Kawi2strokes.com Forum

BIKE PORN FOR SURE!!

Thanks for all the replies, good info here!

I ended up going with 85/15 gloss to flat. I love it.

I used phantom black mercruiser paint as I don't like powder coat and paint is easier touchup as I don't intend to leave it sit. Just out of curiosity did you remember to put bolts in the holes that have threads and some sorta plugs in the other holes as I have heard fright stories of people having to clean out that stuff with paint you dont have to worry as much.

A good powder coater will cover this for you- my guy had tons of corks in every size from ultra tiny to a few inches in diameter if needed. Typically, the brake pedal fits over a bare metal stud on the frame and that had to be taped off. Of course if they miss something you do have to chase out the threads or clean off the surface in question. Just the treat the powder coat as a very soft metal- I used a file and sand paper on a few areas. Not that big of a deal....

A bigger potential problem is too thick of a coating resulting in clearance issues in parts that assemble with a close tolerance. The battery box was a tighter fit- the coil brackets were more difficult to slip onto the frame etc... You cant just layer up the powder coat it has to be applied with good coverage but not too thick.

tim

Leemata - Thanks for the porn comment. I will try to keep it safe for work.

Dewman - The guy who did my powder coat is Nate at Green Machine Customs. He does a lot of bike work and understands what needs to be masked and what doesn't. He did a great job. As axiom-r said, sometimes you have to remove some to get things fitted together. You must also use air to blast out the grit in the tapped holes.

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Rotortech
Indianapolis
1974 S3

Good point about the grit- my guy sandblasts the frame to bare metal and then plugs the holes and does the masking. So when I blow out all the sand and grit I also hit the threads and other masked areas with WD40 to prevent flash rusting..

As axiom-r pointed out with the “clearance issues” powder coating -both- frame and swing arm may require a lot of twist, turns, trickery and a few banging to get the swing arm in as it did with mine.

Grounding wires to the frame is another issue with the thick coat requiring sanding/chipping around the bolt area. However, ground wires that are grounded with a bolt threaded to the frame may NOT required sanding because the inside threads on the frame are bare, not coated, and will act as a ground. But grounds with nuts and bolts such as for the coils may require sanding on the frame bolt area for good contact.

Another thing with powder coat, I suspect, if I get a hammer and start banging on the frame the coat will more than likely chip off, exposing bare metal requiring not only paint but filler to touch up.

Joe - you might want to leave that hammer in the toolbox. Yes, you are right. It is a thick coating and can be chipped off.

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Rotortech
Indianapolis
1974 S3

The thing about powder coating is if done properly it is a flexible coating, it should not crack or break off, I have had a centre stand power coated only to find it was bent, so I went back to my coater and said " just place it in a vice with some soft jaws and straighten it". I asked him" won't the powder coating crack?" he pulled a powder coated spring out of a box and bent it this way and that and the coating remained perfect, I then asked him what would cause powder coating to crack/flake his reply was "if it is not baked properly"

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Wine for my men we ride at dawn