abnormal al. frame coatings

Titanium · Dec 31, 2001

I have been tossing the idea of hard coat anodizing my al. frame around for a while, but recently have come across some much harder, more advanced options. The question is...does the frame have to retain any sort of electrical conductivity or could I use something that makes it totally resistant to any current? Not really sure if the electrical system needs to get to the aluminum for some sort of ground. I asked an auto mechanic friend and he wasn't quite sure either.

Jman271 · Dec 31, 2001

The coil will need to be grounded to the frame. Just make sure that the area that will be for the ground wire doesn't get coated, or if you can remove the coating after to get a good ground. If you do hard coat anodize and it will get dunked in the tank or whatever, talk to the tech and see if there is something you can apply to the ground area like soap or something so you don't have to grind off the application afterwords. Good luck-

Titanium · Dec 31, 2001

thanks

Pantaz · Dec 31, 2001

Anodizing & Powder Coating

Hard-Anodizing adds about 0.001" thickness, and powder coating adds 0.002"-0.004". Both of these processes result in very hard, very difficult to remove surfaces. You'll need to have the plating or painting company mask any area that would be adversely affected. Areas such as the inside of the steering head (the bearings won't fit), threaded holes/studs, and any other spots with precision fitted parts -- bear in mind, holes have opposing surfaces, so you'll lose at least 0.002" of inside diameter with anodizing, and 0.008" (or more) with powder coating.

The last time I had hard-anodizing done, the only color available was dark gray or black. Powder coating is available in just about any color you can imagine.

Titanium · Jan 1, 2002

I was looking into a plasma coating actually...boron carbide ceramic. They seem to have many different varieties available(not all just boron/carbide); some conductive, some not at all. The hardness is 93-95 on the rockwell scale which blows everything out of the water that I have seen.:silly: (yeah I know, why bother and who cares)

Pantaz · Jan 1, 2002

Downside of hard coatings

Something to consider with any coating is flexibility. We tend to believe motorcycle frames are perfectly rigid, but they are not. Any extremely rigid coating will likely crack the first time you hit a good size bump or jump.

I'm a big fan of powder coating. It can take considerable abuse without a scratch. It's also not terribly expensive.

kxtasy · Jan 1, 2002

While we are on the subject of powdercoating I am getting my frame and subframe on my KX 125 done in gloss black. I had the frame sandblasted and the subframe bead blasted. Now when I get them back are there any points that need to be bare metal for grounding purposes?? I read above that one was where the coil mounts, but are there any other??? I cant really see why there would have to be anymore than that, but there are alot of people out there that probably know a lot more about it than me...

Thanks in advance...Jason

Kawierider · Jan 1, 2002

bare spots

jason,
I would have the tech mask off the stearing head the axle pivots, anythinthing that needs to rotate, and threads, and any other precision fit whole or threading surface. while takign the bike apart mark all the points that electrical grounds run too, and mask them too. anywhere a bolt threads too needs to be done also.
Tim

Pit_Monkey · Jan 1, 2002

im pretty sure youll have to grind the engine mounting tabs too.

Pit_Monkey · Jan 1, 2002

im pretty sure youll have to grind the engine mounting tabs too. at the NY bike show i go to check out RC's old kx 250 and the thing was powder coated flow green and really looked nice but i remember reading about the areas to grind off teh powder coat so i looked to see where they did it and the engine mounting tabs were all ground down. thats all i could see. a funny thing tho that i noticed about the bike was teh blown fork seals. i looked at the inner fork tubes and they had tons of fluid on them.

btw how much does it cost to have a frame and sub frame sand blasted then powdercoated.

kxtasy · Jan 1, 2002

Thanks for all the input everyone!! On the engine mounting tabs, would I have to do every tab?? And does both sides of the tab have to be done?? If something that needed to be bare metal and it wasnt, would it just not start at all..or run goofy?? On the money side of things it cost me $45.00 for the blasting of the frame and the subframe at a local body shop, and on the powdercoating I am not sure. My wifes uncle owns a metal fab business that does alot of powdercoating, and he is going to powdercoat the frame/subframe black, and the swingarm silver, and then powdercoat everything with a clearcoat as well!! So I cant really give you a dollar amount on that as I will probably pay next to nothing.

Jason

Lorin · Jan 2, 2002

I have had two different bikes powder coated, but luckily, the shop that performed the work has done many bikes and did all of the masking, etc., for me. As far as cost, both bike frames were acid dipped and powder coated and the first cost $160 and the second around $130. Make sure and shop around. I got estimates for up to $450 dollars from other shops in the metro. These prices included the subframe, pegs, and any other parts that I had done to match (such as the top engine mount and cdi bracket, etc).

abnormal al. frame coatings

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