Viewing 32 posts - 1 through 32 (of 32 total)
  • Help – powder coater has ruined my bike.
  • P-Jay
    Free Member

    I’m not winning today.

    Dropped my frame off to a local coater 2.5 weeks ago “5 days” they said – 2.5 weeks later…

    It’s a nice colour, not the shade I thought was was meant to be, but I happy with it – the rest…

    They masked the headtube, badly and the BB, badly there’s over-spray on the outside edge of both but it’s an easy fix I think but they haven’t masked the brake mount or any of the shock or swingarm amounts some are threaded, some aren’t, but nothing fits now and I’ve just got one of the links caught half way on and I daren’t touch it now.

    Any ideas gladly taken.

    Bustaspoke
    Free Member

    You’ll have to run a tap along the threads that have been powder coated.
    Today I picked up one of my motorcycle frames from the powder coater’s,now I have to retap each thread.
    Not sure how you would go about making things fit that won’t fit because the coating is to thick.

    st
    Full Member

    Sandpaper or wet and dry paper on the surfaces. It’ll be tricky but isn’t too big a deal to remove the powder back to bare metal.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    ctk
    Free Member

    Get your money back and have someone else do it?

    Get them to strip it and have it raw finish?

    SaxonRider
    Full Member

    Dare I ask whom you went to, P-Jay? I want to get a frame done, and am looking at an outfit in Caerphilly.

    2unfit2ride
    Free Member

    Not of help now I know, but when I get anything powder coated I put old bolts, BB & headset in at just a fraction off full insertion to make life easier to clean up after the process, but I supposed price payed Vs expectations plays a part, I have only payed less that £30 to get a frame powder coated so I expected them to make a bit of a mess.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    @Saxon

    Probably the very same – Castle Coatings. There was a load of other bikes and stuff being done when I went in which gave me some confidence.

    If, and it’s a big, if Sunset (the only place I’ll trust at this point) can sort it without me having to get them to strip it again I’d give them a 5/10.

    I first called in 3.5 weeks ago, had a quick chat and it was all good.

    “Any colour you like”
    “Takes about 5 days”

    So I arranged to drop it back a week later, as ever I take deadlines as gospel so agreed a road trip a week later and a bit later.

    When I actually dropped in it “any colour” was a bit of odd thing to say – you *can* get any colour and loads of fancy things like candies and flips but they cost £450 a box for the powder and whist they’d only use a tiny amount they don’t have the market to keep them in stock. We settled on Anthracite as it’s the only metallic they carry and I quite fancied it. They also said it’ll be more like a week because they’re busy.

    Called them 7 days later “sorry mate, we’ve been swamped” it’ll be Monday/Tuesday which meant I missed the road trip… grrr

    Called them Wednesday “sorry mate, had to redo a bit of it, it wasn’t perfect be ready in the morning”.

    Dropped in this morning as-per the above – “sorry mate, it didn’t realise you were coming this morning”

    I’m notoriously impaticient so Its making my teeth itch but I leave again and return between 16:15 and 16:30 as instructed.

    A younger lad showed it to me, in hindsight I should have looked a bit closer as the mounts and such but I was too busy checking out the ‘paint’ it is a nice colour – it’s dark grey, anthricte is almost black in my book being that’s its coal after-all but it’s still nice and I doubt many would argue that’s it’s not anthricte. It’s not perfect, there’s a few less than perfect bit but I found faults with the original paint that most people wouldn’t notice or care about.

    I’m really annoyed about the lack of masking though, it puts it past my comfort zone in terms of rebuilding it so it looking very unlikely I’ll get a ride in this weekend which sucks, I’ll beg Sunset to look at it for me tommorow, they’ll do little jobs for me while-you-wait but this sounds like a mission.

    The real kick in the bawls though is I could have taken it to Argos, it costs a little more but that was fine – I decided against them because they wanted 3 weeks which I thought was madness – it looks like it’ll take 3 weeks anyway and by the time I’ve paid Sunset to sort it I’ll probably cost the same.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Powder coaters never have every colour – you can’t mix it for each job like paint!

    Do research. Find approximate RAL or BS colours you like. Put each number into Google images and you’ll get a much better idea of what it really looks like on different items – it never looks like a swatch chart.

    If you want a specific colour then you can always buy it online £25-40 for 1kg.

    Coaters will never do a great job of masking. Missing threads is a bit lame, but they can’t possibly guess which specific bits of your particular full sus frame need coating and which don’t unless you leave written instructions (and as you’ve found it can be days or weeks and multiple people involved).

    If you want car paint style finish quality then powder isn’t for you. I suggest somewhere like cromaworks.

    Nothing is ruined, it just needs time with needle files, taps and fine abrasive paper to sort.

    vincienup
    Free Member

    That does’t look like a bad colour actually, and I’m not really a fan of black of grey.

    As above, unless you *really* want it redoing then it’s just going to take some time and detail work to make it all fit again.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    I would get a really sharp Stanley blade and cut a circle where there shouldn’t be any paint. The painted area should either lift off or be able to be scraped off. Obviously as you’ve cut the circle it won’t lift off beyond that.
    It used to work with paint not sure about powder never having dealt with it.

    RustyNissanPrairie
    Full Member

    My guy in Haslingden is blooody brilliant and cheap, his lad races motorbikes so knows his way round frames/bikes

    Done probably half a dozen frames through him, a set of car wheels and various Landrover bits over the years. Frames are £30 but I take them in stripped/scotchbrited/degreased/filled (JBweld if needed). They always mask them well. As above talk RAL and BS colours with them.

    orangeboy
    Free Member

    Aargos do a top notch job and far better than powdered coat but I’d be amazed if they delivered on time

    wiggles
    Free Member

    Anyone tried plasti dip on a frame?

