so was thread on here with lots of lovelly p/c frames. I used to work in a body shop and as such have spary painted many bikes with high quality car paint to a high standard.I always thought this was the way to go for a nice job and that powder coating was tough…but not a smooth finish and was a bit heavy as a finish.
the bikes on that thread all seemed to have a lovelly smooth finish..is this the norm?

Have a look on dekerf's site. I can't get on there from work, otherwise I'd copy and paste for you or post the link to the right page. (maybe someone else can?) but he explains why he thinks a good wet paint job is superior finish to powder coating.

You might not learn much, but he had more objections than you mentioned, I think.

from the dekerf.com

Why does Dekerf choose the 'Wet Coat' process instead of 'Powder Coating'?

This is one of the most common questions we are asked about paint. Many of the larger manufactures choose to powder coat their frames instead of wet coating. The main reason for this is cost. Powder coating is cheaper to do and requires less skill to apply. Powder coating is also very chip resistant because it is very flexible. There are also many disadvantages to powder coatings. Firstly, powder coated frames do not have any primer applied. This is important to have because modern epoxy primers not only adhere extremely well to the bare frame, but they also have built-in corrosion inhibitors which will protect your frame in the long term from rust. Because there is no primer under a powder coat, if you chip or scratch through the powder, your frame will begin to corrode under the coating. This corrosion eats into the metal and destroys the frame over time. Secondly, although powder coating is very flexible at first, over time (2 to 3 years) the coating becomes less and less flexible and will begin to loose it chip resistance. For people who are interested in a longer lasting finish, wet coating offer superior durability in the long run. Lastly, powder coating is not well suited for bright vibrant colours or custom work. The powder coating process is primarily used for industrial type finishes like lawn furniture.

It is not designed as a beautiful, high end, vibrant finish. The colour selection in powder coats is much more limited than in wet paint. Because wet paint is also applied much more thinly, it lends itself much better to doing custom work such as flames, masking, or stenciling. The bottom line is that although a wet coat finish may be more expensive, when properly applied, it provides the best and most durable finish in the long term. You also get a much more professional looking finish that is flatter, shinier, and with the most options for colours and customization.

His frames are largely steel, so you can obviously ignore the corrosion points if yours isn't.

Basically powder coat is a cheap and fairly ubiquitous service, its tough but where it fails it can fail more considerably, the coating isn't as 'stuck' to the metal as paint is, so once its breached corrosion can take more of a hold. Less of a problem with alu, but a small nic can still spread as moisture gets under the coating

But as its cheap, you can just go get it done again

Isn't it harder to strip a powder coated frame than a wet coated frame?

It seems to go against the stuff above, but Dave Yates charges more to strip powder coated frames, using this as a reason.