Powder Coating

[Wildkat]

That's kind of what we decided too... Are you going to powder coat your wheels? because if you are... I can wait to see how your bearing handles it... before I do anything to mine...

[fredintoon]

Don't do that

John and I were talking about this the other day... If you powder coat the rear wheel... does the temperature of the curing process get extreme enough to mess up the rear bearing?
If the powder coating only takes a few minutes to cure... will it be okay?

I'd hate to do this only to find out that I would be in the "looking for the extremely hard to find rear bearing, might as well be a unicorn" group....

Hi Wildkat,
if you powdercoat the wheel bearings and all you will fritz-up the bearings and the powdercoat. The bearings and especially any elastomeric seals won't like the heat and the bearing grease will vaporize and contaminate the pigment.
I'd say remove all the bearings & seals then wash out the hub with solvent or acetone before powdercoating.
Guy on another list powdercoated a cast wheel but didn't remove the cush-drive rubbers. Surprisingly they lasted several months before they collapsed and the rear sprocket went loose.

[barberad]

Hey Trbig,

I found a company (HPC) that claims they can put a heat proof coating on a used set of headers almost as easily as they can new.

How about this coating for your frame?

Caveat emptor?

Thought you might be interested

Newbee, This tech has come a long way in a short time. This is commonly called "Flame spray" and used to be a very expensive process. I looked at their website and didn't realize that they can now do colors and fine finishes. We use this process on the high temp components of fighter engines; after burner liners, divergent and convergent seals. I've seen it (well, had it) done to motorcycle exhaust headers and the processs used a molten nickel based coating sprayed thru a torch. Final coating could be different materials such as a brass mixture or ceramic applied the same way. Now I guess they can do a "chrome" as well.
When I worked in this shop, I was the corrosion control guy, sandblast and paint. We used an Epoxy polymide primer that was an etching primer. That was some mean stuff. Actually eats in to the metal(on the microscopic level). Always had people trying to get me to paint their Dive Tanks with it. I used some of this primer and finished with a good poly paint on a guys ZX-11 sportbike rims and I could not get rid of the crotch rocket guys trying to get me to paint their stuff. If I had the means and facilities to paint frames and rims this would be the most economical/durable application for us.
I would deffinatly go the powder coating route as well if it has come down in price. My .02
Dan

[dragxs11]

This is for you Wildkat....
I had a set of wheels powder coated once. The bearings are not an issue to remove. The bad part is the rubber dampers in the rear wheel that the spline gear bolts to. They are glued and pressed in, and I thought we were gonna snap the rim in the hydraulic press getting them out. Furthermore, if you somehow manage to not destroy them, you must get them back in perfectly or your rear wheel will wobble. My advice is to chrome them... black, gold, or standard. You can leave them in for that.

[selfmade]

think long and hard before you attempt a frame. I have been coating for three years and the first 6 months were terrible. You have to understand cleaning, preping, and application. not to mention the little short cuts to get things moving.

[exquized1]

I work for a garage door company. We powder coat alot of parts including the 20' guide tracks. I am going to call over to plant one and see if it is possable to get my frame powder coated. and how much? Hopefully I can pass on some deals to local riders.