powder coating

[bonny]

Yes Terry , a huge advantage of paint over powder coat is the ability to touch up or repair paint, which as far as i know is extremely difficult with powder coat.

[Brian]

Bonny where the powder coating is coming off your frame can you see a grey coloured undercoat or is it bare metal, I suspect it wasnt undercoated. I have bikes that I had the frames powder coated 15 years ago and they still look good and thats with many thousand of miles on them.

As has been covered here any process be it powder coating, painting, electro plating etc is only as good as the people doing it and the preparation.

You can touch up powder coating the same as you would with a painted item with paint, but not with more powder.

[Butch (cb)]

I thought powder coating was relatively soft, but hence wouldn't chip. So you need to be careful with scratches and the like. Polish it with furniture wax, not an abrasive. I was told that the best thing to use for touching it in was Joycote.

I'm only just down the road from Maldon powder coaters so have tended to use them.
http://ctc-powder-coating.co.uk/

They certainly talk the talk, and the bikes and bits I've had done still look good - though to be honest they've probably not seen huge use or nasty conditions. I'd imagine that problems would be down to poor prep and undercoats

My A10 frame was stove enamelled - I think. It rubs through as soon as look at it. I'm for ever touching it in. I wouldn't go that route again. 

[BSA_54A10]

I thought powder coating was relatively soft, but hence wouldn't chip. So you need to be careful with scratches and the like. Polish it with furniture wax, not an abrasive. I was told that the best thing to use for touching it in was Joycote.

I'm only just down the road from Maldon powder coaters so have tended to use them.
http://ctc-powder-coating.co.uk/

They certainly talk the talk, and the bikes and bits I've had done still look good - though to be honest they've probably not seen huge use or nasty conditions. I'd imagine that problems would be down to poor prep and undercoats

My A10 frame was stove enamelled - I think. It rubs through as soon as look at it. I'm for ever touching it in. I wouldn't go that route again.

If it was stoved it definitely would not be rubbing through . Stoving leaves a glass hard finish, Chip yes, rub through no.
A lot of painter use air dry enamel then bake it for a few minutes and call it stove enamel.

[bonny]

Bonny where the powder coating is coming off your frame can you see a grey coloured undercoat or is it bare metal, I suspect it wasnt undercoated. I have bikes that I had the frames powder coated 15 years ago and they still look good and thats with many thousand of miles on them.

As has been covered here any process be it powder coating, painting, electro plating etc is only as good as the people doing it and the preparation.

You can touch up powder coating the same as you would with a painted item with paint, but not with more powder.

It doesn't appear to be undercoated, but so far all i have removed from the triumph frame is the parts that have severe rust beneath them.  I agree about the quality being dependant on the people doing the work, but it has still soured me to powder coat and i won't be using it again.

[The Artful Bodger]

Firstly I'm no professional, however I've been doing my own powder coating (and numerous jobs for others) for several years now. I started with a basic DIY gun, deciding to "up grade" I made my own gun and haven't looked back since. I often powder over filler and have had no issues with it whatsoever using Dinitrol Alusoft 6030 which is a polyester filler with a high aluminium content. If my flattening out wasn't as perfect as I thought I use the first coat of powder as a filler primer, flatten it out to loose any marks, then re-powder. Unlike paint I can powder a part, rub it down as soon as it's cooled from baking, rub it down and re-powder straight away. No drying time, shrinkage problems etc. all in a few hours.
   Rust coming through? The rust was never taken off the frame in the first place, this is purely down to bad preparation. It wouldn't have mattered whether the job was painted, powdered or plated, the rust would break through again. I media blast almost everything, don't touch it without gloves on once it's been blasted (and de- dusted), I've not had a single sign of any rust coming through and I ride my bikes all year round.
   The biggest problem with powder coat is removing the damm stuff! Properly applied it sticks like the brown stuff to a blanket!
 Polyester powder (most jobs on bikes and cars will be done with this) is softer than most paints, hence it is much harder to chip of, dent yes, chip off much more difficult. I clean very weathered / filthy powder coated parts with fine compound and wax just the same as paintwork, it shines up just the same as paint. If you do get a chip then do the same as you do with paint, small paint brush and a dab of paint.
 You will never get the same perfect mirror like finish achievable with a top notch paint job, but that will have many layers of primer, and paint to achieve it (read time and money!). One coat of powder is equal in thickness to 5-6 coats of paint and that thickness of paint chips very easily.
  If you're good at painting then tanks, mudguards etc. will have a better looking finish painted. If you're not so hot at painting then....... For most of the rest of the bike, properly applied (and prepped!) powder coating will look good and withstand knocks and marking a lot better.
 Hopefully this link will work, I did this page quite a while ago when I first started powder coating and need to update it for my home made gun etc. http://www.artfulbodgermetalcasting.com/12.html
  I painted the tank and mudguards on the restored Bantam, everything else was powdered. With the exception of the pin striping (painted on) every part of this bike no chromed (engine excluded) is powder, a project I helped a friend with  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggKiAmT_rdM
 Obviously however you do the finish on your bike is up to you, but I had to write this as I'm a very big fan of powder coating and since I do it myself I know just how good it is............ Providing it's done properly!!
 Colin
 

