hey, after some deliberation I decided to get my early 80's Giant Racer powder coated. The original frame had just been sprayed white over the top of the existing paint work...nasty. I don't class the bike as vintage so powder coating seemed the obvious choice.

I am fairly happy with the finish. I'm not sure if I masked the wrong parts. Could someone advise if I have or not? I am also interested in how I can neaten the powder coat where it meets the bearing housing (see pics). I guess the powder built up against the masking tape and caused an uneven, crumbled ridge.

Thanks in advance...noob trying to rebuild a bike.

You should have removed that crown race from the fork. Now, you need to either dremel that paint off or somehow get it out of the bearing race. Clean off the residue on the headset pieces, get the bearings and grease in there and put it to gether. Nice job, so far.

To follow up Robbie's comment, in your situation I'd probably just replace the crown race outright, I'd be worried about damaging the bearing face if you tried to grind all the powdercoat off it. For the upper and lower races that are still on the frame, I'd do now what you should have done before powdercoating and remove them from the frame - once they're removed it will be very easy to remove the extraneous color from those parts and you'll have a perfectly clean line when you press them back in.

Thanks for replying guys. I guess I need expensive tools to remove all 3 races? Are the parts easily obtainable or do I remove them, clean them up and then replace them? Complete novice here btw doing my first bike restore. Your help really is appreciated. Ps. Should the upper race have been powder coated or do some folk leave it bare?

All of the bearing surfaces need to be bare metal. Unfortunately you did not mask the lower race. It might take some work but you could probably carefully scrape the coating off the lower race with a razor blade without removing it. I'm not sure how the coating would react to heating, but if you remove it you may be able to soften with a heat gun for easier scraping. Yes there are pricy tools for race removal, but you can also remove them with a hammer and punch by tap,tap,tapping with care. Getting them back on right is another story.

The crown race on the fork must be replaced. There is no saving it. Period. Removing powder coat is an extremely difficult and time consuming task. A new crown race is CHEAP. I'd use a razor blade to cut the powder where the race meets the fork crown before trying to remove it, or you risk pulling a big piece of powder off when the race moves. I'd have your LBS do the removal since you aren't very experienced and don't have the tool. They should charge next to nothing since it's a 60 second job. Have them install the new race too, another 60 second job.

The wrinkles in the powder on the head tube where the cups are is a problem. Even if you remove the cups and clean them, the edge of the tube where the masking was done will still be messed up. There is no "cleaning that up" when dealing with a powder finish. The only solution I can think of is to have the head tube faced at the top and bottom. It looks like removing 1-2 mms might take care of it. A well equipped bike shop (not all are) or a frame builder will have the facing tool.

Your powder coater dropped the ball here. They should have known that the cups should have been removed, not masked, and should have spotted the crown race too.

Thanks for the comprehensive replies again. I think your advice is sound [MENTION=362748]SquidPuppet[/MENTION]. I'll call my LBS and see if the are able to replace my cups and races and I'll ask about refacing the headset edge where the powder coat wrinkles. What will I do with the few mm of bare headset tube after facing it to prevent rust? Learning loads here, thank you!

Actually, powder coating can be stripped using paint stripper.
I have done that on several occasions.
Remove the crown race and soak in a small container of a good paint stripper and the coating should bubble off like paint.
It may take a while.
But, as headsets do not cost a bunch, it may be more economical to just replace the whole shebang.
You can touch up the rough edges at the ends of the head tube with an emery board or nail file after removing the headset parts.
Be careful and try to avoid removing all the powder coating down to bare metal. If yo do, touch up
with model paint. As for the faces of the head tube, those are routinely left bare after facing with cutting tools at the manufacturer.
Apply a thin coat of grease if you are concerned about corrosion.

The bare edge of the head tube will be no big deal. If you are really concerned hit it with some nail polish. If it were me, I'd just apply some grease to the raw edge before pressing in the cups back in.

