Powder coat frame - being ripped off

otherself

I need to get my trusty steel Olmo steed (no fork) a new single colour coat and don't want to spend a fortune. Just one coat, no sandblasting which I stated on the phone.

Six quotes by phone came back as: £110! most expensive and £65 cheapest; the other two were both £70. The remaining two shops didn't do cycle frames. My city, in the Midlands is quite industrial with high work loads for these kind of spraying industries I would've thought. Would that have anything to do with it? Why so much? Taking full advantage of people restoring steel frames due to the fixie boom? Leg pulling? Whats a reasonable price? I read them being done for as low as £20. I thought £40 would be reasonable, over £60 seems steep considering a pro frame shop like Mercian or Ellis Briggs do a more superlative finish for £75 or so.

cougie

My guess is that they arent really used to doing this for a bike frame. If they did it all the time, then it would be cheaper - hence the better value of the proper bike resprayers ?

Have you negotiated over the phone ?

maddog 2

otherself wrote:

Taking full advantage of people restoring steel frames due to the fixie boom?

boom? ...not spotted that yet where I live..... 8)

I've not looked into it much but I'd expect to pay at least £50 for a decent paint job. I seem to recall F&F being done for about £70ish so that would be a ballpark, as our friends across the pond would say.

W5454

I had my frame powder coated for £25 in January.Some of the detail was a bit iffy,e.g. where stays meet the seat tube,but the sprayer usually does metal gates etc.In other words,not a cycle specialist.Having said that I've used the bike in all weathers and it cleans up well.Cheap and cheerful and ready the next day.8/10.