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Hi All

When restoring a bike would you Powder coat or Two pack the frame?

and why ?

I always powder coat frames as its very hard to spray a frame evenly! Also although 2k is pretty hard, powder coating is more resilient. Its a good idea to get things like triple clamps and headlight mounts done with the frame. Parts really need sand blasting b4 coating, gives a really good key. Hope this helps.

Ooh, controversial issue here, Martin :-)

Steve's really the expert here, but my 2 pence FWIW ...

Paint: Original, but more prone to damage and can be more expensive than powder. But easier to retain your earth connections. Painting tube requires a little care and experience, so use someone who knows what they're doing.

Powder: Not original, but generally tougher. As with painting, take to someone who does motorcycle frames, not just any 'Tom, richard 'n Harry' powder coater. You need to get ALL the oil and grease off before coating and be careful to block off anything you don't want covered - powder's a bugger to remove, so make sure your earth connections and things like swing arm bores are well protected.

HTH.

Craig
P.s I opted for paint when I bare-frame restored my SCR, mainly, "Because I could!"

If you are doing a serious restoration, there is no question you need to paint it. Not many people do serious restorations these days though...

If you are doing a rebuild you can go either way. I powder coated my 750 GT but have been painting my latest projects. Painting is something I can do myself. Powder coating I need to bring somewhere and trust that person to do it right. As mentioned, bring it somewhere that is familiar with bike frames. Powder coating may be tougher but it's also harder to fix when damage does occur...

I guess for me it really comes down to what I plan on doing with the bike. If it's a rebuild I plan on riding a lot I'd probably powder coat. If it's a fun little project I'm not planning on riding all that much I'll probably paint it.

You know after giving it some thought as what to do, I went to a powder coater and asked all the question I wanted to know, I asked if PC would look like paint, no he said it is more like an orange peel finish and then he showed me a bike frame that they had done the day before. No way am I going to do PC on my frame. Even the frame the way it is now it still looks better then PC and the paint on the frame is Sh!t
I also asked how they stop rust should the frame get a stone chip and the moisture got under the PC, he said they blast the frame and then use a Zinc base coat much like what you see on wood fire places and then the PC over that, So my frame is going to be blasted and Zinc'd and my painter will use a two pack primer over that etc at least this way, it will look like it is painted nice and smooth
will post some pic's when its done