79 XS650 Hardtail build

Yeah, just don't know if it will look to gaudy or not. Either way we stock the powder, so if i go blue, and don't like it, its not a huge deal to swap to black with the clear. Not a big fan of bright colors, but decided it would kind of be a show piece for the business to showcase the kind of wild colors we can do. Decisions, decisions...

Hi topshelf,
combining a rider and a showpiece, eh?
Thing is, prospective customers may be more impressed by gaudy than by elegant.
As you say, you can easily re-do at least the sheetmetal parts, or even make swappable extra parts.
With that in mind, do the frame in basic black because you don't want to be doing a full teardown to change the frame color and black goes with everything.
With black tins to go riding plus extra tins in wild colors to impress the clients.
 
Hi topshelf,
combining a rider and a showpiece, eh?
Thing is, prospective customers may be more impressed by gaudy than by elegant.
As you say, you can easily re-do at least the sheetmetal parts, or even make swappable extra parts.
With that in mind, do the frame in basic black because you don't want to be doing a full teardown to change the frame color and black goes with everything.
With black tins to go riding plus extra tins in wild colors to impress the clients.

Yeah, thinking i will go black with a few layers of clear on the frame. Thanks for the input.
 
Bike is looking good! As has been said already... to each his own. I ride hartails along with sprung bikes. And i think my hard tail is more comfortable to ride than some sprung bikes ive ridden...

Im not a fan of the frames matching the tins either. But a darker blue for the frame with the tins being a different shade/hue might look sick!
 
I love hardtails. They aren't nearly as bad to ride as compared to the reputation they have. As far as color goes, ill be going wet black on the frame, and illusion blueberry on the tank, and fender. I was thinking about being cute with the colored frame, but i keep getting further from liking the idea, so black frame it is.
 
Zmax, thanks. I actually really like the skeletonized wheels. Makes the stock wheels look nice in my opinion, but not everyone will like. Thanks for the comment.
 
Concerning hardtails, I have other larger bikes, more comfortable bikes, for longer rides. That's why I want to build a hardtail from one of these, just something different to ride to the diner and run to the store on. Back in the days when these bikes were new I considered them to be real dogs compared to other models on the market. At the same time I appreciated the mass production, affordability and long life of these 650s. I have no soft emotional spot for these in stock form.......so ..........to me they are prime bobber material.:bike:

For a strong rear fender, you sure do have it with that fender and struts. What about the seat? I like the looks of a high, sprung and level seat, just looks more comfortable with the right bars.

Color, I like the idea of a light shade of color on the frame and a darker shade of the same color on the tins, anything but black.

Please, give us some tips and tricks on powder coating, with pictures.

Scott
 
Concerning hardtails, I have other larger bikes, more comfortable bikes, for longer rides. That's why I want to build a hardtail from one of these, just something different to ride to the diner and run to the store on. Back in the days when these bikes were new I considered them to be real dogs compared to other models on the market. At the same time I appreciated the mass production, affordability and long life of these 650s. I have no soft emotional spot for these in stock form.......so ..........to me they are prime bobber material.:bike:

For a strong rear fender, you sure do have it with that fender and struts. What about the seat? I like the looks of a high, sprung and level seat, just looks more comfortable with the right bars.

Color, I like the idea of a light shade of color on the frame and a darker shade of the same color on the tins, anything but black.

Please, give us some tips and tricks on powder coating, with pictures.

Scott

Thanks for posting. Also Bubbles rules. lol I am in total agreement with you, in regard to stock xs650. They just aren't my thing, so I'm more than happy to perform surgery on it. As for powder coating, what information would you like? There is way too much information overall to put into a single post, but i would be happy to answer any questions any members may have. I'll try to get some pictures of some of our equipment, and post this evening as well.:thumbsup:
 
Maybe some two tone or three tone parts (like wheels) and how it's done? Flake PC and how it's done? Your opinions on different metallic colors? PC friendly fillers? High temp PC? Just tell us everything that you know.

Scott
 
Maybe some two tone or three tone parts (like wheels) and how it's done? Flake PC and how it's done? Your opinions on different metallic colors? PC friendly fillers? High temp PC? Just tell us everything that you know.

Scott

Lots of things we have shot can be seen on our facebook page. (Magnetikote) or on our instagram @magnetikote. Powder coating is similar to paint in the idea that prep is king. Only much more meticulous with powder. Ability to shoot multiple coats, such as candies is more or less depended upon a good ground, and a good quality gun. We have a Wagner Prima Spint X1, which is around $5500. Cheaper guns usually will require you to hot flock parts, which means you pre heat the part, and then shoot, which leads ro inconsistency in your coating. It can be done, as when we started we were using a $1000 gun when we started, but its significantly more difficult, and usually will lead to stripping, and re shooting.

As far as filler is concerned, we use Tiger Epostrong. It is oven, and powder coat safe, but is only designed to fill 1/16" deep holes.

We don't shoot much for high temp powder, as we dont get a lot of requests. We shoot Cerakote on firearms, exhaust, turbos, etc. So we don't really have much need for high temp powder.

We shoot a lot of flakes, and don't have really anything bad to say about any of them. They all shoot about the same, other than some of the flake is bigger, and requires a flakeless clear over the top of it.
 
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