| Author | Message | ||
     B00stzx3 |
I searched around, so my apologies if this topics been beat. Anyways, I plan on getting all the chrome bits that are visible on my bike powdercoated black. Its an 03 XB9R with Hals full fairing. I was wondering, what is involved in the process? Frame, forks, triple tee, clipons, belt pulley, etc. I know everything can be removed, like the forks, triple tee, clipons, but what about the frame and belt pulley? Can they tape stuff off or do I need to take the bike part to do this? That might add a ton of hours to labor costs, as I was planning on trying to remove most of the stuff myself before I take it to the local guy. Everything will be powdercoated black to match the black/orange paintjob I will be getting. I wanna save as much money as possible, because the paintjob alone is going to be $450+, and I need to get the Speedzilla mirrors as well. Thanks! I have the Service manual, regular floor jacks, and have installed the XBSL suspension myself with help via my dad and friends. (Message edited by b00stzx3 on February 04, 2009) | ||
| Gunut75 |
Powdercoating consists of a spray on powder, that is baked in an oven to cure it. Individual parts can be taped off on the surfaces not to get coated. As far as the pulley is concerned, remove it, and take out the bearings. The frame and s-arm would have to be stripped of any paint. Maybe wash them out a few times with a good ol mix of soap and water. Clean them till they dont stink of gas anymore. Talk to your powdercoating guy about surface prep! The more you can do yourself, the cheaper it will get. I think (correct me if I'm wrong here guys and gals) the coating is cured in an oven at about 400 F. This is not a kindly environment for rubber or plastic. I believe aluminum has to be chemically etched before this process also. Just remember, powdercoat is tough stuff. Once its on, it'll be a bitch to get off! Its almost as tough as a ceramic coating. For my shop, I use the same two powdercoaters that buell used for their frames and such. If you get some tough tech questions about the stuff, PM me with your list of Q's, and I'll be glad to give them a call for ya!  | ||
| Slaughter |
Find out about chrome. I don't think it is possible without heavy abrasive preparation. Check it out first. You can also send Pete Alesso at Grandstand Designs the questions - he does powdercoating and will certainly know if powdercoating chrome is even possible EVEN IF you have the surface sandblasted. | ||
| Skinstains |
+1 on calling Pete at GSD. | ||
| Damnut |
I had some chrome pieces powdercoated. The look on my PC'rs face when I asked him to PC them black was priceless!! He's a Harley guy and the look he gave me was like I just banged his wife. Here's a couple of old pictures. It's an 04 XB12R and was red with gold rims/accents when I bought her.   | ||
| Bads1 |
Well..... did ya ??? | ||
| Damnut |
 I'll never tell............. | ||
| Diablobrian |
hmmmm, another full fairing firebolt with the low suspension......COOL! | ||
| B00stzx3 |
Hey, thanks for the responses yall! Gunnut, thanks for the offer and advice, I might be PMing ya. And Damnut, I have a few of your bike pics saved on my comp, thats almost exactly what I wanna do. All the silver bits black, same paintjob I have now but black with orange flames, the Speedzilla mirrors with the turn signals tinted black/smoke, orange wheels and orange windscreen. As far as the technical details, in order for them to put the frame and everything else in the oven, wouldn't I have to dissamble the whole bike? Me and my old man can do it if need be, I have the service manual and a garage (not a pro garage, just a normal suburban garage haha) Diablo-yeah, thats wild. Full Fairing plus the lowering, I'm 5'4 so I really needed it and love the full fairing look (but am tempted by the naked look sometimes!) Thanks guys!! | ||
| Damnut |
I am going to have my swingarm and frame powdercoated soon. Yes you have to remove them in order to have them PC'd. My plan is to do the swingarm first then do the frame. That way the whole bike isn't apart at once. I figure it would be easier to do it in 2 stages. I have all of my bits PC'd, no paint and although it was more of a pain than painting, it was well worth it. If you need help with anything, send me a pm or post your questions here. I'll be more than happy to help. If ya need any more pictures of my bike, let me know as well. I think it's cool that others enjoy the look of my bike as much as I do. It looks different now than those two pictures above. One of these days I'll actually take some good pictures of it and post them up. | ||
| B00stzx3 |
Well its wintertime and I won't be riding anytime soon, so I'd like to get it all taken care of once. Damnut, if your frame and swingarm aren't powdercoated, why do they look black in the pictures? My frame and swingarm are straight silver and I hate it. If I could get away with paint I would, but I assumed powdercoating was the best option for metal like the singarm and frame. I just want a black and orange bike! I'm diggin the spike bolts in the windscreen haha. The brass knuckle heelguards are cool, yall seen those? I wouldn't be worried about city police with those but the county/state police are a whole another story | ||
| Gunut75 |
That frame looks dark grey to me! | ||
| Nuerburgringer |
The very few times that I've attempted to powdercoat chrome pieces, my powdercoater asked me to have the chrome stripped first. Maybe he's over-cautious, I don't know. But that's been my experience. | ||
| Damnut |
