After much thought, I decided to powdercoat a multitude of parts on this bike. My dad is a professional furniture refinisher so I have free access to a spray booth, but for some reason I was set on powder. I guess I was just curious to try it out. This is what I got for 100 bones.
Couldn't believe it. I did use my own blasting guy ($75) to insure that everything was very clean, but I still think I got the deal of the century. Couldn't be more pleased with how the stuff turned out. The hoop I welded on from the guys at dime city matched up pretty seamlessly too.
A few recommendations for powdercoating:
I will not remove the rear hub bushings anymore. I was told they need to come out because of the rubber. Next time I will paint the hub and leave the bushings alone. hardest part of the project so far.
If you aren't sure about a powdercoaters ability, take him a few semi difficult items and see how good he is at plugging and taping. There's definitely an art to it. I would think a good coater would also be a good blaster, but that may not be the case. Or, they may farm out their blasting.
If you want a quick job, powder the entire wheel as a whole. Yeah, you can no longer true the thing, but it will save a ton of time. I decided to polish my spokes and it took forever. Then again, i dont mind tedious tasks. Here's my progress on the spokes.
I bought a bench polisher but I found that some sandpaper and a jar of polish worked the best. Sanded them with 200, 320, and 600. Followed it up with some mothers polish and a terry cloth towel. I've read several articles on polishing. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with the bench polisher.