Frame painting/powdercoating

[loginhater]

I'm looking to refinish a steel frame.  Can anyone recommend a good painter or powdercoater in the area?  Saw an older thread on the powdercoat shop in Crest Hill -- anyone use them lately?

Also, I wanted to put new decals on the frame when it was finished.  Is it true it's harder to do this with a powdercoated frame?

Thanks in advance. 

[Seanbikes]

Not sure if anyone has used CPC recently. Putting decals on after having it coated should be no issue. Not sure if CPC would do it but you might be able to have the powdercoater put the decals on and then shoot clear powdercoat over them.

[keithzim]

I am goimg to have my forks and cranks powder coated. I have been told to go to J&J Powder Coating in Zion they do a lot of bike stuff. Im gonna try and drop my stuff off this week i can let u know what they r gonna charge me.

[loginhater]

I am goimg to have my forks and cranks powder coated. I have been told to go to J&J Powder Coating in Zion they do a lot of bike stuff. Im gonna try and drop my stuff off this week i can let u know what they r gonna charge me.

That would be great.  Let me know how you like the work too.

[Nativeson]

I don't really know if you can do clear powdercoat over decals, since the powder must be baked on. It may damage or discolor the decals. I had my Ritchey frame done in Janesville WI. It looks awesome in person.

[gotfish8]

The clear is not baked on it is sprayed like automotive clear.

[fat-tyr]

They heat the item being coated, then spray on a powder. It actually melts, then hardens when it cools. So I don't think they can do stickers unless you use a normal clear coat or none at all. The whole idea of powder coating is its hardness, durability, so I wouldn't use a clear.

[Nativeson]

The clear is not baked on it is sprayed like automotive clear.

The clear on my frame was definitely baked on powder. I watched him apply it, but that may not be the case with other shops.

[Yeti Clyde]

J & J in Zion did my Monocog....

Reasonable price and do bikes regularly, they've done quite a few things for me...

Always been happy with their work...

My Monocog has a pearl finish, it was a baked two step process, first white and then the clear pearl as far as I know...

[sommerfliesby]

I don't really know if you can do clear powdercoat over decals, since the powder must be baked on. It may damage or discolor the decals. I had my Ritchey frame done in Janesville WI. It looks awesome in person.

Man that is PURTY!

[twntysxthstwoodsmn]

I had a frame coated metallic green and than in clear a number of years back.  The clear fogged up the green a bit and also darkened the color.  

  I know this because about a year later the clear started peeling off near the drop outs.  I started to clean it up a bit and next thing I knew the clear started peeling off the chain and seat stays.  About 3 or 4 hours later I had removed all the clear off the frame.  The only thing holding the clear material on was its own molded shape.  It actually worked out better removing it all.

   I think the guy who did mine didn't really know what he was doing.

   The one thing that I don't like about powder is thats its thick and extremely hard to get even everywhere on the frame.  It will also cover up allot of the small details on the frame (especially ones with nice lug work).  And it dosn't wear well near the dropouts.  

   The durability is impressive, but finish is generally not as good as a quality paint job.  If powder gets screwed up the time & money involved in redoing it just makes the whole project not worth it for a number of reasons.  To me its high risk, high reward type of thing.

  Oh yeah the best was when I wanted to get my steel bellhousing re powdercoated on my car.  Nothing like gettin' drunk, building a big fire and tosin' it in there to melt the old powder off!

[gearhead313]

Ill throw another shout for j&j powdercoating. we just sent our race car chassis there and he had at least 3 frames there that looked great! he can also do a clear over the standard coat that we received.. it looked nice..

[keithzim]

I dropped of my fork and cranks today to get painted not coated. My buddy and his dad own a body shop he has been doing it for over 20+ years now. He said he can put in a harder epoxi to make it harder to scratch and if it does it will be the same color under so it wont stick out bad. I will have them back on sun. My last frame was coated white and it turned yellowish and chipped all over. So im gonna try and c how the paint holds up.

[straightliner]

I used this place. The turn around time was really quick and I thought they did a great job. http://www.coatingspecialties.com/   Whole coating cost me $75 I think.

[mikey p]

I've used J&J a few times in the past, they have always been super reasonable and can do some pretty rad custom stuff.