What colour to re-spray my frame?

Trestan Finishers near us in Soton charge £40 for a frame, tenner for forks, to powder coat. They blast off existing and zinc phosphate prime before coating in whatever colour you want. You can come back with decals and they will laqueur on top for another tenner. They do loads of bike frames. I have taken many there and always been very happy with the finish. I wouldn’t bother with spray cans now for their cost and all the prep time etc. Hope whatever you do turns out well OP.

Maybe Cardiff is expensive for this then but that seems very cheap compared to what I’m seeing.

Yes most places I checked out locally were twice as much before I found them. Lovely people there too.

I think argos are traditional wet paint / stove enamel hence slower, multiple coats, multiple drying times, rubbing down etc = expensive. End result is nice but chips easily.

Powder is a quicker process, more economic with materials, covers more evils in a single coat and much tougher. If they’re using gloss polyester then there is no need for a clear coat. So hence it (should be) cheaper. Maybe living in industrial North has advantages 🙂 saying that, London fixed gear forum has pages and pages on powder coating with London prices similar to what I’ve suggested.

I’ve generally found powder coat price never has any bearing on quality – usually reflects how much they can be arsed doing your job.

Well the current paintjob has decals under lacquer which is actually rather nice, I might want to go for that again.

Fair enough but will have to be wet paint (or at least the final bit) for that.

If you just rattle can the repair area then you save the original decals…. Do a proper full decal respray later when cash available?

Or Cromaworks with painted logos 🙂 £££££

https://cromaworks.com

Oh, some of those cromaworks paint jobs are lush. Reignites my want for a hand-made steel frame.

Yep the Field / Cromaworks collective makes lovely stuff (and nice guys).

I can’t see how paint.bike can produce amazingly tough easy to apply paint for the same price as normal rattle cans that aren’t, but I don’t tend to trust bike journalism either.

No need to strip sound paint.

Seems you are looking at budget/DIY/, powder coat or “proper” job £££.

I’d be interested to know how the 1st option goes, when everyone else is saying they’ve found it fragile.

I sprayed my son’s Kona with spray.bike paint. Keyed in properly, used the primer and then flouro yellow paint, then lacquer. Looked fine, but not enough paint in the can even for a kids bike, not the most durable, and cost a lot more than £12. we had a lot of fun doing it, but I would have been better off getting a powder coat if I was after a good finish.

So, I’m thinking spray it myself to begin with, then save up for 6-12 months and get it done properly.

That way:

a) I get to see what spray.bike is like myself

b) I get the bike going again for minimum cost

c) long term I end up with a nice finish