Paint and Powder CoatingPosted by Bendsen Thompson on April 25th, 2021 If you've read through the Structural Improvements , the next phase ended up being to get the frame and associated hardware painted or powder coated. www.sendspace.com/file/i33xry chose powder coating for a lot of reasons although it would be described as a Restoration Sin” website traffic bike was without any powder coating with them through the factory. Its a somewhat modern technique, and contains several advantages over paint for example no fading, chipping or scratching easily. A drawback I can think of is that it is extremely hard to touch it down in the event you do happen to do something drastic enough to inflict visible damage to the coated surface. My buddy Marc, the powder coating specialist was of immense help with this. I didn't need to ship the complete frame and all the attaching pieces so he taught me to be locate and cross examine a local powder coater to make sure that I was having the right work done without getting scammed. The result was quite great, see below Its a good, even thin coat using Paccar Black 55% semi gloss powder which comes 99% towards the factory black frame paint. Bob from Coating Specialties, the guy who did the job did it well, the frame serial number shows through nicely. It is actually difficult to tell, but I had my welder elongate the inside stand by two inches to aid the bike remain true straighter, as well as the center stand shortened by one inch to aid me wear it it easier. These were in rough shape, but sand blasting and powder coating does wonders. While the frame and larger pieces were done locally by Bob, I had Marc perform more delicate and intricate act as it was simpler to ship small parts to him. Below is the identical master cylinder from the disassembly and cleaning section after Marc did his magic (I know the cap is missing but which was coated too). From the factory, these pieces were anodized black. But anodizing is virtually no durable finish this also had faded to white/bare aluminum. Marc used Tuscan Matte Black powder, again 99% close to the factory finish. From the factory, the warning label/caution sign up the cap was stenciled in. Since there is absolutely no way to get the original stencil, I just purchased a precise replica decal coming from a guy on ebay from the UK Once installed, the master cylinder is now looking near perfect! And, one of the benefits with the powder coating section, and really a testament to Marc's exceptional skills, the handlebar controls. Not only did he do the background, younger crowd powder coated the markings! Yes, that is certainly actual cured powder inside, not paint! All of the powder coat work had to be delivered as I don't genuinely have large enough an oven to suit the frame and cure the powder. Besides, I really have no knowledge about the process currently, but learning a great deal from Marc. Moving onto paint, that is something I've done enough times and was lacking to out source. The tough part is to receive the engine cleaned immaculately and masked up correctly for painting. There is no solvent that could tackle bead blasting for these soft aluminum alloy engines. So I had my machine shop bead blast the top, cylinders and also the cases, all of them arrived on the scene great! The head has also been milled a number of thousandths of an inch to produce the gasket mating surface fully flat to find the best seal Cooling fins is w here the worst of the grime was (see pix in the Engine Teardown section), but washed flawlessly with bead blasting The cylinder gasket mating surface seemed to be milled several thousandths of an inch to create it fully flat for better sealing The oil pan and oil filter cover ended up great as well, this is just a negative picture. blog link of caution if anyone is becoming their engine head bead blasted. Remember that it takes only one small bead (few micrometers in dimensions) to clog up an oil galley and completely destroy the engine. So make sure to instruct a shop to mask things up properly, plug every hole and passageway as best as they are able to after which used compressed air to blow the blasting media out. The media gets EVERYWHERE, almost as good as air occupying any space it can find. While the shop assured me that they had blown out each of the blasting media on delivery, I hardly believed them and took these phones my local auto shop. They have a large compressor while my own, personal you are an inferior model. I took a fine tip nozzle together at it for a time and guess what? Still a boat load of blast media stuck in which you wouldn't believe. After a while, everything looked clear no blockages were apparent. By now, I had greasy hands throughout the freshly blasted engine and cases, and so they stain easy. So I filled up a large bin with hot water and Dawn Dish soap and dunked the pieces in one by one. This also beaten up any stuck components of blasting media. To rinse it, I took it outside the house and used a higher pressure nozzle with a garden hose and blasted them individually. For all the oil passages, I stuck the hose one end and watched a tall fountain sprout on the other instrument. Only after all this was I convinced that the engine and cases were clean and clear of all debris. To prep them for paint, I first masked off all areas that didn't need it. Masking tape is great for this but I was short about it, so I used plenty of cardboard pieces to mask of enormous sections as seen below This next spot is not hard to miss, it will be the final drive Next up was priming them with high temp zinc primer. Before that, I sprayed all the surface that will be painted with denatured alcohol. Be careful utilizing it, since it will annihilate all microbes and grease/impurities. Always use gloves since it will begin killing your epidermis cells when it gets you, nasty stuff but a superb surface prep treatment to advertise adhesion. I permit the primer cure for the required timeframe around the cans, then sprayed on warm engine enamel The instructions on the engine enamel suggested any time it is cured, it needed to baked for two hours absolutely cure it and make it more resistant against chipping and fading. So I purchased a cheap electric oven from Craig's List and rigged up a brief set up inside basement And baked the painted parts one at a time. The carnkcases were a bit too large to adjust to so I had to resort to drastic measures to get the oven to seal properly, nevertheless it worked and this is actually the end result and the oil pan and filter cover Pretty much the same process with the top and cylinders, just was required to pay special focus on get paint among the fins thoroughly. For your head, I used a banged up old valve train cover in the wrong F head that came about this bike originally for masking off the complete top. For the ports and gasket surface, masking tape and cardboard did the trick Primed End outcome is excellent coverage between fins The remaining small pieces that needed paint were the brake caliper and brake light oil pressure switch as well as the brake rotor. The rotor was the worst if this stumbled on masking things properly, but it turned out worth it in the end After the spectacular finish from Marc on the controls, I simply HAD to create the kill switch knob better, even if it meant buying a red vinyl dye to color a nickel sized piece. Turned out great!Like it? Share it! More by this author
|