Bike frame repair/restore/custom painting

[bojangle]

I'm always seeing posts on here asking about frame painting or repair. it may be a full on restoration matching the original paint or getting a powder coat finish 'near' to the original.

I have been looking to change my career path and would need to make up my wage somehow so it got me thinking..........

I'm a panel beater/sprayer by trade and have sprayed a lot of bike frames over the years, some custom some resto. I have thought about doing this part time with a view to maybe becoming full time work, and what better place to get some feedback than Retrobike.

I'm aware of companies such as Argos that do frame spraying but they seem to charge an awful lot of money for simple jobs.

 

[tintin40]

A pro job last longer then rattle can.

 

[cchris2lou]

it depends what the bike is and its value , both financial and emotional .

 

[drystonepaul]

It sounds viable to me based on your experience and facilities. I reckon there is definitely a market there too. Argos seem to get a lot of business due to their ability to do frame modifications at the same time as a respray. They also have a long history and reputation to draw on and appear also to get a lot of word of mouth business through constant mentions and recommendations on forums like RB.

The trick I suppose would be to start your business on a part time basis, get plenty of high quality images of the work you have done/will do and then use them market and promote your services. A website is a good idea.

As an example, the Argos Cycles website is shockingly bad from a web-design/aesthetic perspective IMO, but it does include the vital information required like a price-list and some (albeit mediocre) shots of a few refinished frames and bikes.

Good luck with it.

 

[kaiser]

Yes, some things I'd try myself but if I'm after a good job I'd farm it out no probs. I have heard Argos is fairly heavily roadie biased, someone with a mtb knowledge and a retro/resto sympathy would be good.

 

[cornholio's RC200]

Some frame repair for me yes but otherwise it's farm out for the mega jobs.

Don't get me started on paint. Can do small components with the satin black but anything else is a GSI (Get Someone In)

 

[cyfa2809]

i try/tend to do everything myself. if i had a bike that was super expensive (meaning id probably have the cah to afford repairs/paint) then i would

maybe a finance plan type thing would be good?

 

[al]

Yes, I do very little for myself.



Not because I'm lazy but beacause I am Pap! :shock:







al, more pap than he looks. :roll:

 

[Steve Kish]

I was glad to recently see that Mario Vaz is still spraying frames in Hither Green. My mate Paul and I were probably two of his first customers in about 1986.

 

[barry2017]

Just as a thought, have you considered contacting all the little framebuilders?

There are lots of builders who do repairs but not resprays. Perhaps if you swapped leads, you could find something mutually beneficial.

But for a few hundred quid, you could buy all the preparation tools yourself; what you pay for when you go to Argos is the knowledge that the bike will build up easily when it comes back to you. I had a few frames done professionally by someone who just advertised themselves as a powdercoater, and the results were a bit disappointing, TBH. They had no sympathy to the way a bike was meant to be built.