powdercoat

[nabsim]

sorry morrag but newbury from south yorkshire is a bit of a journey, and as i,m sure andy will agree a trike frame is a bit too big to fit in a postmans bag! i,ll stick with the people i trust to do a good job and who are only a few miles away . even simpler !

Its all relative, when Grum was having his Pinto frame done he sent it from Stockport to the coaters that Desperate uses. Was a real qaulity job too. Uses Smoothrite myself though cos I is a cheapskate too

[VmaxTriker]

Never been impressed with any powder coat finish, Two-pack paint is a lot more durable especially for the underside of trikes which take a battering..

[Manky Monkey]

Powder-coat's quite soft. It tends to dent or scuff, rather than chip & flake like paint, & is usually thick enough to be able to buff surface damage out.
It's also reasonably petrol & brake fluid proof -prolonged exposure to either will soften it, but if you wipe it off with a wet cloth it usually survives unharmed. Any discolouration can be brought back with a spot of T Cut. Coating normally works out at about half the cost of paint. Biggest fault is the way water gets underneath it through any damaged areas & lifts it away from the metal.
As you say, it's down to personal choice, but I powder-coat everything I can these days.