Bad Powder Coating, what to do next?

[MedicAndy]

I had one of my local motorcycle dealers take my 1100 Sport rims apart before getting them powder coating. Everything was stripped off, including the wheel bearings. I then had the rims, valve covers, and valve crash bars powder coated. I bought new front and rear rim wheel bearings, new valve stems, tires, and brake rotors. My dealer reinstalled all components on my rims and then installed the new tires.

The dealer called me and stated that some of the powder coating had come off on one of the rim while the new tires were being installed. The powder coating on the valve covers and crash bars also peeled off badly as soon as I torqued the bolts down while installing the covers.

So, make a long story shorter, the power coat company is going to re-coat the components for free, but I'm still stuck with the labor portion of taking the wheels back apart, and then to reassemble them.

So now I'm looking at another $250.00 cost for buying four new wheel bearings and again two new valve stems, and for disassembly and then reassembly of the wheels and tires. I'm wondering if I can leave the wheel bearings in place for re-powder coating, so that I can safe $100.00, or should I bite the bullet and order new bearings, which would be then reinstalled after the new powder coating? I am also assuming that I will need to replace the new valve stems, which will set me back about another $40.00

I wanted for this bike to remain pretty original with all colors, so the rim color powder coating matched almost perfectly to the original, but I really don't like that color, so I am now trying to pick a new color.

Here is what I'm thinking:

Power coat the rims in either
- white
- black
- silver

Please let me know what everybody thinks about the color options.

Here are sone of the powder coating which I peeled off from the crash bars and valve covers.




This is what the new "bad coating" color looks like:








This is my yellow 97, which I'm going to change the rim color now to either silver, white, or black:

[lucian]

I would think the oven would bake all the grease and seals out of the bearings. Too bad they just couldn't do it right the first time.

[Carlo DeSantis]

Sorry to say, but you can't powder coat with anything on the wheels.  On the somewhat brighter side, I would think the new bearings and stems could be saved and reused. 

As for color, when I redid my T3, I chose a color called "chrome" for the frame.  It looks for all the world like the Wurth Silver paint used on Teutonic wheels.  Maybe others as well.  The powder coat just looks a bit deeper than Worth Silver with a hint of sparkle.

Best,

Carlo

[Scud]

Sounds like bad prep work by the powdercoater. I agree that you can probably re-use the bearing and valve stems (just inspect after removal) - and that you cannot leave them in the wheel. They will need to acid-strip or sandblast the powdercoat off to get to bare metal again - you don't want that in your bearings.

I bet you could get some credit toward future powdercoating to offset you additional labor cost. Just explain the situation - and how many bikes you have...

Hard to advise on color, but I think I would stay away from white on the yellow bike. I did gun-metal grey on another bike and I'm happy with that. I assume your powdercoater will have a lot of color samples. The one I use has a wall full of powdercoated washers - I just take all the samples that interest my and look at them next to the bike in different lights to see what I might like.

[canuck750]

Sounds like your powder coater did not properly prepare the surface, once cured it is very, very difficult to remove powder coat. Even scraping with a razor blade takes a lot of effort to get any powder off steel or aluminum.

Do not try and sand blast the powder coat off, powder must be stripped off with a chemical made specifically for removing powder. Sand or bead blast will just barley wear the surface of cured powder. Cured powder can be sanded off but that takes a lot of time and effort.

Eastwood Automotive sells a powder paint stripper on line.

A good powder coater should be able to properly powder coat any steel or aluminum wheel. I have had lots so car and motorcycle wheels powder coated. Good prep, a proper degreasing an acid wash prior top spraying and for wheels a powder prime coat would not hurt.

Your bearings will be just fine to reuse.

[Turin]

That gray on those wheels looks horrible, like primer. silver or black would look great. I went with black. That would look great with the yellow, and silver would look good too.



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[Trialsman]

Press out the bearings and reuse them.  The stems can also be removed and reused.  Powdercoat must be stripped somehow; abraded, chemically, or thermally.  Make sure they sandblast the pieces then rinse debris and wipe with solvent like acetone before the next attempt.  Prep is the most important, if done right, you will have no trouble with the finished surface.  I like to do one more step before I apply the powder, and that is to bake the stripped parts at about 300* to completely out gas any solvent left in crevices.

[rodekyll]

That pre-baking/outgassing is critical when coating porous, used parts.

[Idontwantapickle]

Andy,
I vote black wheels on the Yellow Menace!

Hunter

[roadscum]

Do some research to locate a powder coated in your area with a good reputation the you work directly with them. Car clubs, fabricators, etc. may be a good source of reference.

If the dealer chose the powder coaster seems he's liable for the cost of the botched job.

Paul

[n3303j]

When I asked the service I use about powder removal he stated they burn the old coat off.

[Lumpy Idle]

When I asked the service I use about powder removal he stated they burn the old coat off.

i wonder about that. is it possible that subjecting the rims to the heat involved in baking off the powder coat will have the potential to warp the rims? i certainly wouldn't leave the bearings in the rims for any recoating work or prep. pop out the bearings and reuse them, same with valve stems. andy, seems like you are in a crap situation no matter what. i think that if you took the parts to the powder coater yourself then you have to deal with the them  for the replacement bearing and stem cost  but if you took the whole thing to your dealer/mechanic and they farmed the coating work out to the powder coater then it is surely their responsibility to make you whole at no additional cost to you. that seems clear to me.

my 02 cents on rim color: i vote strongly against painting the rims white.  that never looks good.  black or silver would be fine on a yellow bike. silver would be closest to the original marchesini color and i would stick with that were it my bike.

clearly the powder coater didn't bake out the grease in the pores of the metal before baking. that reeks of incompetence and i wouldn't be inclined to trust them to do the right thing to make you whole.  in future i would find another powder coater to do your work. if the dealer/shop farmed the work out to the coater and they are trying to stiff you for the cost of labor and parts for the re-do then i would lodge a complaint with the BBB and make sure that everyone you know never uses them again.

