Bike Forums - DIY Powder Coating

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DIY Powder Coating

I want to introduce myself, I write for a a DIY powder coating site. I have been powder coating for several years now and I just made the site to make it easier for other new powder coaters to get started.

I started powder coating parts for a car restorations and the results have been amazing. I have also coated a lot of worn out stuff on my old Raleigh. All of the parts I have coated for my bike have been holding up excellent since I coated them 2 years ago. It is a great functional coating, especially for bikes that see some mud and weather like mine tends to.

Anyways, if anyone else here is interested in powder coating or already is into powder coating, you might want to check the site out. http://www.powdercoatguide.com/

I just finished an article on how to build your own powder coating oven big enough to accommodate frames.

Feel free to ask me any powder coating questions, I would be happy to answer them. Also, if you have done any powder coating on your bike, post up some pics. I'd love to see some other peoples work.

I've not done bike stuff but I did powdercoat some brackets for an old truck and I loved the way they turned out. I have some friends that have access to powdercoat equipment at their school who did a bike frame for my son after I prepped it. If I had known stripping the paint off of the frame was going to be that much work I would never have started.

Quote:

Originally Posted by krue1971 (Post 17957063)

How did you go about stripping the frame? There's a stripper called Benco B17 that is specifically for powder coat but it is really effective for just about any paint. However, its expensive, dangerous, and smells awful. Not worth it for 1 frame, but if you are stripping stuff often, it is a huge time-saver. You can soak rags in the B17 and wrap them around the bike frame, that way you don't have to order the huge quantity needed to dip the entire frame at once.

I started with paint stripper, then used a media blasting cabinet, then used a brass brush in my drill to get the final finish. PITA considering it's a Trek full suspension bike and I had to take care not to screw up the bearing surfaces.

I usually have no problems blasting paint off in my cabinet using black diamond media. I have found that paint stripper is just about useless lately though. I used to be able to find a stripper called Mar-Hyde Tal-Strip locally and that stuff worked great. However, now all I can find locally is Rustoleum and Klen Strip which takes 15 applications to make any kind of dent.

Before I blast, I mask off all bearing/gasket surfaces with a layer of painters tape and 2 layers of duct tape. It keeps them protected from the media, but masking everything off is pretty time consuming.

I don't have any pics of my bike parts on hand, but here is some stuff from my car.

http://i.imgur.com/pw8NzIxl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ORQCTd6l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Vz2W0e9l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LCPrc5zl.jpg

I sold my setup before moving, now I need to build a shop and get back into it. It's a great feeling to take a rusty/ugly piece of metal and make it shiny.:-D

Let me know if you would like any advice on setting up your new shop. Powder coating is definitely very satisfying.

Sure will, and thanks in advance.

That looks like excellent work Ayers. What method did you use for the license plates?

[MENTION=333653]Ayers[/MENTION]. Do you restore a lot of CT-70s, or are you just doing the same one over and over again? :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudvaynedude122 (Post 17959636)

That looks like excellent work Ayers. What method did you use for the license plates?

I shot them in white and did a full cure, then coated with black and exposed the white areas with a pencil eraser before curing the black. The trick to the pencil eraser is to use a heat gun to freeze the powder once you've got it wiped perfectly. Just enough heat to freeze the powder from smudging but no where near curing. The cure comes when you're finished.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lascauxcaveman (Post 17959784)

@Ayers. Do you restore a lot of CT-70s, or are you just doing the same one over and over again? :P

For a while I was doing one a week or so. I had the powder manufacturer make the powder to match factory Honda candy paint. It wasn't cheap to have the powder formulated but it paid off in the long haul. A lot of guys wanted correct restoration with the durability of powdercoat instead of paint. I finally quit doing them due to shipping hassles. It's nerve wracking to package and ship them cross country back to the customer. Plus long distance business over emails and text messages is not my thing. Now I focus on motorcycle restorations in my shop and I hope to not coat any more Trail 70s as long as I live.

I bent a couple of those Honda 70 frames back in the day. We used to lean them up against a wall and push them with a car bumper to straighten them back up a bit.

Honda Trail 90?

Update: just saw they were CT 70's. Little brother of the Trail 90's. Lots of farmers had 90's when I grew up in the Central Valley of California.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ayers (Post 17957510)

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ingwork038.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ayers (Post 17959923)

I have used mini vacuums, fingers, wet q-tips, and lint rollers to remove powder. I'm still looking for a better method, haven't heard of using a a pencil eraser yet. Thanks for the tip.

Bump for any other powder coaters.

Just finished a new article. Learn how to spray multiple coats. Also covers 2 tones and fades. Powder Coating: The Complete Guide: Spraying Multiple Coats

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudvaynedude122 (Post 18024581)

Just finished a new article. Learn how to spray multiple coats. Also covers 2 tones and fades. Powder Coating: The Complete Guide: Spraying Multiple Coats

I just found this thread and it makes me happy. I am not a coater myself, but I am a huge proponent of the process and final product. I have all my bikes coated by a local guy who is bike savvy and takes pride in his work. He's been in biz about twenty years. He's well versed on multiple coat stuff like candies and transparents, but he hasn't ventured into multiple colors, striping, decals or any of the other more complex techniques.

I have always been a monochromatic anti-logo kinda guy. But lately, I've been thinking about building bike for off road use and the thought of a desert colored camouflage entered my mind. Can this or has this been done? How would you do it? Cure each color separately, or apply multiple colors and allow them to bleed into one another?

Really curious about this and thanks in advance for any info you can offer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet (Post 18025028)

I haven't personally done camouflage but I it would definitely be possible. The difficulty relies on how many "blobs" of each color you want, how big they are, etc. Here is a quick Google search of a powder coated camouflage valve cover.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=467868

Obviously you will want different colors for desert camouflage, but as an example, if I was shooting that valve cover, I would first shoot the entire valve cover in black and do a partial oven cure. Then mask off areas that will be the location of the black "blobs", shoot the entire valve cover in grey and do a partial oven cure. Then mask off "blobs" in the location that you would want the grey blobs to show through and do a partial oven cure. Then mask off the areas where you where you want the black & grey blobs to show through and shoot the entire valve cover in white and do a partial oven cure. Then coat the entire thing in clear and do a full oven cure. You always cure in between coats unless you are doing a fade.

So 4 coats total for the camouflage look. Just replace the colors with tan, brown, and a darker tan or brown, the clear helps hide all of the different levels and gives it a more uniform finish. It is definitely not a simple job, but a good shop should be able to do it. Its not something I would recommend tackling yourself unless you are investing in a decent powder coating gun ($600+). The hobby guns like Eastwood and Harbor Freight can't really shoot more than 2 coats. I would design a bunch of random blobs as a vector image in the shape that are fitting for the camouflage look you are going after and take it to a vinyl sign shop to have them cut them out. A good shop should be able to handle that as well though.

Hope that helps.