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The
Official Project Buell Web Site
MC Journalist.com
mcjournalist.com
With all the frame mods done it was time to send
it and some other items over to Andrews Powder Coating
for finishing.
 APC owner
Scott Andrews started by sandblasting all the pieces.
This is done to remove any paint, oil or light scratches
and to prepare the metal for the powder.
 Once the
part is sanblasted, it goes into the oven for a
pre-baking. The heat turned the frame a bluish color,
but it isn't hot enough to cause any metal fatigue
or loss of temper. This is an important step in
the proper powdercoating process.
 This is
why the pre-bake is so important, especially on
parts that are not brand new. The heat will cause
unseen oil or grease that has found its way into
nooks and crannies to eventually bleed out. If this
happened after application of the powder it would
ruin the final finish. Even new parts could have
trace amounts of machining fluid in or on them.
 One of
the more labor-intensive steps is masking off critical
areas where paint should not be, like certain mating
surfaces and threaded holes. APC uses special high-temp
tape and cone-shaped silicone plugs for this purpose.
This will save a lot of time later when chasing
the threads, and will reduce the chance of damaging
the paint while doing so.
 APC takes
great care to make sure that powder is applied in
every joint and bend. This requires a high degree
of skill to make sure that the powder is not too
heavy in some places and too thin in others. Intricate
frames like the Buell's require the powder be applied
from many different angles to prevent any bare spots.
Scott, as well as his staff, is expert at this.
 This close-up
is of a section of the Buell frame before baking (left)
and after (right). The results are incredible.
 There are
lots of companies doing powdercoating, but this lower
rocker box cover is a perfect example of how important
it is to use a powdercoater that is familiar with
the parts you send them. APC specializes in car and
motorcycle parts and their experience guides them
in knowing just what and what shouldn't be painted.
A powdercoater with less experience could cause you
a lot of unnecessary work or could even ruin a part
if powder got into an oil passage or on a gasket surface.
Once cooled, this part needed absolutely zero additional
prep work before reassembly.
These are some of the other Buell parts
done by APC. The frame looks awesome and has the appearance
of an aluminum racing frame (Buell has since used
the same color for its Millenium X1 model, but I thought
of it first.) Not only do the Performance Machine
wheels and Joker Machine pulley look stunning, but
they have the added benefit of being easy to clean
and never need polishing. These parts will look this
good for a long time to come.
 
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