I am stuck as to what finish to use on some of my bike bits - mainly the primary drive.

I have only 2 requirements - its got to be black, and its got to be shiney and mirror smooth

I am a fussy bu88er and it needs to be right.

Tried gloss black powder coat - waste of time. Orange peel and generally crap.

Tried cellulose paint - took way too long to go fully hard - the parts were left a fortnight and you could still mark them with your fingernail. Perhaps I was doing something wrong? Its been a long time since I did any serious spraying.

I could have another go with the paint - once the parts have been bead blasted to remove the powder coat.

Why do the simplest jobs always become the biggest problem?!

Did you try baking the celly paint? That usually does the trick.

Problem is the 2 main components are big chunks of billet ally and they wont fit in the oven.

Maybe I'll just get a quote from a bodyshop to spray them up for me.

While searching for a local company to polish the exhaust can on my car, I came across a company that do "chemical blackening". Is this something you have looked at ??

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=86272

[Edited on 23/10/10 by karlak]

Pro powder coat or diy?

I've never had a problem and have amazing finishes.

I send the parts to the guy at Leominster powdercoaters. He does very high quality work.

Pro - but they are obviously more akin to industrial work.

Chemical black isnt shiney, we do it at work.

I know the best stuff to spray it with is 2k, but I just cant face the H&S issues.

Black smoothrite thinned & sprayed on gives a mirror finish but does tend to chip in my experience.

If the parts are well out of the way then they are less likely to chip so might not be a problem ??

I like Satin black acrylic in rattle cans how about these in gloss , should be OK.
But I cant understand the problem your having with celly, sounds like your rushing it.
Never rated smoothrite, should be called chipalot.
Cheers,
Bob

Cellulose goes off in no time, what are you doing to it to make it stay soft? Get some decent thinners to make it shine or use a base coat and lacquer over it.

What about POR-15?

I've got some bike parts too I'd like to get refurb'd. Grab rail, footrest hangers and swinging arm.

I've had the wheels and stands powder coated and they came up ok but I'm worried that because the swinging arm is thin walled it'll flex and crack when I do the back wheel up.

I've looked into the POR-15 route and it does look fairly convincing but I've not seen a finished item against powder coat.

If it's alloy, what about black anodising? It's definitely shiney, and pretty tough too.

Chris