Anyone had theirs done recently?

The paint on my bike is appalling, I’ve spoken to Argos Racing but they need 6-8 weeks and you can’t prebook – I’m not being bikeless for the rest of summer.

I’m looking for a nice, but not overly flash job – so a bit better than the local powder coater, but not some show worthy creation that costs £500 and is too nice to give any treatment too.

I’m going to try and find a powdercoaters in Cardiff for my daughter’s bike in the near future.

These guys have just done a mates old Marin H/T, two colours less than £100.
Haven’t seen it in the flesh yet but pictures looks good.
http://www.anycolourcoatings.co.uk/

I got a bit of work done on mine by Dave Yates. They put some spangly wet paint on afterwards, and it looks gert lush. You can book in with them/him and send the frame in time for your slot.

Anything other than that bike (it’s special), I’d go powder coat. I’ve seen some great looking powder coat finishes on here.

e.g. http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/kona-unit-resprayed-and-fettled-piccies

Bit of an update.

I spoke to pretty much anyone I could find online who specialises in frame restorations and painting etc and they’re all booked up for weeks if not months – there’s a business opportunity there if you can wield a spray gun.

Had another think about it, my bike isn’t very old, the paint is ruined, I knocked hell out of it on the first ride and after all these years I still refuse to fit an invisframe kit or it’s like so Powder Coating is probably the best solution for me anyway.

Got down to 2 options.

Euro Quality Coatings in Cardiff
Castle Coatings in Caerphilly

Euro are pretty big players, they work with Brompton, Aston Martin and a few other household names according to their website, but it seems they’re not really set-up to deal with Private Individuals, they’d rather deal indirectly via your LBS and well, google throws up so pretty unpleasant stories about their staff.

Just dropped in on Castle – it’s a rough and ready place, but that’s fine – spoke to the first Chap I saw, seemed decent enough, gave me the broad strokes of the process:

Strip, clean, coat – takes a week, costs £80ish.

He also said “any colour you like” whilst my Wife think I only see in 16 colours like Windows 98, when I comes to bikes and cars I can see about a million shades, so I’ll have to see what they can actually do when I take my frame up.

There was a set of alloy wheels on the side when I went in waiting to be picked up – the finish was perfect, sharp edges not that “20 layers of paint” look.

Their stripper is off this week, I’m going to drop back with a my stripped frame next week and take it from there.

Their stripper is off this week, I’m going to drop back with a my stripped frame next week and take it from there.

The stripping is the PITA bit, I’d happily pay someone £80 to strip a frame and then spray it myself rather than the other way around!

80 is top end price for powder coat. Ask questions about phosphate pre treatment (assuming steel) – walk away from anywhere that says it isn’t needed.

“Any colour” usually means “whatever ral or bs colours I have on the shelf”. For specific colour you can buy 1kg of powder on eBay for about £30 (polyester powder – epoxy needs a polyester clear coat for outdoors).

The Brompton place does lots of special pre treatment dips so they don’t rust internally – if they’ll do the same for you then that will be most durable.