[Chesterfield]

Silver or white on the rims, I would almost be grateful that gray is coming off. The bearings can be reused if removed properly. Bum deal though.

[Rusnak_322]

I vote for white.

Also, I don't know if the $100 price for bearings came from, but in the past I have bought wheel bearings from a bearing house for 1/4 of what they cost from a Honda dealership. Same bearing, just not in a Honda bag.

[Old Jock]

White looks great BUT unless you're wanting to wash them after every ride I'd avoid, from experience with a Daytona.

Besides I'm unsure if yellow and white would work as a combination.

Yellow and black    

Silver too would work I reckon

Just my tuppence worth

John

[MedicAndy]

Thanks for all of the great replies!

I returned the valve covers and crash bar brackets back to the powder coater, and they will remove the bad coating and re-coat the parts in black. I'm going to wait and see on how good or bad those parts will look before giving them the rims to redo.

Some people also recommended to me to not powder coat, but to paint the wheels with a special wheel paint. This is one other option that I will look into before having my wheels completely taken apart again. I will also need to ask the coater on how they are going to remove the original coating. So I may be able to keep the wheel bearings in place, if the wheels current powder coating can be removed without heat, and then have the wheels cleaned up and made ready for painting. But, this will take further resurge. I am luckily, looking at the colder month approaching, that I'm not in a big rush to get this bike done, so I can do it right this time.

I bought another bike, which was original yellow, that was painted in a BMW red right after her original owner bought this bike in 97. He also had the rims painted in the same color red, and those rims still look very nice with only a couple of places where small pieces of gravel may hit the rims here and there over time and chipped the paint in those places which can be repaired easily.

[MMRanch]

Andy

you know getting the surface clean is more important than what you put on it ...

Wal-mart sells Satin finish paint in all colors and touch-up is just a "Q-tip" away !!!

Seems like you need a new group of "Pro's" ... 

[kirb]

I would be asking about what method they use to 'burn off' the coating... I wouldn't subject those parts to more than the standard 400 degF they use to bake the parts now.

I would use epoxy remover to strip the powder coat (jasco). It works well, but will take a long time on all the surfaces you have to do.

[Old Jock]

I like that last bike Andy unusual too

I think my coater blasted the wheels before applying the powder and baking, I thought that was standard........... .............maybe not, no clue

From my experience I've had several wheels coated and Magni coated my EPM wheels on the 1000 before I got them, so it's common

Never experienced any problem and hard wearing too

I suppose it's a case of YMMV

John

[Turin]

Both times I've had wheels done,  the powder coater required that I remove the wheel bearings. According to both of them, the heat will cause the grease to leak out and the powder coat to fail.

I would remove the wheel bearings and re-install them afterwards.

[Old Jock]

Both times I've had wheels done,  the powder coater required that I remove the wheel bearings. According to both of them, the heat will cause the grease to leak out and the powder coat to fail.

I would remove the wheel bearings and re-install them afterwards.

Agree 100% for any blasting or coating of any kind everything needs stripped back to the bare bones

[rodekyll]

Thanks for all of the great replies!

I returned the valve covers and crash bar brackets back to the powder coater, and they will remove the bad coating and re-coat the parts in black. I'm going to wait and see on how good or bad those parts will look before giving them the rims to redo.

Some people also recommended to me to not powder coat, but to paint the wheels with a special wheel paint. This is one other option that I will look into before having my wheels completely taken apart again. I will also need to ask the coater on how they are going to remove the original coating. So I may be able to keep the wheel bearings in place, if the wheels current powder coating can be removed without heat, and then have the wheels cleaned up and made ready for painting. But, this will take further resurge. I am luckily, looking at the colder month approaching, that I'm not in a big rush to get this bike done, so I can do it right this time.

I bought another bike, which was original yellow, that was painted in a BMW red right after her original owner bought this bike in 97. He also had the rims painted in the same color red, and those rims still look very nice with only a couple of places where small pieces of gravel may hit the rims here and there over time and chipped the paint in those places which can be repaired easily.

No.

No.

No.

[Trialsman]

Wheel bearings must come out.  The grease will be a problem with the new finish adhering and the 400* curing process will cook the rubber seals.  Remove them.

[Chesterfield]

I just removed the peeling original grey paint off these wheels and hand polished them.

[groundhog]

Having owned and operated a powder coating shop for many years I have a few suggestions.  The failure of the coating is either from improper prep, not complete curing.  The shop involved should take it upon themselves to pay for having the bearings and seals removed at their expense.  No shop is perfect 100% of the time and mistakes are made but they should step up and fix it at their expense.  I would not agree to have the old powder burnt off the wheels, as a burn off oven typically burns off at 600 plus degrees.  If the powder is not blown off easily by blasting (which it looks like it should) then a chemical strip tank should be used to take off the powder.  Burning off the powder from the metal parts is not a problem but again if the powder is coming off that easily then blasting should take it right off without damaging the metal.  A experienced blaster used to doing these type of custom parts will know when to stop on the aluminum wheels or metal parts.  My shop was a job shop so we did a lot of custom powder jobs and government work in both paint and powder coat  and there was more than once that we ended up eating it because proper procedure was not followed but we never put the expense back on the customer and that is what should be done here.