You can make your own headset cup pressing tool, cheap, from common stuff if you want to. Go to Park Tools website and watch a video of their tool being used to become familiar with the process.

Then go to any hardware store and buy a LONG 3/8" bolt, a 3/8" nut and a few washers of increasing diameter to stack at each end. Use the bolt-nut-washers in the same way you saw the park tool being used. Works like a charm.

SquidPuppet gives sound advice.

Where are you located? Most folks on this sub forum are better equipped than a lot of shops, and willing to help out.

I run a part time gig doing custom powdercoating, so I hope my words will carry some weight with you.

Please dont ever use that guy to do any more coating on your bicycles.

He may do a whiz bang job on patio furniture or trailer hitches or whatever, but he isn't worth a damn as a bicycle powdercoater.

I'd say about half of the frames brought to me still have the cups and race installed like yours was. It takes about one minute with a mallet and a blunt punch to tap them out. Then I can truly clean and prep the frame and fork without a bunch of skank hiding behind those parts just waiting to ooze out when the oven heat hits them. And it gives a clean line for the powder to wrap up to. So, if in the future the owner wants to swap headsets or whatever he doesn't run into the issue you're facing, which is chipping and rough edges. When you picked your frame up, he should have put your parts into a baggie and handed them to you along with your completed powder job.

His powder is a nice gloss and you suggest an emery board? This isn't wet paint where it can be wet sanded, polished and buffed to a new gloss. Once he dulls it, it's over.

That's not correct. If the job calls for it, I will cut and buff powdercoat till it screams.

His powder had attempted to form a glossy fillet between frame and head set race. It is glossily jagged and possibly prone to chipping.
Smoothing the high spots with an abrasive will decrease the possibility of chipping.
A light filing at a close to flush angle will hardly be visible, if at all.
At least, I never examine headset race to head tube seams to assess the glossiness of the juncture...
And, powder IS polishable.
But, the OP is free to take or leave my advice as he sees or is persuaded to see fit, and it will not upset me one bit...........

I can't see a powder coater who cares about the work letting someone else do any of the prep work, the prep is everything.

Thanks for all the advice. I dont want to drop the powder coater in the dirt here. I stripped the bike completely and asked my brother to powder coat it at his work place. His colleagues normally powder coat gym equipment. They done a real good job on the frame but it was completely my fault the racers and crown were left on.

As I said, im a noob and have learned tremendously from this thread - so thank you. I wont be making this mistake again

Thanks for the correction. What products do you use, specifically, in which order? I have a repair that I've never been able to achieve good results on.

Will a small patch of bondo to fill a dent in a frame live through powdercoating? It gets pretty hot, I hear.

Most times the cut and polish is to save my own butt after doing a less than perfect job. Usually working with wet sanding from 1000 out to 2500 grit paper followed by 3M Perfect-It compound will fix most any boo boo. I had a nice little "uh-oh" right in the top part of that bracket when I first cured the powder and before wet sanding and polishing it out. The guy had some pretty high goals for the project so nothing less than perfect would have been appropriate. It all turned out okay in the end and one of the powder suppliers wound up using pictures of it for their website coincidentally.

PERFECT-IT RUBBING COMPOUND

No Bondo. Use JB Weld. It will withstand the heat and its electrically conductive so the powder will stick to it.

After getting the Jb Weld block sanded out as well as possible, a coat of filler powder then block sanding that will slick it all in smooth.

A gas tank with holes in the side. Notice also the undulations around the welds where there are a lot of low spots.



After JB Weld, several coats of filler powder, and then topcoat.



That gas tank was my nemesis. I never was completely happy with it. I should have just told the customer to seek a painter and saved my sanity.

Thanks. Seeing that tank give me ideas for my old Sportster.

Thanks. I've gone all the way to 2000 and tried a number of compounds but I never had success bringing it back to life. Looks like that 3M stuff must be the shizzle. I'll give it a try.