custom frame painting

Hi

Anyone have any experience of custom frame painting? I have made some enquiries and it varies from a single colour powder coat at a local engineering firm for £20 through to “hundreds” of pounds from one of those motorcycle “pimping” firms. I know Santa Cruz sell powder coated frames so assume it must be hard-wearing enough.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks

I had a hard tail that I had powder coated, it cost £30 in gloss black and the finish was ok, not brilliant but ok. Once the stickers were back on it looked good. It looked 100 times better than it did.

Argos did a great job on my Spot Brand but it did cost considerably more than £30 as I used pearl white, metallic blue, pink and clear lacquer!
IF also did a great job on my errrr IF but that came straight from the factory!
I’ve spent the last week trying to decide what to do with my new frame, whether to go Ti with or without paint or steel and have a great paint job! Ah the decisions!

TBH Argos are shocking, for a well established bike frame painter their paint chips far to easy and their finish although initially is stunning quickly looks tacky. However to be fair they know what they’re doing and will get decals for you etc, but far to over priced and over hyped for my liking

You best bet is a local powedercoaters will do your bike on the cheap over their lunch brakes giving you a lasting finish which doesn’t chip it’ll eventually scrape if something is consistently rubbing but I’m sure your able to spot this.

I got my Chameleon done quality finish and cost me £20, make sure you tell them to go easy on the sand blasting (technique used to clear off old paint) as they might just blast away some metal too! Also tell them to go easy on BB’s headset and seat tube etc. You will need to get your frame faced after aswell. But worth it if you want to spice up you and your bikes love life.

I think when I got mine sprayed, faced and new decals worked out still £20 less than had I sent it to Argos.

I’ve been quoted £20 for a “lunchtime” powder coat. I was going to remove everything (BB, headset etc) but I must admit it had not occured to me it would need refacing. Headtube or just BB shell?

Anyone know where I can get some bespoke decals printed? No, I’m not going into production!