Powder Coating Questions

[6]

So the speedway season ends in October.

My bike is nice but not very pretty. Pealing chrome, etc. I'm trying to keep the rust away. It's trying to creep in.

I was thinking of power coat. Has anyone had nay experience powder coating things that where chrome?

Also thin tube? What type of heat do they get to to bake the powder.. do I have to worry about warping?

IMG_20210826_153724.jpg

Also, any idea on rough costs? I would want to do both frames (front and rear triangle), forks, tank, and all the brackets.... I'm not sure if that is hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Any thoughts?

[Henway]

Kinda doubt the tank would be a good idea, but what do I know? They'll sandblast everything and hopefully plug all the holes so they don't get smaller diameter due to being coated. >$100 and likely <$500 from my experience in California.

[6]

Kinda doubt the tank would be a good idea, but what do I know? They'll sandblast everything and hopefully plug all the holes so they don't get smaller diameter due to being coated. >$100 and likely <$500 from my experience in California.

Thats not too bad. Why do you think the tank would be a bad idea? Its raw aluminum, i could always just polish it/

[Henway]

I thought powdercoating and gas don't mix well, but I was probably wrong:

https://www.prismaticpowders.com/gallery?htids=Motorcycle%20Gas%20Tank

There are threads and several people say they get much better results painting. But YMMV as always.

I had my frame for my SRX250 which I stuffed an SR500 in powdercoated.

Powdercoating is heavy, so polish your aluminum and show it off! The cowl below is polished aluminum.
1_SRX_right_2_copy.jpg

[69Falcon]

The advantage for paint is it’s easily touched up, and while I’m sure powder coating can be more durable, the abuse your speedway bike takes may negate that.

[frinesi2]

I agree with that price - in the hundreds for frames and hardware. They can bake them all at the same time. Temp is 400°F if I recall, so it's not going to affect the steel. The thin aluminum of the tank might not have as good a time.

Might I suggest Bright-Ass Orange.

[riot]

I have not had a frame or tank powder coated, but I have all of my wheels and side covers powdered. You definitely want the powder durability on the frame.

I also agree that painting or polishing the tank would be the way to go.

My guess is it would be $250-500 for the frame forks and brackets.

Is your frame chrome or nickel plated? Is it losing plating, or just pitting? This season when I had the Flattrack frame repaired, I thought about coating, but I had good success just polishing and buffing everything, then clear coating it. In a few spots where the rust or plating was bad, I found that if you polish the steel underneath, once it’s shiny it looks ok if it’s not in a conspicuous area.

[Enigma T]

FWIW rpcraft has a powdercoating setup...

[6]

FWIW rpcraft has a powdercoating setup...

Ya I know. Thanks but I'll stick with expirainced pros for this. If I wanted someone to learn on it, I'd do it myself and acquire the knowledge. This is just something want done quick and right.

[6]

The advantage for paint is it’s easily touched up, and while I’m sure powder coating can be more durable, the abuse your speedway bike takes may negate that.

I had that same thought and that logic makes 100% sense in my brain...

Cept everyone that does these frames either uses powered coat or chrome. I'm assuming that is from experience. Although they may just not be able to paint themselves and PC is cheaper...


But the thought of stripping the chrome myself is very daunting. But the paint would be almost free. We have some very, very tough and very cheap tractor/utility single stage paint as long as I'm not color picky.

[6]

I agree with that price - in the hundreds for frames and hardware. They can bake them all at the same time. Temp is 400°F if I recall, so it's not going to affect the steel. The thin aluminum of the tank might not have as good a time.

Might I suggest Bright-Ass Orange.

Yes. You absolutely may suggest that. Though I'm not sure that's the direction I would go unless I could fina dope accent color as to not look like the Halloween bike. And neons really tend to sun face fast..

[frinesi2]

Riot has a point about polishing. Polished steel won't corrode as fast as unpolished steel since it has a lower surface area for oxidation to occur. But then again that's a lot of work to maintain.

[BillnOroville]

My 2 cents;

If you polish then clear coat then touching up would be pretty easy (spray can anyone). A couple years down the road, use paint remover to get rid of the clear coat, it should still be pretty polished after removing clear. Buff it up a little (less time this time around) and clear coat it again.

Cost is low if you have the time to do the work. Winter is coming.

[6]

I have not had a frame or tank powder coated, but I have all of my wheels and side covers powdered. You definitely want the powder durability on the frame.

I also agree that painting or polishing the tank would be the way to go.

My guess is it would be $250-500 for the frame forks and brackets.

Is your frame chrome or nickel plated? Is it losing plating, or just pitting? This season when I had the Flattrack frame repaired, I thought about coating, but I had good success just polishing and buffing everything, then clear coating it. In a few spots where the rust or plating was bad, I found that if you polish the steel underneath, once it’s shiny it looks ok if it’s not in a conspicuous area.

ITs chrome plated (im pretty sure its chrome and not Nickle, though i don't know the difference so I'm unsure as to why i think that). and ya, its loosing the plating all over the place. It's pealing up. On top of that i had to take some off in a couple spots to weld and sleeve a crack in the frame and to add a few brackets.

[6]

My 2 cents;

If you polish then clear coat then touching up would be pretty easy (spray can anyone). A couple years down the road, use paint remover to get rid of the clear coat, it should still be pretty polished after removing clear. Buff it up a little (less time this time around) and clear coat it again.

Cost is low if you have the time to do the work. Winter is coming.

I have had issues with steel corroding under clear coat for some reason. rattle can clear coat is not the rust cure that it may seem.

The more i think and talk with you guys about this the more sending this thing out to have someone else deal with it makes sense.

1. I DO NOT want to strip this pealing chrome myself.

and 2. I dont want to have to do any more to maintain this thing than i already have to do. The bike takes a fuck ton of time as is. It takes hours and hours every time it comes off track before it can go back on. Adding work to keep up with cosmetics is a pretty hard no in my book. I dont want to have to do anymore than point a pressure washer at it to keep up with the aesthetics.

Ill find someplace local and get a quote or ask some of the guys at the track who they used.