Hi Mike,
My frame with a loose cross member, 4 running board brackets, trailer hitch, and 12 other small pieces cost me 350 to have sand blasted and 689 to have powder coated, and 160 for gas to drag the truck and trailer around for a week.
I had the sand blasting done before I took it to powder coating, he can't blast anything that big at the powder coating place, but can do smaller stuff.
The day it was done being blasted I took it straight to the powder coater and it was done the very next day. So, 2 days total, and it is very important to have it done ASAP after blasting so stuff won't rust.
The down sides to powder coating are that it can't be "touched up" like paint, you would have to use paint if you had a scratch.
The other downside, I think, is that you can't use any filler under it to smooth stuff up, the 400 degrees would just pop it off. So what you see sandblasted is what you get powder coated. Powder coating tends to smooth things out a bit more than paint though, so it was fine for my frame.
On the up side, it is very tough. The trailer hitch I had blasted had been powder coated previously, the blaster said it was the hardest part of the job to blast it. I also found that powder coating is only slightly more expensive than a really good PPG primer that was my second choice, and that was with me spraying it. If you were going to prime and color coat powder coating may even be cheaper than paint.
I think that for a frame powder coating is the way to go. Although if you were making an all out show vehicle paint would be better because of the filler and touch up issues.
Hope this helps,
Grigg
