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Powder Coating

I have a bike I want to get stripped and blasted. Any opinions on who to go to?

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Permalink Reply by Lee Diamond on February 16, 2010 at 1:05am
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on February 16, 2010 at 1:31am
Agreed. He does a real nice job.
Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on February 16, 2010 at 7:52am
Unanimous. UV did a great job for me.
Permalink Reply by Primitive Don on February 16, 2010 at 8:14am
+3
Permalink Reply by Time Out of Mind on February 16, 2010 at 8:57am
UV Metal Arts; they're in Bridgeport.
Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on February 16, 2010 at 9:02am
UV.

I personally hate powder coating but I can not deny he is by far the highest quality job you can get on a bicycle.
Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on February 16, 2010 at 9:29am
notoriousDUG what do you prefer?

notoriousDUG said:
UV.

I personally hate powder coating but I can not deny he is by far the highest quality job you can get on a bicycle.
Permalink Reply by anthony nicholson on February 18, 2010 at 6:21pm
So my old beater (70s Varsity) is all chipped and needs a new paint job before it rusts... but the thought of spending $200 on it seems a bit nuts (I'd happily go to UV with a nicer bike). Any suggested options apart from the rattle-can treatment? Anywhere that'll do an acceptable job (powdercoat or otherwise) for cheaper (probably not, but just fishing)?
Permalink Reply by Alan Matejka on February 18, 2010 at 6:30pm
loko performance coatings on 111th st in oak lawn.
Permalink Reply by J on February 18, 2010 at 8:05pm
There are several Chicagoland shops that do industrial style powder coating for $50-100. Unlike specialty shops like UV though, your color choices are generally limited and unless they do a lot of bikes they may not know how to really shoot details like small tubes and lugs. You might also check with your LBS -- many have contracts with local powder coaters and offer soup-to-nuts services at a discount.

That said, most of the industrial shops are rather distant -- so the advantage of using someone local like UV is really appealing if you're only doing one frame.

I cannot speak to the quality of UV, but $200 is not considered high for bike-specific powder coating. Hot Tubes, Cycleart, etc. charge 2-3 times as much, plus shipping and handling. My shop does a ton of powder coating and I've used several of the area shops. In my experience, the least expensive ones are not worth it unless it's a beater bike and you just want a thick coat of black powder. I now use a shop in Indiana that specializes in show-quality motorcycles and boats -- these guys really get it and do all the tricks like metal flake, tinted clearcoats, and the like... but it doesn't come cheap.
Permalink Reply by Lee Diamond on February 19, 2010 at 1:14am
Prior to using UV I spent about 100 bucks a bike at C&C Powder Coat in Crete. It was a discount price, but I think his regular price isn't too much more than that.

He is fine, but from now on, I will pay the extra to go to UV. Read what he does. He invests a lot of time in each frame. He protects it better inside and out than a standard powder coater so it is more impervious to rusting. Further, if you don't have a full set of taps and reamers, you will add significantly to the cost by going to you LBS to race the threads and clear out the paint that oversprays in the best of circumstances. If you have a 1" headset and English bottom brackets, that is included, and he will race all the threads on the bike.

To me, $200 is a bargain for what he does and the quality of the work, but I agree, some frames are simply not worth that at all. I do have a spray gun set up, but I hate doing that, and bikes are particularly difficult to do well. Glopping in the recesses and junction points is very hard to avoid if you don't know what you are doing, or at least that is my experience. On the other hand, a crappy frame, I probably wouldn't care at all anyway. Then again, I wouldn't paint it either.

I digress.

One thing is for certain.....you get what you pay for here too.

Cheers - Lee

I agree with Doug that paint is superior for some things, but I definitely appreciate the durability of powder coating.
Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on February 19, 2010 at 9:03am
anthony nicholson said:
So my old beater (70s Varsity) is all chipped and needs a new paint job before it rusts... but the thought of spending $200 on it seems a bit nuts (I'd happily go to UV with a nicer bike). Any suggested options apart from the rattle-can treatment? Anywhere that'll do an acceptable job (powdercoat or otherwise) for cheaper (probably not, but just fishing)?

If it is chips, just keep an eye on it. I have a massively chipped up section of my Continental's top tube and there is no sign of any rust starting there. I'm starting to think it looks kind of cool. If you have larger sections of actual rust, you can remove it with steel wool and then wax the area. The larger rust danger for old steel bikes is on the inside of the tubes. Your Varsity has such thick tubes that rusting through is pretty unlikely. Google 'framesaver' if you are concerned about that.

When I had my Continental open recently I did see some surface rust inside at the bottom of the tubes. I just sprayed a ton of WD-40 in there and let it run down (with the frame upside down) a few times because I was too cheap and impatient to get the framesaver stuff. I'll try to remember to report back next time I have the bottom bracket open.

I love the look of a nice powder coat job, but spending $200 to coat a $60 bike doesn't make much sense to me either.*

*ok - I am a bit of a hypocrite. I've spent > $200 on the FG conversion and upgrades over the last few years for that Continental.

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