painting upper and lower fork yokes

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

pkeithkelly

Country flag
I have a 75 Mark 3.

Nice looking bike, with the exception of rusty and ratty looking finish on the upper and lower fork yokes. The silver/grey finish is pretty much worn away.

What have others done to repaint these parts? color? finish (gloss vs flat, vs in between?)

I picked up a can of spray paint from a local auto parts place, labeled "aluminum" in color, and sprayed it on a spare piece of metal to test. It's glossier than I'd like. So I'm looking for an alternative and suggestions.

Ideas?
 
I had both powdercoated with a satin finish silver. The color is very close to original, it's a very strong coating and I'll never have to do it again. But, it requires that you disassemble the front end which is a lot of work for a cosmetic upgrade.
 
Anyone have problems fitting the tubes after powder coating? Did they mask off these holes?

I'm thinking about doing a couple sets of trees in powder. Maybe invest in one of Eastwood's guns and coat them here in the lab where we have some smaller commercial ovens. Now if I could only talk the Industrial coatings guys out of some samples of the Harley powder...... A project for another day.

Jason,
Why a clear topcoat? Did this give a super high gloss? The originals are not high gloss and I would think most powders would have more than acceptable gloss without a topcoat.
 
Ron,

The shop I use masks off the holes and puts blanking plugs in the threaded areas. They also do their own blasting and phosphoric acid dip, so no problems with rust. I haven't had any problems with the stuff peeling or coming loose. Indeed, removing it from areas such as the motor mounting points is quite a job.

Debby
 
Ron,

The clear top coat was a recommendation by the company that did the powder coating. They claimed that the silver coating would deteriorate quite rapidly without the clear-coat to protect it. I can report that it's been some six years since the trees have been coated silver with the clear-coat and they still look like new.

In the past I've simply used rattle-can silver for the trees, which tends to more closely mimic the original paint in terms of shinyness - or lack thereof - compared to powder coating. It isn't a particularly durable finish, but it can be freshened up easily with more rattle-can silver paint.

Jason
 
Ok, here is a picture of the powder-coated silver tripple tree with clear top-coat. I apologize for the picture quality but hopefuly you can get an idea of what it looks like.

painting upper and lower fork yokes
 
Jason--
Looks like a clear coat powder-coated over glass blasted metal. I used this finish on a 71 500 four Honda I turned into a cafe racer. I blasted all of the disc brake parts and shot them with clear. Gives incredible depth to your metal.
JD
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top