Here's the frame all cleaned and ready for priming. After chatting to other builders etc, I decided to etch prime the steel frame, and paint it in charcoal hammercoat. The suspension bits ( upper and lower wishbones and rear trailing arms and panhard rod) will be powder coated black.

The consenus was that painting the frame will permit easy modifications in future, while the suspension bits will not be modified and will benefit from the hard-wearing powder coated finish. I am also going to powder coat the rear spare tyre holder, the front cycle guard frames, and the headlight mounts.

I'll have to clean these other parts up before coating though. I can only say the standard of finish from Westfield is 'functional'.

The chassis has been painted in a Hammercoat charcoal. I painted the undercoat and hammercoat by brush, as this results in less wasteage than spraying, and also seems to give a more pronounced hammer finish. Apart from the odd drip, I am quite happy with the result, and it should dry nice and hard.

The suspension components, upper and lower wishbones, trailing arms, and panhard rod, as well as the mudguard brackets, headlight brackets, and spare tyre holder have returned from the powder coater (Heritage Powder Coating in Seventeen Mile Rocks).

The photo doesn't show the detail, but they look pretty good in their satin black finish, and should be able to resist the wear and tear of the road.