Are any of you guys blacking out your bikes your selves, I'd like tips on what your using and how you prep it, esp. chrome too black, would like all the advice possible, wanna black out my 09 fat boy

 

Just strip everything off of the bike you want blackened and get it to your local powder coater. Shop around first and you can get it done pretty cheap. Deal directly with the coater. Not the local bike shop which will up the price for handleing it for you.
Or buy you a sandblaster and strip it and use a premium spray coating like Duracoat. They even have it in a high temp version.Duracoat is marketed for the firearms industry and is tough as nails.

 

thx for the feed back dc do you think duracoat will look as good as powder coat? might be a dumb question im not sure lol.... i want to try to do all my own work on my bike, also is there any other way to strip the chrome then sand blaster? can i sand it? thank you

 

mad... me and a friend got together all the parts we wanted to get PC'ed and then took 'em down to our local PC'er in a bunch. Be cause if you take parts one at a time it'll cost you more. Most PC'er have a set price for single pieces... like if you took in a bracket of some sort he may say I charge $20 for one piece... But if you take in a bunch of parts he may go, Hmmm just give me a $150 for the bunch and that most times saves you money on most of the smaller stuff. Good Luck.

 

Maddox Storys got it right.. Get everything you want up together and figure out what color you wanna use and shop around or find out what PC'er your local HD uses... Ive used 2 in my area the 2nd being much better job.. And the more you take the better the price.. Also if your interested in painting your stuff send a PM to Rockytoprider.. He ended up painting all his parts himself and turned out pretty good..

 

Find a local powdercoater and make sure he's doing the proper prep work. Take things in batches.

 

Nope. But sometimes it looks good enough for me. You can sand chrome off but it can be a bitch if it's a quality chrome finish. I highly recommend blasting it off because you wont get a proper bond otherwise. I do rattle can some of my own stuff. I have a painter buddy who does some stuff for me in his shop if I want a better job. Bottom line is powder is better and tougher. But if you're on a budget like me, sometimes the can is "good enough". I've never owned a show bike and probably never will. If I had more money, I might think differently, but I don't.

Key point of a rattle can is do lots of thin coats. Don't try to get it all in just a couple or it's gonna look a lot chittier then it has to.

 

Powder Coating is the way to go. I work for the US govt. in Germany so I send all my stuff to EastCoast PowderCoat in Maryland. The guy does a real impressive work.

 

I went through some of this but couldnt fork out the doe for powder at the time. I ended up taking off little stuff like my horn cover and headlight frenched trim ring, sanding with water and fine sand paper till the chrome turned real dull. after drying, I hit it with 2 or 3 coats of self etching primer, let that dry, then hit it with some satin black engine enamel for a few coats, then about 3 coats of clear. My stuff looks really nice still and its had some miles on it. Some parts like wheels I will send out, but for the smaller stuff, I just enjoyed the process of doing it myself while saving some money.

 

The problem is in consistancy of finish. Which is why you would want to blast it. If properly applied I think Duracoat would be as good looking as powder. However it may in fact be cheaper in the long run to take it out for powder coating unless you have other projects you could use the blaster for. Or you're a tool junky like myself.And you would also have to figure the cost of a spray gun of some type and the Duracoat.

Sand blasting can be costly to do. As can the proper spray equipment. And then with the enviromental issues.........It will probably be cheaper to take it all out for coating. And the wife won't have as much to complain about. Since there won't be near as much mess.