I'm always wanting to be different but I'm still quite conservative in the way I display it. Talk on another thread about powder coated frames has me wondering about making my Flexi bug frame a color. I really think the look of the Stainless is elegant, but something a little more striking might be something to consider. Of the buggies you've had and seen, did you prefer the looks of the bare metal or with a color? The stainless on the Flexi buggy is somewhat polished but nothing like what Popeye does as I remember. I would be looking to contrast with the black tires/wheels and the black seat. The stainless already does that to some degree but some color might do it better. I don't want "tacky", just thinking out loud about whether some color would be an improvement or if I would regret it.

White would be cool, and you never see it, or yellow, both would REALLY contrast the tires, what color is your seat?

Personally I'd stick with stainless and maybe change the siderail covers or seat if you are looking for a bit of color. If it was something other than stainless that needed to be powdercoated than yeah go for something original. I'm just not a big fan of paint/ powdercoat when it starts to chip or wear off- plain old stainless looks nicer IMHO.

The seat is just the stock black seat from Flexi. The thing about powder coat is that it really doesn't chip and flake like paint. It is a flexible coating that can give and flex with impacts. I would be really bothered with chips.

Im going orange but Ill prob just paint mne.

Powder Coating is very durable, nearly impossible to chip (If the powder coating is applied right). Anyone who has seen the coating on a Refrigerator or Washer/Dryer has seen powder coating. It can scratch if you get after it with a very sharp object but it is tons stronger than paint and has a natural glossy finish to it. There are also powders that give flat finish, or rustic, or "crinkle" type finish as well.

Here's a trick for ya, give your buggy a super mirror like finish in small areas and then tape those areas off with ultra high temp tape, then powder coat the rest of the bug. You will have powder coat finish with high shiny polished stainless coming through. be creative and you can put "chrome" like flames on your axle or front fork tubes..... This takes a ton of work out of the polishing cuz you only need to polish the areas that are not going to be powder coated. You can also mix-n-match your colors, making yellow frame rails, blue front fork and green rear axle (not sure if you would want to do this color combo, but it is possible).

And to keep your bug free from finger prints and smudges (stainless is really bad for fingerprints), put a final powder coat of gloss clear over the whole thing (after you untape the polished areas that is). That way you just wipe it off and you have a "freshly waxed & polished" style finish.

Make sure that you plug or tape off any threaded areas such as rear axle bosses and frame rail nuts, the powder coating will get into the thread areas and you won't be able to put the bolt back in. An experienced powder coater will be aware of this and should do it for you automatically.

Powder Coating use to be very expensive and hard to get done, with new advances in guns and powder delivery systems, the price has come down to where it is very reasonable now. One thing to keep in mind, powder coating is actually baked into the pores of the metal, it is nearly impossible to get back off the metal without sanding/grinding or plastic media blasting. Sand blasting doesn't even work if the coating is applied and baked properly, paint strippers are useless against it.

IMO, If done properly I think you could have a very awesome looking buggy, and it would be unique to you, not like everyone else's.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, windofchange and Jason. I was actually thinking about orange since it contrasts so well with Black. The conservative side would avoid the flames and the perfectionist in me would avoid anything but a uniform coating. The clear coat PC is intriguing. I could put a popeye polish on it and then have a clear coating put on it.

I tried to sandblast a hitch insert once that had been powdercoated and it was a very slow process. I had to move the blast very slowly to have any affect at all. It wasn't worth the effort, and this was a heavy duty commercial sandblaster in a mfg. companies machine shop.

Be careful with the clears that get put over powdercoating because if its cheap or not applied right it can and will yellow. Ive seen it happen on alot of things. My dad is a gov. painter for all the ground support equip. that comes of the Navy ships around here. He used to PC at the last place he worked ad they did a great job, nothing but the best paints and powders. The place he works for now really skimps on the PC because its not a big part of their business.

If you have any questions just PM me and Ill ask my dad. Hes been doing this for about 25 years now

Yea, gotta be careful with the powders and make sure that the person using them is using the high quality stuff. Like everything else, you get what you pay for.