Need Frame Painting Advice

I agree with the powder coating idea. Powdercoated frames look awesome, and seem to be more durable than paint.

You can just drop off the frame as-is at your powder coater and pick you color. They will blast your frame if needed and a week or two later you can pick it up.

Basically they shoot a powder substance onto the frame in the color that you choose, and throw it in a big oven to bake on the finish. It looks awesome.

Also, breaking down your bike to frame has got to be a pain in the arse. I would only want to go through it once.

That will be the last thing to do on my bike at some point. I just don't want to go through the hassle of taking the bike all apart.

I rattle canned my foot pegs a couple of months ago, and they turned out great, unfortunately the paint chipped away after a few weeks.

Never again. From now on I'm going to powdercoat everthing other than the tank, side covers and tail.

Post edited by: austin3119, at: 2007/03/14 02:08

mountain wrote:

If I'm going to coat my frame, why not make it bomber so it lasts:

Well, that's the heart of the matter.

Powdercoating is a combination electolytic deposit/heat cured commercial process that coats an item with a color material chemically somewhat akin to, but (done right) is *much* tougher than any sprayed/non-cured paint application. Just look up powdercoating in the Yeller Pages - or nose around here - ther's several people from Colorado around here and they might point you to a known quantity.

And that's just it - if you want it to *last*, it's the best option bar none.

In the long run, $8 rattlecans sprayed in the back yard just can't compete with a big-buck commercial process - and if the cheap route lasts only 1/3rd as long - or less - what's really been saved?

The other issue is experience - which can't be bought. You're hoping to accomplish results right out of the experience gate on a shoestring budget for 1/3rd to 1/2 (by now, with the lessons learned with the PJ) of what it'd have cost to get a longer lasting and much simpler (labor-wise) solution.

We've often been told that a job worth doing is worth doing right - and one thing that experience tells is that there's some times doing it *right* requires more in the way of resources or experience than we have at hand....

Thanks for the advice. I will go the powdercoat route. A rattle can paint job is fine for many applications, but I'm willing to pay for the best possible coating on the frame. Yes, stripping a frame is time consuming, but I enjoy it. That's why I have more than one bike! Lesson learned: Don't forget to search the forum for options before pulling the trigger. This website rules. You guys are awesome.

I just blasted my KZ900 frame, sanded it, wiped it down, primedit and then sprayed it with Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black paint (satin finish). The frame looks like it just came from the factory. Powdercoating is awesome for the $200-$300 you are going to spend. After the blasting, primer, and paint, I have <$65 in the entire job. If money is not a concern, or you are not trying to do a "correct" restoration, go for the powder coat!

mdunn wrote:

...If money is not a concern, or you are not trying to do a "correct" restoration, go for the powder coat!

A *minor* nit, but a distinction worth making for definition's sake:

A "correct restoration" by definition would involve using the same exact paint and process used at the factory. Since those are items essentially lost to time, it's kind of a moot point.

Outside of flats, satins and various trick hues like pearls, gloss black is pretty much gloss black, be it rattlecan, staged enamels, laquers or powdercoat.

There's nothing wrong with rattlecan-ing a frame, but it is not entirely accurate to consider it *more correct* in terms of doing a "restoration" than powdercoating would be.

Given the choice of selecting a frame that's been powdercoated to the original color vs. one that's been spray painted, any knowledgeable observer would award the coated frame style points for the quality and durability of the medium used.

Tempest in a teapot, perhaps - but if I was looking at buying a "restored" machine and the seller told me he'd spray painted the frame so it's be "more correct" than if he'd powdercoated it, I'd have to stifle a giggle, then I'd start wondering what other corners he cut...

mountain wrote:

I agree, pterosaur, but what exactly is a powder coat? I am not to upset in making mistakes, I just want to do it right....

Essentially, and especially in the case of a base color like black, perhaps it's better to think of powdercoating as of an *application process* - ie., dry vs. wet, rather than some kind of mysterious colored Uber-goo that just happens to stick better than Rustoleum.

To answer a previous reply, and perhaps settle any notion that finished powdercoat is significantly different *chemically* from sprayed paints, here's a pretty fair explanation:

Powder coating is the technique of applying dry paint to a part. The final cured coating is the same as a 2-pack wet paint. In normal wet painting such as house paints, the solids are in suspension in a liquid carrier, which must evaporate before the solid paint coating is produced.

From: What is powder coating?

i painted my blasted frame last week using "nason" industrial urethane singe stage, its a brand of dupont, it took 3 days to harden up enough to move in 40 deg weather, i am verysatisfied with the results.

i'll post pics too.