Initial Powder Coating

I decided to take some parts off and have them powder coated. I'm always concerned when I take things, like the swing arm, off for the first time..you never know what you'll find or what parts will be bad that are not available any longer. In this case, the only parts that I was concerned about was the rubber seals on the swing arm. I think they're designed to keep the swing arm grease from getting all over everything especially when it's warm. These were in pretty good shape and had not hardened up or cracked so they were good for re-use.

The swing arm and rear foot peg bracket turned out nice. It sure is a lot less work to just take the dirty old corroded piece down to the powder coater and let him blast and coat it than it is to mess around with stripping the paint, sanding the part, primering it and painting it. Lots more money too. In this case the swing arm and bracket was $85 but they turned out very nice.


Additionally, another part arrived in the mail. I won a brand new NOS tank on eBay. I calculated that repairing the old tank that was damaged in transport (previous pictures) would probably cost me a couple of hundred dollars. That's too bad because the old tank is basically rust free and the paint on it is outstanding. I bought the new tank for $100 so I figured I would end up ahead in the end. My goal will be to replicate, as accurately as possible, the original paint job. That should not be too tough since it's pretty basic.

Believe it or not, I was actually able to order the tiny little plastic inserts that go into the holes on the tank and hold the badge emblems. When I pulled the badges off the left side of the tank they were damaged so this was a big deal, for me anyway.