Well, i know there are not many sport bike fans here, but we currently have a streetfighter project we are working on.... figured it was a good time for Sean and I to show you the process a wheel will go though for powder coating with us. We are also using a sick color, it is a burnt orange copper, with just a touch of flake to match the vett color

here is the process:
after we pull the rubber and the bearings the wheels are Dunked in chemical strip tank to remove paint and then wash with our own solution to neutralize and clean


step 2
90 min at 450 part metal temp to open pores and release contaminates that would ruin powder during curing

Step 3
after the part has been outgassed we Then blast with our custom inhouse media blend that provides maximum powder adhesion and deep clean of metal.

freshly blasted and outgassed:


surfaces masked and ready for powder


this particular powder requires a base coat, some powders like translucents and candies do. while others are one shot powders.
The wheels base coat is done. we have developed a technique for wheels that involves cross linking two coats of the final color. This allows for all the advantages of two coat film thickness without any of the orange peel or other imperfections typical of two coats. Coverage is 100% even, zero thin spots in nooks and crevices, which greatly enhances both appearance and durability, and also smoothes out and hides cast finishes completely.
Basicly this gets rid of all the ugly casting marks and leaves the finish perfectly smooth without any imperfections



Final product


and a better picture of our sample bottle to see the color


here is what it looked like before we tore it all apart but gives you an idea of what the wheels looked like before we started

 

Very cool! Thanks for the pics. Show us the final, assembled product when it's done!

 

will do... still dong a mock up on the front end, once i get the spacers done, we will start going to down on the rest of the powder work... I am going to do a ton of airbrush work on this bike, lots of airbrush effect carbon fiber (all the plastics will be done in that) and ghost in skulls on the top of the tank (accenting their eyes and teeth in orange) should be pretty dope.... but i am also slamming it 2.5 in back and 2.0 in front... wife is 5'3 and she wants to ride it ha ha ha

 

Can you give any advise on powder coating kits that are available for do it yourselfer's? I've heard that they are available but have no experience in that field!
thanks.
Hatch.

 

it is not the kit that really matters it is the prep... there is just as much if not more prep work for powder than paint... problem with hobby guns is you can not control the current and get uneven flow of powder... you are better off sinking your money into a good media booth and compresser and going from there bud.... without propper prep, it will chip and flake

 

If you do the proper "prep work" a hobby gun will work and not chip off. It is all in the prep..

 

From everything I've seen of your other projects, you are a talented man. The GL your working on is one of the coolest projects I've seen.

Since you do an initial base coat, is it possible to put down a decal over the base coat, powder the final color, and then pull the decal to leave an impression of the decal in the color of the base coat? Would it be durable? Would it be prone to chipping or flaking?

Odd question, but I've been thinking about having the rims on my zx6 coated kawi green with white Kawasaki logos on the lip.

.

 

Thanks for the show.. some probably though it was easier than than....now we know...

 

Very interesting, thanks

 

as soon as i get my tax dollars back from uncle sam i am sending my wheels off to get the spokes powdercoated.