I've just had a serious bit of good luck with powdercoaters.
Popped into my local powdercoater to have a chat and see if he could do my bike the orange I wanted and sadly it turned out they don't have orange as a stock colour. Bit disappointed to say the least.
Then by chance one of the other guys in the workshop came in and mentioned that they do spray bike frames if I was keen as it isn't really their main line of business but they can do them. He then showed me a road frame they had just done in a beautiful sparkle navy blue. Lovely work, everything properly done and masked as the guy is actually a keen cyclist it turns out.
Even better than that they have just done a bunch of frames in a custom colour for a big corporate client and have enough paint left for a few frames.
The client was Irn Bru and the spare paint is the orange of Irn Bru cans, the exact sort of orange I was looking for. And they use a special two pack paint that is stronger than car paint and is usually used on top end marine projects so is made to survive extreme abuse and salt water etc.
All in, acid strip, blasted and painted £70. And they know their stuff re frame materials as they asked if it was cro-mo or aluminium, rigid or full suspension and if it was just the frame or forks as well. They made a big deal about using different cleaning materials for different metals.
Sadly they are about to go on holiday for 2 weeks but I should have the whole thing done by late July.
