Ready for Powder ...

Post by **oldjapanesebikes** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:15 pm

I've been getting things ready for a club 'powder day' this Saturday - should be fun ! Winters are long up here, so I like to have the projects all lined up and ready to go !

1973 GT750 on the left, 1977 GT500 on the right.

Post by **oldjapanesebikes** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:53 pm

Some additional shots - I hadn't actually seen powder coating done before and so for me at least it was interesting. After the powder is sprayed on to the electrically charged parts, everything goes into an oven. The first two shots show the parts being sprayed.

The third one shows the parts fresh out of the oven, and cooling down after baking at 400 F for 40 minutes.

The last shot shows the parts just before I unloaded them at home !

It all turned out really well and I'm pleased with how they look - now the interesting part starts !

Suzukidave · Post by **Suzukidave** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:13 pm

Good deal Ian , i know powder coating sure makes parts look nice . I hope we are going to get to follow along with your restore work on these two

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:53 pm

What would keep individuals from doing this in their ovens at home? Is there an art to the spraying?

Suzukidave · Post by **Suzukidave** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:13 pm

Harbor Freight has some lower cost equiptment http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisear ... &Submit=Go i dont know if i would use the house oven to cook the parts though ?

Suzukidave · Post by **Suzukidave** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:15 pm

Ian , i was just checking out your very nice web site . That was great work you did on the GT750 in your avatar

Post by **oldjapanesebikes** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:27 pm

TLRam1 wrote:What would keep individuals from doing this in their ovens at home? Is there an art to the spraying?

Actually - for small parts, you can do this in a regular electric oven. When I was picking up my Ikon shocks for the two GT750's from Wolfgang's Laverda shop in Nakusp, he showed me his small parts powder coating setup, and the oven looked to be just a regular Kenmore from Sears !

Of course, it wasn't good for anything else - like cooking food - so I wouldn't recommend doing this in your kitchen ....

Post by **oldjapanesebikes** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:48 pm

Suzukidave wrote:Ian , i was just checking out your very nice web site . That was great work you did on the GT750 in your avatar

Thanks Dave - appreciated. I'm not in your league yet, but I'm learning !

I'd like to have both bikes ready for the spring, but we'll see. I will be updating my project web site as they move along, and I'll also be sharing a few photos here as well.

Suzukidave · Post by **Suzukidave** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:40 pm

From looking and reading through your site i believe you are building great motorcycles just the way you like them and thats the way it should be

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:48 pm

oldjapanesebikes wrote:
TLRam1 wrote:What would keep individuals from doing this in their ovens at home? Is there an art to the spraying?
Actually - for small parts, you can do this in a regular electric oven. When I was picking up my Ikon shocks for the two GT750's from Wolfgang's Laverda shop in Nakusp, he showed me his small parts powder coating setup, and the oven looked to be just a regular Kenmore from Sears !

Of course, it wasn't good for anything else - like cooking food - so I wouldn't recommend doing this in your kitchen ....

Good to know, I was thinking of the kitchen oven.

Post by **oldjapanesebikes** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:05 pm

The work continues - this is how the engine looked when I cracked the cases.

And this is how they looked just before I buttoned up the cases after replacing everything - even the splash panel on the underside of the upper crankcase half had rusted through and had to be replaced.

I did the Allan T. water pump removal modification just in case I ever need it in the future - this shows the grub screw location - the pitting you see in the case is due to water damage/corrosion from water and ice pooling in the starter motor cavity. The starter motor was a block of rust.

I had a few oil pumps to choose from, but had no history on them - and the one on the engine I rebuilt was suspect, so I wanted to test the ones I had to be sure I re-installed a good one. I made up a small rig, and used the drive shaft from a scrap engine mounted in a drill to drive it (you can see it on the bench by one of the oil pumps) . I wanted to ensure that the oil pump shaft was free to move up and down as I ran it in the jig (check out TZ's excellent write-up on the oil pumps here) and this set up meant that the pump could operate exactly the same as it would when installed in the the engine. After testing, I found that of the four pumps I had - two were good and two had issues, so this saved me a lot of futzing about later.

Getting there slowly .......

bighole · Post by **bighole** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 7:31 am

Looking great!
BTW, I bought one of the Harbor Freight powder coating set ups and have had some success. I am definately not a painter and powder coating is much the same to me as painting so my results havent been mindblowing...
I did manage to find a regular, household electric range for the shop down at the goodwill store for $7. Works great for small parts but kind of limited for anything sizeable.

-John

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:00 am

I put anything that will fit in the oven after I paint it, it seems to smooth the finish out and achieve a little more gloss. (my son complains about the smell, but untill he pays the bills or my SO gets here, I will keep doing it. I also have my current project in the living room being reassembled

)

Suzukidave · Post by **Suzukidave** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:28 am

Thats a cool idea to test the oil pump to make sure it all works well before putting it on your fresh engine . i will do that also .. thanx