Not sure what’s up with me and powder coating, but I literally love it and hate it at the same time… let me explain…
For those who don’t know what powder coating is, it’s simply a different kind of way of applying a coat of paint on metals. typically, when something has to be painted, surface has to be prepared (old paint has to come off, rust has to come off too) and then paint would be sprayed in layers… first primer, then colour, then clear coat and whatever… normally spray paint has a huge variety of different colours, pearls (for metallic effect) and the rest… and well, powder coating is not like that.
First, they take whatever you want to powder coat and blast it with sand (sandblasting it is called as you might have guessed already), not all companies use sand as a blasting media, some use glass beads, some walnut shells… but whatever they use- it takes off everything to the bare metal, and that’s really good way to get rid of all the rust from all the awkward places (like you might find on motorcycles frame).
Then to get rid of all the oils and grime, some companies dip it in the bath of the acid, and after that it gets coated with a super fine dust like particles driven by some magic forces (I believe powder get charged with negative electrons and metal part with positive, and since two attract each over, that powder sticks everywhere, or something like that..) … and after that – into the oven where all that powder melts and coats the part with a thick durable layer of plastic.
Powder coating is superior to spray paint because of its durability, and that’s the main reason people choose to go that way.
Problem is… yeah, remember that blasting media they use to blast off all the rust and stuff? well it gets everywhere, into all the tiny holes, into all the places where sun never shines… and that’s a bit terrible, because, especially on the motorcycle, adventure motorcycle I mean, any kind of deposits in the places where water can get in and stay trapped – might rust and rot that same powder coated frame away… and…
Remember that fine powder that they use to powder coat, well it does a really good job getting everywhere, including all the holes with threads that will need cleaning after!
As you can imagine, all the cleaning process took sometime, a whole evening was spent on just shaking all the blasting media out of the frame, and cleaning all the threads with taps, scrapers, drills and files…
Just to be safe, I decided that ill “inject” my frame with a bit of oil (acf50 I had on hand so that’s what I have use), and injected 5 to 15ml of it in each hollow section of the frame and sealed it with a tape, rotated the frame in all sort of directions and left it overnight up side down for oil to get into places…
The last trick with oil similarly works very well to protect car doors too (a bit of oil at the bottom – and it will never rust I was told)
Explore more about DRZ400E!
Project “Suzuki DRZ 400” Adventure Build:
- Making a choice!
- Project Tracking (Any motorcycle project)!
- Why you should grease your suspension bolts and bearings… (find on my DRZ400 project)
- Motorcycle frame powder coating nightmares (why you should or shouldn’t powder coat your frame) + Bonus tip
- First impression and first problems on my newly rebuilt DRZ-400
Suzuki DRZ 400 Mods:
- Crankase Breather box mod – How to stop oil being blown out of the vent!
- Making Custom Wiring loom for my DRZ400 (or 3, or 4!)
- R&D FlexiJet, The Flexible air fuel screw on suzuki DRZ-400, is it any good?
- Big Safari Fuel Tank Balancing Attempts (and fails)
Suzuki DRZ 400 Fails!
Coming soon…!
