Over coated

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I don’t see how to post pictures. I have sanded down the isolastic end cap areas and found the PC is thick enough to catch my fingernail, but not by a lot.
 
I did follow the Old Brits powder coating blanking bolts to bolted area's on all bolt holes. However when I got to my powder coater shop they had me remove all the bolts and replaced them with their own heat resistant plastic circle blanks saying this was a lot more effective. After taking them off I sprayed some black paint onto a cardboard piece and then with a small brush, brushed it on the exposed steel openings per Old Brits info. After a year of riding my completely restored bike, I found not one of the bolts had come loose. My powder coating came out show quality, deep color of black, smooth and flat. Those were the instructions I gave the powder coater. My paint guy said he could not lay on the quality of finish and would charge more than the powder coatint cost. I am very happy with the hard surface and have not chips like I would have with ordinary paint. As you can tell I like powder coating if done well and you know what to tell your supplier on the finish you want. If you don't you might end up with an industrial type finish since this powder coating companies do that type of work all day long and do few if any bike jobs. Good luck.
 
dennisht said:
I did follow the Old Brits powder coating blanking bolts to bolted area's on all bolt holes. However when I got to my powder coater shop they had me remove all the bolts and replaced them with their own heat resistant plastic circle blanks saying this was a lot more effective. After taking them off I sprayed some black paint onto a cardboard piece and then with a small brush, brushed it on the exposed steel openings per Old Brits info. After a year of riding my completely restored bike, I found not one of the bolts had come loose. My powder coating came out show quality, deep color of black, smooth and flat. Those were the instructions I gave the powder coater. My paint guy said he could not lay on the quality of finish and would charge more than the powder coatint cost. I am very happy with the hard surface and have not chips like I would have with ordinary paint. As you can tell I like powder coating if done well and you know what to tell your supplier on the finish you want. If you don't you might end up with an industrial type finish since this powder coating companies do that type of work all day long and do few if any bike jobs. Good luck.
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I have always had good luck with powder coating, but my ignorance regarding the attaching points on my Norton is biting me in the ass. I also have a beautiful durable finish, but need to work on the joints. I have a few ideas I need to try to clear the areas around the bolt holes. I thought about doing the cradle over as that seems to have the most sensitive attaching points. I also talked to painters who could not compete with powder coating. If I had found a suitable painter, I may have gone that route as I wanted some rough spots on the frame worked over. To my pleasant surprise, for an extra reasonable fee, the powder coater sanded down the defects in the metal of the frame, then applied a thin coat over it. It now looks pretty good.
 
jamesp said:
I am going to find a way to remove the powder coating in the sensitive areas, and probably use the serrated washers, as well. My motor and tranny are now being worked over by CNW and I want them to be properly fitted. Thank you for all the comments so far. Any others ideas or hints on how to remove the PC in a workmanlike fashion will be appreciated.
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Hardware store paint stripper works quite well (even the new stuff in California). Scratch the areas a bit to help it along. Mask off adjacent areas when applying the stripper if you're picky.

I get things powder coated a few times a month and have strong opinions who does the application on my parts. Powder coat has it's advantages and drawbacks, just like anything else, and is subject to the care and skill of the applicator. If you take it to someone who treats your parts like they do lawn furniture, then that's the outcome you should expect.

Powder coat is not inherently a bad product.
 
jamesp said:
I don’t see how to post pictures.
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There are two options:

1) use an on line image hosting service (like imageshack, etc) and link to them using the picture icon in the compose window.

2) become a VIP member for a small fee to support the forum, and upload directly to the forum. And see no ads!
 
I've not found a two part paint that will stand up like Powder coat. And rattle can paint? That is a very short term answer. Just wrenching around it takes it off.
With the powder coat process, a tiny bit of owner involvement is involved. One cannot just drop the stuff off and get a perfect result. Very few powder coat Company employees are Norton owners.
Even fewer are Vincent owners.
You have to communicate areas to masked, holes to be plugged.
The other option is to do the masking and plugging yourself, no one to blame but yourself if you miss a spot.
It does happen. I once had a tape come loose and PC got where it should not be. What a job to get it off!
The durability of powdercoat becomes a real problem when that happens. I've only had that happen once and it was my fault, so I learned to take as much time as needed to do the masking properly.
The company I use sets me up in a room with all of their specialty masking/hole plugging items. For a frame I might spend half an hour in there, but then the frame comes out perfect and still looks perfect after twenty years of use.
The wheels below took awhile to mask, but the result is flawless and will stay that way.
I did a set the same way on another bike, ten years ago now. Those wheel centres still look just like these newly completed wheel centres.
I also have some black painted (2pack) wheel centres on a Vincent that has only done 4000 miles. Those are looking a bit rough already, no comparison to the result with powdercoat. I have to be very careful with the painted wheel centres when cleaning. Not so with the powdercoat centres. The powder coat centre is tougher than the aluminium on each side!


Glen

 
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I started a conversation with Nordlock reps. The washers are available on Amazon and they sent me this interesting video.
 
Knucles said:
I am just getting ready to strip down my 71 for complete overhaul .
I did not plan to powdercoat any parts.
can someone recommend the correct paint to use ..
a single stage ?
a two part epoxy paint ?
an Imron paint ?
and should I corrosion proof the frame with maybe a zinc chromate ?
open to suggestions to tell my painter what I want .
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It depends where you live and what your painter recommends.

