Paint and Powder CoatingPosted by Hunt Risager on April 25th, 2021 If you've read through the Structural Improvements , the next step was to receive the frame and associated hardware painted or powder coated. I went with powder coating for several reasons though it would certainly be a Restoration Sin” website traffic bike was lacking any powder coating to them from your factory. Its a relatively modern technique, and possesses several advantages over paint such as no fading, chipping or scratching easily. A drawback I can consider is that it is incredibly tough to touch it in case you do occur to make a move drastic enough to inflict visible harm to the coated surface. My buddy Marc, the powder coating specialist was of immense help with this. I didn't need to ship the entire frame and all sorts of the attaching pieces so he solved the problem find and cross examine a neighborhood powder coater to be certain that I was receiving the right work done without getting cheated. The result was quite great, see below Its a good, even thin coat using Paccar Black 55% semi gloss powder which comes 99% near to the factory black frame paint. Bob from Coating Specialties, the guy who did the task achieved it well, the frame serial number shows through nicely. It is hard to tell, but I had my welder elongate the side get ready two inches to assist the bike remain true straighter, and also 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 work as it turned out easier to ship small parts to him. Below is similar master cylinder through the disassembly and cleaning section after Marc did his magic (I know the cap is missing but that has been coated too). From the factory, these pieces were anodized black. But anodizing is hardly a durable finish and also this 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 to remain the cap was stenciled in. Since there is no way to search for the original stencil, I just purchased a definative replica decal from the guy on ebay through the UK Once installed, the master cylinder is looking near perfect! And, the best part of the powder coating section, and incredibly a testament to Marc's exceptional skills, the handlebar controls. Not only did he do the background, actually is well liked powder coated the markings! Yes, that's actual cured powder in there, not paint! All with the powder coat work had to be delivered as I don't ever have large enough an oven to match the frame and cure the powder. Besides, Painters inventory management don't have any knowledge about the process at this time, but learning a lot from Marc. Moving onto paint, this is something I've done enough times and did not have to out source. The tough part is always to get the engine cleaned immaculately and masked up correctly for painting. There is no solvent that will contend with bead blasting of these soft aluminum alloy engines. So I had my machine shop bead blast your head, cylinders and the cases, all of them came out great! The head was also milled a few thousandths of an inch to make the gasket mating surface fully flat to find the best seal Cooling fins is the place the worst of the grime was (see pix inside Engine Teardown section), but wiped clean flawlessly with bead blasting The cylinder gasket mating surface have also been milled a couple of thousandths of an inch to generate it fully flat for better sealing The oil pan and oil filter cover proved great at the same time, this really is just an undesirable picture. A word of caution if anyone becomes their engine head bead blasted. Remember that it'll only take one small bead (few micrometers in dimensions) to clog up an oil galley and completely destroy the engine. So be sure you instruct the shop to mask things up properly, plug every hole and passageway as best as they're able to and then used compressed air to blow the blasting media out. The media gets EVERYWHERE, almost as good as air occupying any space it may find. While a shop assured me they had blown out all of the blasting media on delivery, I hardly believed them and took them to my local auto shop. They have a substantial compressor while my personal one is a smaller model. I took an excellent tip nozzle coupled with in internet marketing for some time and guess what happens? Still a ship load of blast media stuck the place you wouldn't believe. After a while, everything looked clear with no blockages were apparent. By this time around, I had greasy hands all over the freshly blasted engine and cases, and so they stain easy. So I filled up a large bin with trouble and Dawn Dish soap and dunked the pieces in a by one. This also washed out any stuck components of blasting media. To rinse it, I took it outside the house and used an increased pressure nozzle on a garden hose and blasted them 1 by 1. For each of the oil passages, I stuck the hose on 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 without any all debris. To prep them for paint, I first masked off every area that didn't need it. Masking tape is great for this but I was short on it, so I used lots of cardboard pieces to mask of huge sections as seen below This next spot is not hard to miss, it will be the final drive Next up was priming them high temp zinc primer. Before that, I sprayed each of the surface which will be painted with denatured alcohol. Be careful using it, because it will annihilate all microbes and grease/impurities. Always use gloves since it will start killing the skin cells whether or not this gets you, nasty stuff but an exceptional surface prep treatment to advertise adhesion. I let the primer cure for the desired period of time around the cans, then sprayed on hot temperature engine enamel The instructions about the engine enamel suggested any time it really is cured, it needed to baked for 2 hours to fully cure it to make it more proof against chipping and fading. So I purchased a cheap electric oven away from Craig's List and rigged up a short lived set up within the basement And baked the painted parts one at a time. The carnkcases were just a little bit too large to match so I were required to resort to drastic measures to have the oven to shut properly, nevertheless it worked and here is the end result and the oil pan and filter cover Pretty much the same process with the top and cylinders, just needed to pay special focus on get paint involving the fins thoroughly. For the top, I used a banged up old valve train cover through the wrong F head that came about this bike originally for masking off your entire top. For the ports and gasket surface, masking tape and cardboard did the trick Primed End result is excellent coverage between fins The remaining small pieces that needed paint were the brake caliper and brake light oil pressure switch and also the brake rotor. The rotor was the worst if this found masking things properly, but it turned out worth it within the end After the amazing finish from Marc around the controls, I simply HAD to generate the kill switch knob better, even whether or not this meant buying a red vinyl dye to color a nickel sized piece. Turned out great!Like it? Share it! More by this author |