painting upper and lower fork yokes

pkeithkelly · Jan 30, 2008

I have a 75 Mark 3.

Nice looking bike, with the exception of rusty and ratty looking finish on the upper and lower fork yokes. The silver/grey finish is pretty much worn away.

What have others done to repaint these parts? color? finish (gloss vs flat, vs in between?)

I picked up a can of spray paint from a local auto parts place, labeled "aluminum" in color, and sprayed it on a spare piece of metal to test. It's glossier than I'd like. So I'm looking for an alternative and suggestions.

Ideas?

mgrant · Jan 30, 2008

I had both powdercoated with a satin finish silver. The color is very close to original, it's a very strong coating and I'll never have to do it again. But, it requires that you disassemble the front end which is a lot of work for a cosmetic upgrade.

debby · Jan 30, 2008

Gloss black powdercoat works for me 8)

Others will disagree, of course...

Debby

ntst8 · Jan 31, 2008

debby said:
Gloss black powdercoat works for me 8)

Others will disagree, of course...

This other agrees, just had mine redone in black.

Jason Curtiss · Jan 31, 2008

I powder-coated mine silver with a clear top coat.

Ron L · Jan 31, 2008

Anyone have problems fitting the tubes after powder coating? Did they mask off these holes?

I'm thinking about doing a couple sets of trees in powder. Maybe invest in one of Eastwood's guns and coat them here in the lab where we have some smaller commercial ovens. Now if I could only talk the Industrial coatings guys out of some samples of the Harley powder...... A project for another day.

Jason,
Why a clear topcoat? Did this give a super high gloss? The originals are not high gloss and I would think most powders would have more than acceptable gloss without a topcoat.

Coco · Jan 31, 2008

I went for the "bling" option and had mine chromed.

debby · Jan 31, 2008

Ron,

The shop I use masks off the holes and puts blanking plugs in the threaded areas. They also do their own blasting and phosphoric acid dip, so no problems with rust. I haven't had any problems with the stuff peeling or coming loose. Indeed, removing it from areas such as the motor mounting points is quite a job.

Debby

Jason Curtiss · Jan 31, 2008

Ron,

The clear top coat was a recommendation by the company that did the powder coating. They claimed that the silver coating would deteriorate quite rapidly without the clear-coat to protect it. I can report that it's been some six years since the trees have been coated silver with the clear-coat and they still look like new.

In the past I've simply used rattle-can silver for the trees, which tends to more closely mimic the original paint in terms of shinyness - or lack thereof - compared to powder coating. It isn't a particularly durable finish, but it can be freshened up easily with more rattle-can silver paint.

Jason

Jason Curtiss · Jan 31, 2008

Ok, here is a picture of the powder-coated silver tripple tree with clear top-coat. I apologize for the picture quality but hopefuly you can get an idea of what it looks like.

JD · Feb 1, 2008

Jason--
Looks like a clear coat powder-coated over glass blasted metal. I used this finish on a 71 500 four Honda I turned into a cafe racer. I blasted all of the disc brake parts and shot them with clear. Gives incredible depth to your metal.
JD

painting upper and lower fork yokes

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