I have been thinking about what I can do to dress this bike up. I asked a local powdercoating shop about powdercoating the rockers,heads and jugs.The owner said no problem that the the powdercoating would'nt fail until around 275 degrees.The local bike shop said dont paint at all because it will hold the heat in.What do you guys think?

 

My jugs are painted black with high temp paint. They look good, it was cheap and the paint does take the heat well.

 

wbogley, is right hi-temp paint and powered coating dosetake the heat, but chrome is worst, I just this year got a new shovel engine from S&S, they never painted their heads they did the cyl but never the heads either on heads sold as kits or on a complete engine and never the body of the engines.

I was a PIA with them I wanted my engine powered coated or painted black just like my painted one came from HD, I am just use to having a black engine.

It took the dealer who ordered it, 4 weeks to get an answer, calling them back every week, S&S finally said yes we ‘ll do it but at $300 extra, it was ordered.

One thing S&S will never do is chrome their oil pumps.

So what I am getting from this is, S&S wouldn’t really powered coat that engine and still give me a 2 year unlimited mileage warranty if it was really that harmful.

I didn’t get the rockers done or the timing noise and of course the oil pump, but I am glad I held out, I like it !

Good luck, Ride safe !

cj



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i'd talk to another powder coater....how can powder fail @ 275 degrees when it doesnt even cure until reaching 385-400 degrees?

 

I own a custom powder coat shop in NC and have been at it since 1999. I have also been a mechanic for 30 yrs and have ridden Harleys for more than 20 of those. I ride a 1976 FLH that is completely powder coated [since 1996], except for the chrome, heads and rocker boxes.

Any type of finish over metal will hold heat to some degree. Powder coating the engine cases on the old AMF era shovels is actually a good idea since the sand cast aluminum is SO porous that some engine cases weep oil through the metal! Mine was one of them. The powder coating helps to seal as well as look good and makes it a breeze to clean. AMF never won any awards for their quality on the Harley assembly line.

Since the cylinders on shovelheads are cast iron they must be painted or powder coated... no choice there. However, because the cylinders are cast iron rather than aluminum like the later models, engine temps are higher. Because of that reason I recommend leaving the heads and rocker boxes bare aluminum to help dissapate heat.

If you are looking for show quality powder coating check out my site, you won't be disappointed.
Roger