In California, any PPG dealer can mix Delfleet essentials single stage in the correct black shade.

For frame parts, I use Spraymax Epoxy beige primer with activator which is an aerosol paint but a very good one. It adheres to bare metal and can be topcoated. A bare sandblasted frame will take about 2 cans.

Sand with a scotchbrite type 3M pad.
 
worntorn said:
I've not found a two part paint that will stand up like Powder coat. And rattle can paint? That is a very short term answer. Just wrenching around it takes it off.
With the powder coat process, a tiny bit of owner involvement is involved. One cannot just drop the stuff off and get a perfect result. Very few powder coat Company employees are Norton owners.
Even fewer are Vincent owners.
You have to communicate areas to masked, holes to be plugged.
The other option is to do the masking and plugging yourself, no one to blame but yourself if you miss a spot.
It does happen. I once had a tape come loose and PC got where it should not be. What a job to get it off!
The durability of powdercoat becomes a real problem when that happens. I've only had that happen once and it was my fault, so I learned to take as much time as needed to do the masking properly.
The company I use sets me up in a room with all of their specialty masking/hole plugging items. For a frame I might spend half an hour in there, but then the frame comes out perfect and still looks perfect after twenty years of use.
The wheels below took awhile to mask, but the result is flawless and will stay that way.
I did a set the same way on another bike, ten years ago now. Those wheel centres still look just like these newly completed wheel centres.
I also have some black painted (2pack) wheel centres on a Vincent that has only done 4000 miles. Those are looking a bit rough already, no comparison to the result with powdercoat. I have to be very careful with the painted wheel centres when cleaning. Not so with the powdercoat centres. The powder coat centre is tougher than the aluminium on each side!


Glen

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Yes, I am learning the hard way. My two choices are to either start all over again with proper blanking, or to remove the PC where necessary while trying to make it still look good.
 
Have you called the Powder coat company to see what removal agent they recommend?
I was about at that point but did manage with abrasion only, as the area in question was very small.

Glen
 
jamesp said:
Yes, I am learning the hard way. My two choices are to either start all over again with proper blanking, or to remove the PC where necessary while trying to make it still look good.
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I think with respect you are over thinking this
The frame is powder coated now so just carefully remove where necessary and paint and move on to the next problem
Cheers
 
Doubt Andover new cradle's powder coat needs removing.
It looks thin enough.
I would try the Nordlok before removing powder coat again.

But if you had the new cradle's powder coat removed and re-powder coated, maybe money is no object on this build?
Still haven't seen photos of your cradle to see how thick the powder is.

Isolastic caps usually will not fit over thick powder, so that could be one way to determine.

I have probably seen more loose parts on a painted cradles than on powdered ones. Just saying!
 
elefantrider said:
Doubt Andover new cradle's powder coat needs removing.
It looks thin enough.
I would try the Nordlok before removing powder coat again.

But if you had the new cradle's powder coat removed and re-powder coated, maybe money is no object on this build?
Still haven't seen photos of your cradle to see how thick the powder is.

Isolastic caps usually will not fit over thick powder, so that could be one way to determine.

I have probably seen more loose parts on a painted cradles than on powdered ones. Just saying!
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I am not a VIP member and cannot attach photos. Maybe you can PM me and I can attach them.
 
elefantrider said:
Doubt Andover new cradle's powder coat needs removing.
It looks thin enough.
I would try the Nordlok before removing powder coat again.

But if you had the new cradle's powder coat removed and re-powder coated, maybe money is no object on this build?
Still haven't seen photos of your cradle to see how thick the powder is.

Isolastic caps usually will not fit over thick powder, so that could be one way to determine.

I have probably seen more loose parts on a painted cradles than on powdered ones. Just saying!
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Having it recoated was not expensive, ($30.00?) its that the original coating was not as good as the rest of the parts.
 
Part of the issue is that powder paint is like liquid paint. There are many different chemistries. In powder paint there are thermoset chemistries and thermoplastic chemistries. Thermoset powder will crosslink (cure) hard and quickly, but tend to not flow (orange peel) as well as the thermoplastics which do not cure as quickly or as hard but give excellent flow. Many small powder coaters don't understand these issues and will choose powder that is easy to apply and flow nice and smooth. There are variations in thermoset/thermoplastic properties and variations in cost as well.

I am not an expert in powder formulating, but our lab did considerable work with them in an attempt to develop a commercial powder coat for metal containers. We picked the brains of the development lab in our company that does the powder for Harley and large commercial/industrial coaters. In the end cost of the proper powder formula and application/curing equipment outweighed the cost of oven incineration for the chemical emissions.
 
baz said:
I think with respect you are over thinking this
The frame is powder coated now so just carefully remove where necessary and paint and move on to the next problem
Cheers
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You may be right. I picked up a Dremel today and plan to take it bolt by bolt. Thanks.
 
worntorn said:
Have you called the Powder coat company to see what removal agent they recommend?
I was about at that point but did manage with abrasion only, as the area in question was very small.

Glen
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No, I haven’t called them yet, but thinking about it. I have been doing some filing and bought a Dremel today, so going to give that a try.
 
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