Silvergoat
Senior Retro Guru
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A professionally wet painted frame allows scope for all sorts of colours, paint effects (fades, splatters, whatever) and for decals to be applied with a finishing top coat of clear lacquer over. It may be a pricey route, depending on what you specify and who does it.
With powdercoaters, you need people who can do bikes, not lumpy municipal street furniture. A proper powdercoat will not chip, flake or bubble. Mine went through the stages of burn-off, degreasing, iron phosphating, grit blasting and then actual powdercoating. There's loads of colours – you can go for single colour (cheaper) or a flamboyant colour effect costing more. A clear gloss or other lacquer can also be applied over the powdercoating (assuming that you're going to apply decals yourself after it comes back from the coaters).
I had a mid-British Racing Green colour done which contained a copper and silver sparkle in it. The entire process was done in 4 days flat and cost about £80 at the time. It's a glossy finish but fine frame details are still crisp. After 6 years, the powdercoating seems quite bombproof and has survived all sorts of escapades unscathed.
With a DIY rattle can or enamel paint job, this will be much cheaper and you can have the fun and satisfaction of creating your own colour scheme, etc. However, it will be much less durable than expensive professional jobs and will chip and scratch easily, unless you garage queen the bike. But then with the DIY route, you'll always be able to repair chips and match the paint again yourself if needs be.
A professionally wet painted frame allows scope for all sorts of colours, paint effects (fades, splatters, whatever) and for decals to be applied with a finishing top coat of clear lacquer over. It may be a pricey route, depending on what you specify and who does it.
With powdercoaters, you need people who can do bikes, not lumpy municipal street furniture. A proper powdercoat will not chip, flake or bubble. Mine went through the stages of burn-off, degreasing, iron phosphating, grit blasting and then actual powdercoating. There's loads of colours – you can go for single colour (cheaper) or a flamboyant colour effect costing more. A clear gloss or other lacquer can also be applied over the powdercoating (assuming that you're going to apply decals yourself after it comes back from the coaters).
I had a mid-British Racing Green colour done which contained a copper and silver sparkle in it. The entire process was done in 4 days flat and cost about £80 at the time. It's a glossy finish but fine frame details are still crisp. After 6 years, the powdercoating seems quite bombproof and has survived all sorts of escapades unscathed.
With a DIY rattle can or enamel paint job, this will be much cheaper and you can have the fun and satisfaction of creating your own colour scheme, etc. However, it will be much less durable than expensive professional jobs and will chip and scratch easily, unless you garage queen the bike. But then with the DIY route, you'll always be able to repair chips and match the paint again yourself if needs be.