[Jules]

had this discussion many times on the forum and have to say that the results often the same, that it all depends on how well its done! same goes for 2 pak paint, I went this way and am quite disappointed in how it chips and scratches as I work on putting the bike together. I dont think there is a perfect solution for everybody, its really about what is available locally that can be done properly and well. I think even the old enamel process was good if its done well 

[duTch]

 With regard to powdercoat over stuff.......about ten years ago i went on my idiot off the Moto (hit diesel+ the oil from the bike in front who hit it first.. ), and busted a big hole in the rocker cover....needed a quick fix, so used I think Selleys ' Liquid Metal', looks crap, but a few years later (circa '07)without thought put both rocker boxes and a few other bits in for powdercoat, and now it still looks as crap as it did before- except black and good.....which means it's fine....

[RichardL]

Another case where there was an old existing topic with the right title, so I'm posting here.

Just got my barn-find A7 parts back from powder coat. They are almost disturbingly glossy "gloss black," but no denying they are pretty. However, it took me about 10 seconds of looking at the frame hanging at the paint shop to realize I'd made a bad mistake. I forgot to tell them to mask the frame number after sand blasting. I could still read the number through the powder coat, but realized that any scrutinizer would not know if the stamps were original. I was kicking myself all the way home from the painter's while deciding what to do. So, I decided to use a Dremel sanding drum to remove the powder coat where the frame number is, leaving the number like a paint-filled engraving. With the sanded steel as a background for the number, I sprayed clear coat over the area. Pictures are attached.

In addition to the pictures of the frame number process, I've included a picture of one of the fork legs, hopefully giving an idea of the paint. Can't show the whole frame right now because it's wrapped up.

Richard L.

[morris]

Hi Richard, when I had the plunger frame powder coated, the coater asked if I wanted a gloss or satin (semi gloss) finish.
I opted for the satin.
Didn't your coater propose it?
My frame number is still readable after the coating though but the stamps on the plunger frame are much deeper than the ones on the SA

[RichardL]

Morris,

I wanted gloss black. I knew there were other options, but didn't bother looking at the samples, AT THE TIME. A week later I decided I should have looked at the samplesn so I made the 90 minute round trip just to do that. In the samples, I didn't prefer the semigloss (or less) versus the gloss. I will say, however, that the gloss samples were not as glossy as my parts turned out. Not about to refuse the order on that basis. In any case, it occurred to me that the gloss I got in powder was pretty much what I really wanted when I sprayed the A10 frame with rattle cans. It's just startling how glossy that is.

Richard L

[RichardL]

So, why might I be disturbed by the glossiness? It might be hard to live up to in my intent for a non-concourse restoration. Yes, I know, neither the powder coating nor the gloss would be appreciated during a true rivet counting.

Richard L

[morris]

Hey Richard, if you like it leave it! Someone accused me once (though it was for a laugh) of being an anorak... 
Won’t  happen again I swear!!