Tips/ Hints Before Powdercoating Swing Arm/ Suspension

[CrazyMedic]

I picked up a 93 swing arm off ebay and it came to my house yesterday. It is complete with swing arm (duh), mono shock, rear caliper bracket, dog bones and the other suspension part that is U shaped (dont know what its called). I want to powdercoat the swing arm red, but before I do are there bushings or other parts that need to be removed first? What about after powdercoating- what new parts will I need before I bolt up? I want all new parts when it goes on so I am trying to avoid reusing stuff. Thanks for your help all!!!
Nik

[crazymofo]

for the best finish your best to strip off whatever parts you are not wanting to powdercoat.

also keep this in mind, the process of powercoating means they spray on the powdercoating materials, then bake it in an oven to get it to cure/harden, so if you have any and i mean ANY residual oils on any of the parts, it will leave a blister that cannont be romoved from the coating once applied. short of stripping the coating back.

finger prints and any other oils will show up if you are only clear powercoating as well.

so my advice would be to clean it all off with a non- oil based solvent/degreaser, and any further handling of the part should be done with gloves on with no oils in them as well.

i had heaps of headaches with my swing arm rims and engine covers, they are all polished and were clear coated.. the polishing compound left behind oils and they came thru the clear powerdercoat so i had to get it redone. the second time round i invested the 35 bucks and had them baked to burn off the oils, prior to having the coating applied.

as for new parts, new bearings for the swing arm, and some new CAD plated bolts would go down nicely

cheers.joe.

[The CyberPoet]

Pop over to RonAyers.com, and look at the fiche files for the parts you want to replace (like the swing arm bearings). Take the swing arm over to the powder-coater and talk with them -- ask if they would rather that you leave the old pieces in (so they have less masking to do) or not, knowing that you are planning on replacing the pieces after coating.

As for the oils, most powdercoating places in the USA bead-blast or sand-blast the parts before applying any coating, so that will remove the oils, etc. Blasting is usually an optional service, but one that is usually fairly cheap and you really want them to do it (it will also remove any residual rust, the old coating, etc).

Be sure to talk with the coater as well about the intended use -- there are different types of powders, and you need one that is exceptionally hard (because of debris coming up off the ground) and UV- / all-weather impervious. Also ask them about double-coating it (what the price difference would be -- shouldn't be much more), which will increase the depth of the coating and likeliness that the swing arm will outlive the rest of the bike.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet