New coating on a shock

I bought a monoshock off a VL800 that I'm gonna reuse on another bike. But the coating on the actual sprint is pretty beat up. I'm not honestly sure what material it is, if it's a rubber or a plastic, has anyone ever replaced the coating on a shock or have any advice?

Thanks

you can get it powder coated

I thought about that, but would like to retain that flexible material if possible.

it will be flexible......lot of guys get their springs powder coated without issue

No kidding, thats definitely an option then, thanks.

google it, there is all kinds of info on this

I was surprised when googling how I could barely find any information. I think it was just a matter of using correct verbiage.

powder coating springs....... will bring up a few pages of stuff

Thanks

You could probably use plasti-dip. Easier and cheaper than powder but probably won't have the same longevity. Upside is that touching it up if it chips or peels should be pretty simple.

That's an interesting option and more along the lines of what I was originally looking for. I need to explore both, I'll being powdering some parts so wouldn't cost much more to throw that spring in. Then again I could use the plasti-dip on other things as well.

Thanks

It's a cheap and easy option, but it certainly won't last as well as powder will. If you're already sending parts off for powder I think most anybody would just throw the spring in with the rest.

Being that it's a monoshock, it wont very often that it gets hit or clipped with rocks, etc. So it may hold up. Thanks for the info!

The whole point of powder coating is that it is 10x's less likely to chip and no harder to fix if it does. The shock would still need to be removed from the spring to touch up. If you're that far, strip it and recoat. Powder coating is extremely flexible. When I first started powder coating I would take 3" x 3" pieces of aluminum foil and powder coat some in Candy Blue and some in Metalcast Blue. Take a piece of each and wad it into a ball and then unwed it. The painted one will have chips flaking off all over on the first wad. The powder coated one can be wadded and unwadded until the foil fails and powder will still stick to it, and that's on an unblasted surface. On a blasted surface you have less worries about it. I did an extensive test coating springs because everyone said the heat would weaken the spring. I proved the theory wrong. Coating has absolutely no negative effect on the spring. I'll find the test if anyone is interested. To paint, you really want a good primer and a good top coat. Both are going to run $6-$10 a can, that's $12-$20 for an inferior finish, or coat em and be done for $20.

Figure on $20-$30 a spring for coating.

And again I will add that in the rare event you do chip the powder, if you can find a matching color in paint the chip can be touched up with paint.

Here are the tests I did 5 years ago:
http://powder365.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2987&hilit=spring+coating+test&start=20

http://powder365.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3005&p=37110&hilit=spring+coating+test#p37110

Awesome, in-depth information. Thanks a ton.

Rub the spring down to de rust it, then touch it in by hand.

Get a long length of suitable diameter heat shrink sleeving in the colour of your choice, thread it over the spring, and heat it with a hot air gun. Voila - a rust proof, chip proof flexible coating.

How about electroplating them?

I hadn't looked into electroplating. I'll do some research, thanks.