Powdercoating Rims

Here is my second question regarding powdercoating rims, do the spokes have to removed powercoat them? If so, what type of spokes are recommended?

No personal experience but every job I've seen done on various shows have the rims and spokes done separately then relace the wheel.

I would imagine that having a covered joint between spoke & rim would result in cracking as the wheel flexes over time.

The one major thing you need to look into is the additional diameter of powder coated spokes... they may not fit the rim afterwords. Also threading coated spokes would seem to be a delicate procedure as you do not want to scratch the spokes. I would make sure the parts are well cured before lacing.

I would contact a shop that has experience lacing wheels. Ask for their thoughts and you may want to consider having them lace the wheel for you unless you are ready to give it a shot. If you are going to lace yourself I would HIGHLY recommend doing it once or twice before the powdercoating so you have some idea of what to do before working on finished parts.

When powdercoating wheels they have to be COMPLETELY dis-assembeled prior to coating.
I strees this becasue it can be a mess/fiasco if you have the wrong person do it.
EXAMPLE: My buddy Chris is in the proccess of doing a wicked white-walled cafe CB750, and wanted his
wheels powdercoated black. He found this smuck online offering powdercoating services for cheap.
He gave all the parts to the guy to have coated, and when he got them back little bits and pieces
were missing/lost/etc...When the guy tore everything apart to have it sandblasted he wasnt careful/aware/
didnt care about the bearings, clips, retainers, axle, etc..How someone looses a friggin axle I dont know ?

So now they are in a pissing match trying to find the lost parts and so on.
MY ADVICE would be to find a shop that has done motorcycle wheels in the past, so you know a simple
thing like powdercoating wheels wont turn into a nightmare like my buddy is going thru..Having a pro job done is 1/2
the battle , then you need to purchase new spokes and have a decent shop lace and true the wheels..

This is why I rattlecan'd my wheels while they were still on the bike ;D
Looks fine to me - and a hell of allot less hassle...

ProTeal55 said:

When powdercoating wheels they have to be COMPLETELY dis-assembeled prior to coating.
I strees this becasue it can be a mess/fiasco if you have the wrong person do it.
EXAMPLE: My buddy Chris is in the proccess of doing a wicked white-walled cafe CB750, and wanted his
wheels powdercoated black. He found this smuck online offering powdercoating services for cheap.
He gave all the parts to the guy to have coated, and when he got them back little bits and pieces
were missing/lost/etc...When the guy tore everything apart to have it sandblasted he wasnt careful/aware/
didnt care about the bearings, clips, retainers, axle, etc..How someone looses a friggin axle I dont know ?

So now they are in a pissing match trying to find the lost parts and so on.
MY ADVICE would be to find a shop that has done motorcycle wheels in the past, so you know a simple
thing like powdercoating wheels wont turn into a nightmare like my buddy is going thru..Having a pro job done is 1/2
the battle , then you need to purchase new spokes and have a decent shop lace and true the wheels..

This is why I rattlecan'd my wheels while they were still on the bike ;D

Looks fine to me - and a hell of allot less hassle...

Click to expand...

Thank you guys, hey Proteal did you just paint over the chrome rims? How about the frame is that spray painted too?

Pretty much that entire bike is coats & coats of Dupli-color low gloss engine enamel rattlecan paint.

For the wheels I did allot of sanding to dull the chrome down the best I could, A few lite coats of
etching primer, LOTS of masking tape and then the above mentioned paint (goes on thick as hell).
For a rattlecan job done in my driveway I can't complain.

It's not perfect, but either is that bike ;D

ProTeal55 said:

Pretty much that entire bike is coats & coats of Dupli-color low gloss engine enamel rattlecan paint.

For the wheels I did allot of sanding to dull the chrome down the best I could, A few lite coats of
etching primer, LOTS of masking tape and then the above mentioned paint (goes on thick as hell).
For a rattlecan job done in my driveway I can't complain.

It's not perfect, but either is that bike ;D

Click to expand...

Thanks again, what was the condition of the frame? Also how did you prepare the frame for painting, if any? Same as wheels?

The frame wasnt trashed, just some spots here and their I wanted to give a fresh coat too..
Just sanded, primered and painted. That Duplicolor low-gloss engine enamel is meant for engine
blocks, so you really dont need to do any kinda real "prep" before spraying it on (sticks to anything)..

Coating rims should not be any kind of a problem, all they've got to know is to mask off the spoke threads... and anyone who's got half a brain (the guys at OCC obviously aren't so blessed) and has been coating for more than a day would know to do that. I'm not sure why ProTeals' friend's coater ever got his hands on the axle, all the parts should be completely disassembled and cleaned before they go to the coater. Which absolutely includes stripping the bearings out if you're doing your hubs, the oven will destroy the bearings (which you should be replacing anyway) and they will leak all over the hub.

before:


after:


I had the guys down at High5Cycles lace mine because I didn't know how to do it, I wanted to learn so I hung out with them till 9pm and waited till he had a chance to do it and got to watch.


Powder in my opinion is not a reason to have someone else lace your wheels, if you don't know how to do it have someone else do it... if you can do it or think you can do it but you're worried about scratches, no one's going to be more careful with it than the person that paid for it.

I did mine in high gloss for the rims, satin for everything else, and left the nipples bare stainless. I believe it was all around $250

Those wheels look tight, great job.....

ProTeal -

How did you prep your wheels before rattle canning? Did you etch primer as well. I was thinking of doing my cb350 wheels in red but am not really in to the powder coat thing and don't currently have the time/resources to totally dissasemble and relace. I may do a total rebuild if I like my preliminary cafe project when I am done with it and amnot on the road so much.

I was going to unmount them, glass bead blast, etch prime, and then red dupli-color.

Thoughts?

magikphun said:

ProTeal -

How did you prep your wheels before rattle canning? Did you etch primer as well. I was thinking of doing my cb350 wheels in red but am not really in to the powder coat thing and don't currently have the time/resources to totally dissasemble and relace. I may do a total rebuild if I like my preliminary cafe project when I am done with it and amnot on the road so much.

I was going to unmount them, glass bead blast, etch prime, and then red dupli-color.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

That should work great, sounds like you're doing more than most would when they rattlecan anything, Obviously adjustments will be difficult after the fact but the paint should stick as well as paint can.

Nice rims - essentially the same look I'm going to do for my xs650 project, but I'll likely keep the hubs polished. Where did you pick up the rims and spokes? Buchanans?

Tintin said:

Nice rims - essentially the same look I'm going to do for my xs650 project, but I'll likely keep the hubs polished. Where did you pick up the rims and spokes? Buchanans?

Click to expand...

yup

I like the all black... makes the bits you left polished look great. Great design!