbob

they do the prep .. the surface has to be free of any contaminants , or the finish does not come out right.

so it has to be untouched after the surface is blasted clean ..

SquidPuppet

A good powder coater will do all the prep for you. Media blast to remove old paint and rust, and then masking and plugging. Talk to each potential PC to see if he really know bikes and frame materials. I have heard stories about over aggressive blasting.

A local shop here does excellent work and charges $65.00 for frame and fork. That is for a standard color that he stocks and then a high gloss UV protective clear on top of the color. If I want a custom color I just buy it myself at an online retailer and provide it becasue sometimes he is forced to buy unnecessarily large quantities from distributors.

This is a really good place to buy powder in small quantities. https://www.powderbuythepound.com/

Painting becomes expensive when you get up to really good workmanship and paints. It's obviously more versatile because you can do endless amounts of multi-color designs and art work.

I prefer powder because I am a monochromatic, logo hater. And a good powder job looks wet, smoothes out less than perfect welds, and is tough as nails.

rpenmanparker 

Powder coating is fairly expensive in Houston (I'm here) due to high minimum job size (~$200). But for a bike frame, that may be about right; the minimum may not be burdensome.

I just had a pair of rims powder coated by a guy in Orlando, Florida for $25 each plus shipping. His name is Edward Steidle and email is woodland847@yahoo.com. That included masking the brake tracks. See the pictures below. Very nice job. If you want to come by an look at them, I am in the Museum District. very centrally located. Just PM me to set up a time.



And yes, all the prep is done by the powder coater. You can ask him whether the bead blasting technique that is used will smooth out paint chips and other rough spots. I don't know.

I have also just had a frame repainted, the whole shebang. Some brazing work, two colors, decals made, lots of clear coat. I think it came to $450 plus shipping. I had it done in Dallas at Southwest Frameworks. Very nice job, but it was slow. You can see that too if you want to come by. Here is a photo:

rpenmanparker 

Just my opinion, but the rattle can approach will leave you very dissatisfied unless the bike in question is just a beater. For anything you care about at all, powder coating is the minimum you should consider.

fietsbob

As my friend runs the local powder coat shop . and most of the customers want Black , for the few small Items I left there ,
I just wait until there are more people also wanting their stuff done .. even a few weeks is OK by Me .. then it gets included.


Its the cranking the 440v 4 phase heaters up to make a small room hot enough to burn up Pizzas , that is the really expensive part ..


so the more things all done at the same time , the cheaper each is done..

I got my Modified steel Brompton front rack added in with a big batch of Christmas Wreath armatures ,

powder-coated so the wreath frames wouldnt run rust down people's doors..