Yea the frame & swingarm are graphite gray. The silver frame/swingarms only came with the 9's and gray with the 12's. My PC'r does all the stripping for me so I didn't have to worry about what coating was on the pieces that I had done. I like the spikes but I have to tell ya, they REALLY suck when I clean the bike. As much as I try, there is no avoiding jabbing my hand on one of those sharp f*ckers. Thank God that I only clean the bike about once a year. To do the forks you will have to break them down first. After you get them PC'd you might as well think about upgrading them with larger valves and such. GMD is a good place to go and have that done. Another alternative to having your front end done is to buy the front end for the 09's and sell yours on ebay. I don't know the exact numbers but it might end up being a wash after all is said and done. If I had to do it all over again, that's the way I would do it. Oh and the new front ends are a better/bigger fork than you have now. I did that with my rims. I bought the Villain black ones and sold my amber rims on Ebay. In the rim deal I had to figure in the cost of the PC, the cost of removing/replacing the bearings and the cost of the bearings themselves. I bought the black rims for ~650 and sold my old ones for ~450. Crunch the numbers on the front end and you might find it is cheaper (figuring in overhauling your originals) and less hassle to buy new. | ||
| B00stzx3 |
I should put this out there that by "Chrome pecies", I meant the general silver peices on by bike. I apologize for the bad wording! No chrome, except maybe the forks. Check out my pic, its in my profile. I don't think anythings chrome, just silver. | ||
| Firebolt32 |
Wouldn't PCing the frame destroy the interor lining of the gas tank? I've heard it will. I like the spikes but I have to tell ya, they REALLY suck when I clean the bike. As much as I try, there is no avoiding jabbing my hand on one of those sharp f*ckers. I feel ya Jim...sponges don't stand a chance with those things either. | ||
| B00stzx3 |
Would paint look the same as powdercoating? I could hvae the frame painted and everything else PC'd, I have NO experience with removing and reinstalling the engine, mounts, etc. | ||
| Firebolt32 |
Get the service manual. It breaks everything down on the bike, piece by piece. You can match the paint to powdercoat yes, but it's not going to be as durable. | ||
| Damnut |
That's why I'm going to do it in 2 stages. Do the swingarm first then the frame. And yes the paint will not be as durable as PC. | ||
| Ustorque |
always opt for PC over paint, no runs, no drips, no sags, a damn near fool proof and perfect finish as long as the pieces are prepped correctly. | ||
| Ustorque |
Jim will yours be the first Frame to grace the inside of the new large capacity NEBO PC oven? | ||
| Slaughter |
Swingarm first and then frame??? I hope you mean you're doing the powder coating in 2 oven cycles - and NOT doing the swingarm, re-assembling, riding a while and then disassembling, powdercoating the frame and then re-assembling again... please tell me that I mis-understood you. That's a TON of double-work! | ||
| Damnut |
That's what I meant but without the riding in-between. I have an extra swingarm and I'm having that done first, putting it on and then taking the frame off to have done. I'm kinda confused on the double work your talking about though. I thought you could take the frame off without touching the swingarm and vise-versa. I've never done either so I don't know but that was my thinking. | ||
| Xbcrazy |
Hey Guys, Just jumping in here to give my $.02. Powder coating an entire bike seems like a daunting task, but given some time and patience its not too bad. I've lost count now on how many Buell frames/swing arms we've done at GSD now but its over 2 dozen. Damnut...When I do my own bikes, I do everything at once. It saves me time and money. Basically one time to disassemble, remove all old coatings, sandblast/prep, load the color in the gun, heat up oven, etc. Saves a lot of time too. But, there is nothing really wrong with doing it in two stages. Just longer turn around times and possible additional setup charges for the powder coater since he would have to set up twice. Oh yeah, one other potential drawback is with metallic powders. The external factors including temperature, humidity and the Kv setting on the powder gun can drastically change their final appearance when cured. In that case, I would recommend doing them together in the same batch run to ensure a perfect match to one another. Here a few pics of Buell frames that we've done.        If anyone has any questions about PC, feel free to give a call. Pete | ||
| Skinstains |
I know I'm no Einstein, but I am quite confused with this thread. The chrome/silver thing has been addressed already. Where is this "full fairing Firebolt ? Where is the Black frame & swingarm ? Where are the knuckle heel guards ? | ||
| Skinstains |
I know it's not a frame or a swingarm but I just picked up my micron from Pete at GSD today. He ceramic coated my header black and powdercoated my muffler black with green outlets. It's on his site and kicks ass. | ||
| Krassh |
The full fairing bike I believe is the one in B00stzx3 profile pic. | ||
| Lonexb |
and i think he is talking about my heal guards...  | ||
| Bombardier |
Just a thought from someone who has been on the blacktop under the bike - anything that looks pretty cool and has a sharp or semi sharp edge on it gets really close and personal WHEN and not IF you come off the bike. My 2 cents. | ||
| Nuerburgringer |
"sharp or semi sharp edge on it gets really close and personal WHEN and not IF you come off the bike." Ditto. Stick to "functional". $0.02 | ||
| Skinstains |
Lonexb, aren't those knuckles supposed to be rapidly deployed ? | ||
| Diablobrian |
I thought they (knuckle dusters) were supposed to be made of bronze (denser than brass) too..... | ||
| Lonexb |
tim rapidly deployable = arrested. the cops don't play on long island. i have actually had cops give me crap about them. until they noticed they couldn't just pull them off the bike. main reason i wound up powder coating them black.  Diablobrian chrome plated bronze? these were not made of brass. and were pretty hard to drill the holes to mount them. | ||
| Jackgraves |
any one tell me good setting for my twin tec on my 1125r all I have is exhaust and air filter its not the ex version |
