Does anyone know much about Powder Coating? I had a few parts done and the paint (shade) isn't consistant throught the part. It looks darker in a certain area's. Could this have been caused by the part not being clean enough? If so how clean is important? Does powder paint go bad? I mean if it were old would it cause darker areas like this? What is the best way to prep parts prior to spraying them? Any help would be much appreciated...

Thanks, Rude Dog.

 

Rudedog
I own Diamond G Racing and have had hundreds of parts powder coated and never had this problem before.I spoke with my powder coater and he seems to think that the coating was not applied evenly or was not heat treated long enough. Hope this helps
Bearman

 

1Bearman: Thanks for your input.

I ended up re-sand blasting the parts and taking them to another shop to have them powder coated. I showed the guy one of the bad parts and he thought it looked like the paint was not evenly applied.

Question: Is this place withering away? It seems like the response level is at an all time low. This is the second post I entered that only got (1) response. Maybe everybody else out there uses spray-can technology and so have no experience with powder coating??? Don't know?

Thanks, again..... Rude Dog

 

I think that most people are out riding instead of surfing the web right now. It has been extremely nice at least in my area this year. I agree with 1bearman. I have had a few frames powdercoated but have never had a problem yet. It does make since that maybe they were in a hurry and hit some places longer than others. I know that after you have it sand blasted you don't have much time before it starts to rust. It doesn't take much moisture. Powdercoating is definitely worth the trouble. I haven't had very good results with painting my frames but the powdercoating seems to hold up the best. What kind of bike are you working on? Did you tell the shop that you weren't satisfied with the powdercoating job? I would definitely say something. Powdercoating isn't cheap and sandblasting isn't either. Good luck with your bike.

 

Meangreenmachine:

The guy that "was" doing the work is a friend of mines kid. He was doing the job for free as he owed me a favor. Well I'll figure another way he can repay his dept to me. I guess I found out the hard way that he isn't as good a painter as he thought he was. I don't know if it's true, but the new place I took the parts to, said the color I choose (candy pupple) was one of the worst to work with. I don't know if that's true or not?? Well other than lost time and frustration I suppose I'll survive the mess. The project is my 1989 Banshee Duner. I decided to refurbish it as the frame was starting to rust on me. Anyway it started when I picked up a new A-Arm frame, and before I knew it almost everything on the quad was either being replaced, repainted, or polished. It should look real sweet when it's done. Purple: frame, hubs swing-arm, disk brake shields and rear skid guard. Black powder painted: pegs, rear brake lever & Ft fender supports. Near-chrome: steering stem. All new black plastics, polished aluminum: wheels, bars, bumpers, grill, brake reservoirs, thottle cover, stator case, clutch & water pump covers. Black seat cover with small purple stripes. Sorry if I got windy... I guess I'm just really anxious to get it done to see the finished product.

Rude Dog

 

That sounds like it is gonna be one badd bike. Sounds like you have found the right colors. I like the way the black banshees look that are all chromed out. Should be sweet when your done. I agree that it was a hard color to work with. I had my last frame done in yellow and the shop told me the same thing. They said some colors are easier than others. That is just a color that they don't shoot alot. They have to set up their equipment to handle just that color and that costs more than if they already had it set up. I definitely wouldn't say anything to your buddy. If it's free and he was trying to help you out I wouldn't worry about it. At least you both learned something from this. Let us know how your project turns out. I would like to see some pics. Good luck.

 

I work in a sheetmetal shop in the telecom industry and we have 5 powder coat lines. All of our parts that we build go through a degreasing process and then on to the paint booth. It sounds as though your parts either weren't prepped right, uneven coating as mentioned in an earlier post, or the oven curing. I have seen many parts scrapped due to the oven being too hot or not hot enough. We only deal with a few colors so I couldn't comment on the purple. But if it's anything like a wet paint, those types of colors are prone to showing errors.

 

Well, I picked-up my parts yesterday from the Power Coater. Man oh man... talk about sweet looking stuff!!!!!! It came out looking exactly as I first thought it should when I initially started looking at different colors. It's candy purple, kind of translucent. It kind of looks like maybe it had chrome plating under the powder coat as it has that deep shine, almost like it glows. Also In seeing it, I now believe the previous paint job was sprayed on way to heavy.

Another question guys... I didn't have the upper & lower A-arms done because I was told that the ball-joints had a nylon or plastic bushing in them and it would melt in the oven process. Once melted the joints would be real sloppy or loose. Is this true??

Thanks... a bunch...

Rude Dog

 

Yes, it will melt the plastic. You have to remove any plastic or rubber otherwise it will melt. I had my gear shifter done with some other parts and forgot about the rubber piece that was on there. Well it isn't there anymore. It's kinda hard to get grip on the shifter especially if my foot is muddy. Make sure you remove any bearing, seal, rubber, plastic, or anything that isn't part of the frame before you have it blasted or powdercoated. You need to take some pics of that bad boy and show them to us. Keep us posted.

 

Latest Info:

When I picked up the parts yesterday I really didn't have time (lunch break road trip) to check them out completely. So last night, while I was checking them out, I noticed the front hubs didn't get fully sprayed as you could see aluminum in a quite a few places (front areas only). These areas are the deeply recessed sections when looking at the hub from the front. So I ran the parts back down to the guy, showed him the area's and he said that they sprayed these area's light so as the paint wouldn't pool-up and appear real dark in color. He agreed they were a little to "light". He said he would strip & re-spray them a little heavier in these area's and that they should be done on Monday.

Rude Dog