I have an old Schwinn frame that is badly pitted. I bead blasted it and painted it. It's painted, but still pitted. My question is does powder coating fill in the pits when applied? If so, how much will it fill big pits? Gary
Powder Coat Question
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If the pits are all, in act, pits and not l'il bumps, the PC will fill them....to an extent. Far better than liquid paint will. That being said, really deep or wide pits may still be visible to an extent. I'd say " go for it"... without going to heroic measures, the powder is the most likely route to covering all that up.
PS- pics of the frame as it sits now would be helpful.
PS- pics of the frame as it sits now would be helpful.
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Not really, no. While powder costing can be applied thick or thin it adheres to the surface tightly - that's part of the appeal, What fills in pitted areas is primer or even bondo if its bad. Ask others for their stories- I usually use rattle can primer myself.
From my experience most imperfections show in a powder coated finish. Very small scratches and sandblasting marks usually fill in smoothly, but larger pits, dents, and markings such as serial # stampings do not disappear. Filler, high-build primer, and sanding are the way to get a smooth finish.
Powder may not adhere to filler, depending on what you use. A lot of lug enthusiasts despise powder b/c it makes the lugwork less distinct; it certainly does smooth out minor imperfections. Show us some pics of your pits....
Sorry for being unclear, I wasn't suggesting to use filler before powder coating.
Conversely, I've seen lots of very good paintjobs that used powdercoat as a base.
Agreed: PC does smooth out minor imperfections.
No pics as I haven't had anything PC'd in years. Used to have lots done by RW Little in San Diego. From my experience they were very good but the result was always basically as smooth as the base metal.
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CCR
Mouth-Breather
PC will show the pits from blasting Gary. On my Stingray Bicentennial I had powdered, the blasting pitted the sheet metal worse than it did the tubing / cast forks, which is expected. But pitting can be found on both, PC will self level to a point but it's not going to work magic(and PC will wrinkle up if baked too long too). I didn't have the guys Clear PC over the white which would likely of made the pits less noticeable, but only because your adding thickness to the paint.
CCR
Mouth-Breather
I've also hit those blasting spots with an orbital and 80 grit, usually cleans up. Rust pitting might be a bit much to clean up that way though, just depends on what your working with.
I didn't know much about PC and I was looking for a miracle cure for really bad pitting. Looks like the frame is junk. Here's a couple of pics. This was my first 3 color paint job so I used the junk frame for practice. Bead blasting removed all the rust completely and little has formed in the past 20 yrs. since I painted this frame. Found this bike in a pasture behind a barn. Schwinn built Royal boys balloon with springer. I think it's toast. Gary
I'll bet that frame is rideable. I have one like it that is deeply pitted and it's still plenty strong.
I say assemble it and use it. Not suggesting any mashing or out of the saddle sprints, but should be fine for a cruiser.
I doubt that it will fail. It's probably still as thick as a Walmart bike.
Failure of the joints is pretty unlikely with "electro-forged" era Schwinns. As far as appearances go, a skim coat might work, if you have the talent (or a lot of patience 
).
Failure of the joints is pretty unlikely with "electro-forged" era Schwinns. As far as appearances go, a skim coat might work, if you have the talent (or a lot of patience ).
Why not use the pitting? Paint it to look like rock, or sand it down to metal at the high spots leaving paint in the pits. Or apply a dark wash of paint that will settle in the pits and accentuate them.
It took a long time to get that rusted and pitted, if you've got it flaunt it.
It took a long time to get that rusted and pitted, if you've got it flaunt it.
CCR
Mouth-Breather
Did a Higgins flightliner for my mother in law, it was powdered but I used rattle can for the white accents on the rack, just masked and used a scuff pad to rough it up, cleaned it down and sprayed it.
