POWDER COATING

[tonk]

I've been quoted £70 to have 2 wheels powder coated satin black. I have to present the wheels without tyres, disc or bearings. Turnaround is 3 days. Does this sound reasonable? I intend to wait until I need to replace my tyres to save time and money.

Other questions - is removing wheel bearings a pro job or within my capabilities as an enthusiastic amateur? Can they be re-used? Is satin paint durable or should I go gloss (the bike is used a lot, all year)?

Thx

[stuntmonkee]

Sounds OK, I was quoted £50 per wheel locally

Gloss

Yes you'll be fine, big hammer required

No you can't, buy new ones

[Devon]

changing bearings is definitely within your ability. just get a long rod or something and put it through the bearing and get it so that its resting on the oppostie bearing and hit with hammer, move the rod about so that the bearing is pushed out evenly, reducing any damage to the bearing seat.

a place near me does wheels at 30 quid a wheel. i would reccomend putting old bolts in all holes like where the disc bolts will go s its very annoying trying to get the coating out and if possibly try and put something on the wheel so that when the disc is put back on you dont have to remove loads of paint off the wheel

[drunkn munky]

£50 a set in my neck of the woods

[will#224]

Place near me is £40 a pair. The colour wont change the resistance to winter crud. Its your choice. Definately try and cover up all bearing, disk mount and threads, this would probably be done after the shot blasting, maybe your getting a deal where the person will do this for you.

[tonk]

I'll have to ask about the masking bit, might put the disc bolts in place, shot-blasting won't do them any harm. Ta for advice re bearings - I used to pop one out with an extension bar then use a socket on the same bar to drift the other one out. But that was on shitty bikes - this is still under warranty. The discs are a bit weird, they are bolted direct to the wheel on oval holes. No carrier. BMW bike but Brembo discs and wheels. Cheers guys.

[kaighn80]

friend of mine has had some bits powder coated and on fitting them has had issues with the finish cracking and flaking away is this common if so how do you get around it?

[thefatman]

You'll need to change the bearings, knocking them out damages them, and new ones are very cheap.

http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/

This has a handy calculator to tell you what bearing type you need, if you go to your local bearing shop they'll be about half the cost compared to the site but its only a few quid either way.

£70 is ok, its £20 a wheel round here if you pay cash.

[tonk]

Cheers guys. I presume there is a guarantee with this sort of work if cracking and flaking occur? Can't decide what colour and finish now. Bugger. Over to the general thread...

[bignige]

the better guys will mask/ plug threads etc

most of them know to do it but maybe lazy, so tell them!

[roastdinajima]

Cracking/flaking is usually a result of the coating being under-cured or the coating being to thick. Make sure if your coater is masking the bearing/disc mounting faces they use a heat proof tape, trying to remove normal masking tape after its been baked on will give fecking nightmares.

Fine scratches will be more noticeable on gloss finishes than on satin or matt but they will all be as tough as one another.

[stubbsy]

On this topic, can anyone recommend sensibly priced powder coating in the somerset area???

[alexp5]

My local place charges £35 per bare wheel (no bearing or discs) for a solid colour, up to £80 per wheel for fancy special effect powders. Some of the powders they use are as good if not better than custom paint effects, and they mask off threads and bearing faces too.

http://www.stpcoatings.co.uk/?page=about_us