    Ive had good success with it on car wheels. Loads of colours/effects. and you can quite easily touch it up with a quick spray when you get scratches etc

    enough to 4 wheels is about £30 so you could probably do a frame for £15-20 easly

    chilled76
    Free Member

    I had this happen once. Complained and they gave it.back for free. I taped around everywhere to.protect and use nitromorse and a toothbrush to clear thread and nitromorse and a credit card to face the headset and bb etc. Worked a treat.

    superstu
    Free Member

    I’ve had this before, feel for your. Can be sorted just with a load of effort.

    Have you raised it with them?

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Rusty – who are you using in Haslingden? Had a really good job done there back in 2000 ish but the place disappeared. Think it was Advanced Technical Coatings on / near Hud Hey Lane(?). Recommended by one of the metallurgists at work who helped them improve their process.

    daniel_owen_uk
    Free Member

    Similar thing happened with my Orange 5, was very very specific about which bit’s needed protecting. Brake mounts, bottom bracket, headset, swingarm mounts.

    They didn’t do any!

    Had the bb refaced, headset wasn’t a problem, brake faces are ok, had a nightmare with swingarm, very slowly dremeled surface.

    All good now and finish is great, but big lessons to be learned, leave bolts in bits you want protecting, old bb etc.

    Absolutely no use marking stuff as it’s probably going to be blasted off anyway.

    pinetree
    Free Member

    As above – powdercoaters spend their days doing fences and alloy wheels; pretty simple stuff.
    Can’t really expect them to be experts in masking off bearing/interfacing surfaces etc…

    Sounds like you need one of these

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    Thanks for the replies all.

    Frankly I know when I’m beaten – dropped it off to Sunset Cycles this morning, glad to see my go-to guy was in too – he’s going to look at it for me tonight – as above – threads are easy, he’ll run a tap through for me. The non-threaded bits are harder – headset *should* be okay – some of the mounting holes though he doesn’t know how he’s going to do it. He also said not to ask them to strip it again – another Powder place (not the one I used) scraped an Orange 5 of someone with the sandblaster.

    I get the feeling it’s a nice solution for a simple HT frame if you go into it with your eyes open, but for a ham-fisted non-practical type like me who tends to panic – it’s best to give it to Argos the the like – personally, I wish I just lived with the messy original paint now.

    RustyNissanPrairie
    Full Member

    Rusty – who are you using in Haslingden? Had a really good job done there back in 2000 ish but the place disappeared. Think it was Advanced Technical Coatings on / near Hud Hey Lane(?). Recommended by one of the metallurgists at work who helped them improve their process.

    These guys – http://www.powdercoatingsnorthern.co.uk/

    He also said not to ask them to strip it again – another Powder place (not the one I used) scraped an Orange 5 of someone with the sandblaster.

    As above most powder coaters are doing old snotty lumps of steel, the stripping of a (aluminium) frame needs to be done separately by a specialist company using crushed walnut/glass bead/aqua blasting etc ‘sand blasting’ would kill even a steel frame.

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Cheers. You didn’t notice if they had a line of dip tanks for phosphate pre treatment?

    I currently use Fastline in Preston. They tend to do more small volume car / bike stuff rather than bulk so take a bit more care and you talk directly to the guy doing the job. Also got aquablast now which may be useful for anyone wanting a polished raw aluminium (but not sure if cabinet big enough for a full rigid frame).

    Hopefully P-jay gets a bit nearer a usable frame this weekend.

    RustyNissanPrairie
    Full Member

    no dip tanks.

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Thanks.

    Bustaspoke
    Free Member

    The firm I used for my motorcycle; http://www.triple-s.co.uk/prices.htm
    They’re in Bingley.

    RustyNissanPrairie
    Full Member

    a couple of frames by PCNW;
    The Racelink I had the sprocket, Profiles, frame and swingarm done.£65 but everything was already stripped/degreased.


    The Park frame looked it had used engine oil poured all over it-it was that smooth. £30 IIRC, again pre stripped & degreased.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    Update from LBS, it’s all done bar sadly the main pivot. They need a M15 x 1.5 tap for that, they don’t have one, no one local has one in stock so I’ve ordered one online. Hopefully get it mid-week and it’s done – a mere £30 for a tool I’ll use exactly once, but hey-ho.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I need to do my daughter’s 20″ bike, which is probably simpler as it’s rigid of course. Only problem is re the colours, she wants it pink…..

    bruneep
    Full Member

    Pink it is then.

    No problem there or are you going to try and reason with a small girl?

    coatesy
    Free Member

    Seen a few frames done nicely at a reasonable price by The Powder Shack, a small amount of dust inside the frame, but all the bearing surfaces and threads were fine.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    No, no need to reason with her – it was a condition of her accepting a hand-me-down 🙂 When I said problem, I meant that many powder coaters might not have pink in stock…!

    damascus
    Free Member

    Friend has his done a while ago, it didn’t last long, like you he could have any colour if it was in stock. He went for a yellow and it turned out horrible. He decided to redo it with someone else but when he removed the paint he realised the frame was scrap. They had shot blasted the frame so much they had put holes in it. This was filled with paint so he’d never noticed it.

    After that we have always soda blasted frames, far more friendly.

    We now tend to just raw them. Looks better, lasts longer, no issues with scratches and is lighter and cheaper.

    Glad you’ve got it sorted. Put a full picture up when you collect it.

Viewing 32 posts - 1 through 32 (of 32 total)

The topic ‘Help – powder coater has ruined my bike.’ is closed to new replies.