DIY Network

Powder Coating and Bead-Blasting Preparation From "Classic Rides" episode DCLR-106

Figure A

According to host Kevin Tetz, "one of the beauties of working on a motorcycle restoration is the fact that your hard work and detail is not covered up by the hood of the car. It's right there where you can see it."

In this segment Kevin demonstrates one of his favorite detailing techniques -- powder coating the bike. This process used to be exclusive to professional facilities, but now there's a great home kit that makes the process easy -- and the results are incredible!

Powder Coating

Many parts (figure A) of the project '65 Electra Glide that are candidates for powder coating have been removed. A "powder coat" finish is actually stronger than paint and is impervious to things such as brake fluid and battery acid.

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	Figure B
	Figure C
	Figure D
	Figure E
	Figure F
	Figure G
	Figure H

1. The first thing you need to do is remove the old finish from the parts. The best way to do this is with sandblasting. For this particular process, Kevin chose to utilize a media-abrasive cabinet (figure B), which will keep everything contained and inside. He used a media that was aggressive enough to take the paint off, but not to where the metal would be damaged.

   Note: The media blaster uses a compressed air supply and a gun to shoot fine grains of media, in this case aluminum oxide, which removes the paint but doesn't hurt them. Other blasting mediums include sand, silicon carbide, poly beads and glass beads.

   Tip: Since metal is vulnerable to rust and condensation, it's important to get a coating on them as soon as possible. It's also important to clean the parts with a pre-paint solution to remove any residue.

2. If you don't have a blasting cabinet, there are other options:
   • Hand-held sandblaster that hooks up to the regular compressor using the same media.

   • You can take your parts to a local sand blasting facility and let them do it.

   Safety Alert: Be sure to use the proper safety gear when powder coating -- especially a good respiratory system with a mask.

3. Before powder coating the parts, protect machine surfaces, such as threads, by inserting plugs. And inside on the spline surface put some fiberglass tape (figure C) in there to keep from getting the powder on the machine surface.

4. Remove fasteners and bolts.

5. Use stainless steel wire to hang the parts, and the reason for this is that the stainless steel doesn't off-gas any impurities and won't interfere with the powder.

6. Hang parts from an ordinary oven rack, and you don't want the parts to move much so they won't swing and bump into each other. Also stay fairly close to the top of the grate (figure D).

   Tip: Try not to touch the parts that you're going to powder coat. The oil from your skin can possibly contaminate.

7. The rack of parts go into a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes. This will warm the metal and help the powder stick immediately when it sprayed on.

8. Now it's time to spray paint. Here are some of the parts of the power-coat gun:
   • The air inlet (figure E) is attached to a ball filter for filtering out moisture that might come into the powder from the air supply.

   • The regulator makes sure only 10 to 25 PSI of air come into the gun because you need low pressure for this job.

   • The trigger triggers the air going through the gun and picks up the powder.

   • And the powder is in the reservoir (figure F), which needs to be filled about two-thirds full.

     Note: Powders come in an amazing array of colors and a lot of different textures.

   • The powder is sent out through the emitter at the end of the gun.

   • The transformer plugs into any 110-volt wall outlet.

   • The attached ground clip (figure G) creates a negative charge, and this charge combined with the positive charge goes through the gun that with the powder creates an electrostatic bond that bonds the paint to the part.

9. Remove the warm parts from the oven and place on stands for access to all the parts.

10. Attach the ground clip to the part, and with the gun hooked up to an air hose, pull the trigger and spray the powder toward the part. The powder is "very fine" and will be drawn to the warm metal (figure H).

11. Continue with other parts, attaching the ground clip to each, and spray with powder.

12. When the parts are sufficiently coated with powder, carefully place the rack of parts into the oven and bake according to the specific powder coating instructions.

In the final segment Kevin will do some metal restoration and buffing.

RESOURCES :

Dremel Tools
Website: www.dremel.com

The Eastwood Company

The Eastwood Company is a supplier of automotive-restoration parts, tools and supplies.

The Easthill Group, Inc.
The Eastwood Company
Website: www.eastwoodco.com

Norton Abrasives

Sandpapers, cleaners, abrasives and bodywork supplies.
Website: www.nortonautomotive.com

Miller Welding and Electric Manufacturing Co.
Website: www.millerwelds.com

Peek Multi-Purpose Metal Polish
Peek International Sales
PO Box 952
Escondido, CA 92033-0952
Phone/Fax: 760-690-4025

GUESTS :

William "Dunk" Dunkelberger
Restoration Coordinator / Mechanic
Harrly Hoggs & Piggletts
1409 Piney Rd.
Maryville, TN 37803
Phone: 865-681-7699
E-mail: hoggsandpiggletts@yahoo.com

Ron Covell
Metalworker
Covell Creative Metalworking
106 Airport Blvd.
Suite #201
Freedom, CA 95019
Toll-free: 800-747-4631
Phone: 831-247-4324
Fax: 831-768-0706
E-mail: covell@cruzio.com
Website: www.covell.biz/