They're powder coated from the factory...the spring only gets up to 400* for 10 minutes. Heating it with a torch would weaken it...but not 400* for 10 minutes.

 

CallmeJ: Sorry, I had no idea you are a powdercoater, I didn't mean anything I said personally.

Don't mean to say that it's a waste of money. Its a good investment for lots of parts.

Didn't want to sound like a jerk, I had no idea thats your business.

 

Its all good man...heres the deal.

Alot of people think...hmm...coating...rocks fly up and hit it...there it goes...cracking off and the powder coating is worthless. Wet paint...yes....powder coat...no. Once pretreated properly, the surface of the metal is chemically converted to accept the powder coat to protect it, rather than push it away. If metal is left exposed, it will soon go back to its natural state, which is the earth. I knew corrosion control in the Navy would come in handy one day...

Powder coating IS the future for durability. Next time you visit your local...say...civic center. Look at the railing. 9 times out of 10, its powder coated. Touched up with wet paint for easy maintenance purposes. Take a look at chairs in your food court in the mall....more than likely powder coated. Vending machines...just countless things powder coated now. So in reality, once properly educated on powder coating, it sells itself. One of these days I will get a video of me bashing my test panels with a fairly large ball peen hammer after its coated and show you the results. Only way you will have coating failure is if its scraped to the metal. Still...the coating goes on protecting.

Class dismissed..

 

We don't salt the roads here, so corrosion is not a big deal.

This is from the POR-15 website, so it looks like it would work perfect...



Can you buy this locally or just through mail?

 

UNR, don't bother doing anything to them, just throw them in as is (they just have a tiny amount of surface rust.....my 890's looked the same after I pulled them out after 2 winters). You live in a dry climate so the rust won't spread more than what you see there. IF you lived in a rust belt, I'd say send em out to be powder coated for sure.

 

Was your 890's bare metal? Going offroad...theres water and mud....raining...theres moisture...gotta seal the bare metal up.

 

Nope, they had been powdercoated too at the factory, but there are some areas on the spring perches and between the coils where the PC just got rubbed off to expose bare metal. I suppose ideally you might pull them out every year and redo them, but it's also probably cheaper just to buy a new set of springs when the old ones fail from rust. I touch mine up with a can of rustoleum every summer just to slow the rust a bit, but you can never stop it completely because the springs have these rub points. I totally agree stuff that isn't so dynamic is definately better off PC'd.

 

You will have corrosion points where there is metal to metal. All the way up the spring, that could cause problems later. All I was saying was it would be better to coat it now rather than pinching a penny and hurting yourself in the long run.

 

Jeremy, yes you're right, but what I am saying is that even if you PC them, as soon as you use the truck it will rub the PC right back off in some areas (these are progressive coils not leaf springs so they do bind up when in use)......so it's essentially a hopeless battle if you live anywhere near the rust belt. Rustoleum is a feeble, yet easy attempt to slow the rust progression.

 

I didn't think PC'ing was intended for parts that flexed, since the PC itself isn't flexible?!? When parts flex (especially extreme) I believe it causes the PC finish to crack/split, then eventually flake off over time as the metal is exposed to moisture/dirt.

 

I thought an advantage of PC'ing is that it can flex some and will not crack.

 

PC does flex and bend...cracking and splitting would be wet paint. Wet paint sets up alot harder than PC does. Send me a flexible part...you pay the shipping...and I will do it free of charge for your own testing purposes. Just gotta make sure the part isn't overly large....fairly small.

 

I agree the normal areas at top and bottom will rub off with time...but it will take twice as long for it to rub off with PC vs without PC. Rustoleum...well a rock flies up and other debris when offroading...then voila...its chipped and there begins the process of corrosion when exposed to any form of moisture. Rust belts do promote corrosion 200%.....but there is moisture everywhere we go...unless you live on the equator!

 

Not trying to 'put down' PC'ing. My apologies if any offense was taken J. Just commenting on what I understood the limitations of PC'ing were. Thanks for the clarification.

 

or Arizona.

Boy I miss working on my truck when it was always pristine like that!
Now every time I need to work on it it seems like a constant fight with rusted bolts.

 

Nah buddy...I'm taking no offense at all. Just trying to clarify in a more abrupt manner because alot of people are misinformed on PC and its evil brother...wet paint! I'm looking for an old door spring to do around the house here and I'll post up pics of the results....I need to do this in my powder coating thread also and get some literature for you guys to read up on to get a better idea rather than street knowledge. No offense taken brotha..

 

Arizona did pop in my head....LOL

 

That would actually be very helpful.

 

Heres something quick I ran across....



Powder Coating Allows For Maximum Flexibility For Venerable Harley-Davidson

Chromed Parts Now Being Powder Coated

Harley-Davidson backs up its in-your-face slogan -- "It's one thing to have people buy your product. It's another for them to tattoo your name on their bodies.'-- with a solid record of performance. It has set sales and production records for 14 consecutive years. A lot of factors are responsible for its economic success and near-cult brand loyalty. One of the most important has been powder coating.

Until late 1994, Harley-Davidson's Milwaukee power train division used liquid paint on the engines and transmissions it manufactured. But there were problems. "One of the big reasons that steered us toward powder was stability," explains Ken Ellis, the Senior Manufacturing Engineer and Process Lead. "

That wasn't all. "There were cost, performance and environmental advantages of powder as well," Ellis says. "When we liquid painted our components, many of them had to be painted after machining, which was much more costly."

Harley-Davidson now powder coats all the components of its drive train at a powder coating facility in Milwaukee that services two manufacturing plants. The facility has a dual line conveyor system with a capacity of approximately 10,000 parts per day. For each line, there is an inverted enclosed track system. Handling parts pass through six stages: pretreatment washer, a dry off oven and a cool down chamber, then an environmental room, a cure oven and final cool down chambers. Parts are powder coated black or silver using a combination of automatic and manual guns. According to Ellis, the plant produces parts with a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

The company has committed its future success to powder coating.. "We're scheduled to have a second powder coating plant online in June," Ellis reports. The new plant will be similar to the original, but it will be a single line facility. The new facility will improve Harley's ability to meet the demand for its product.

The new plant also gives Harley-Davidson the chance to increase its efficiency even more. Ellis says, "We're looking for some line speed improvements with the new facility. Also we are doing some technical improvements, more automation, better layout and greater flexibility. We will have the latest technology that is out there right now."

There is one particular technological enhancement that the company is especially proud of. "We've gone to automatic feed pumps to control our wash line stages, which is something we've been doing for awhile. However, we now download that data into a statistical process control (SPC) package." He continued, "Every fifteen minutes, we download information from our wash line, whether it be temperature, pH or concentration, into the SPC package, so at any remote location in the plant, you can watch how the wash line is performing. We get a much better picture of what is happening in our wash line at any given time. It gives us confidence in the performance of the end product."

With the influx of data, the rate of defects has dramatically decreased, which saves the company time and money. Ellis hopes to present Harley-Davidson and automated SPC as a case study at the national Powder Coating show in September.

Outside of Milwaukee, the company uses powder coating for the clear coat on its tanks and fenders; and motorcycle frames are powder coated at plants in York, Pennsylvania, and Kansas City, Missouri.

And who knows what lies ahead? The company has begun powder coating motorcycle parts that have been traditionally chromed or polished. These bikes are winning customers in Europe, though Ellis guesses that the U.S. market will stick with chrome.

 

Taken from this website if you guys care to look at the different topics presented...right now I'm coating parts so I'm kinda in a hurry!

http://www.powdercoating.org/media/c...dies/index.htm