eBike

I decided this week I’m going to have the rims, frame and swing arm stripped and powder-coated. Generally, the paint is in good shape, but it looks kind of old, and it’s shiny. I’d prefer a matte look (I think).

One of my co-workers is to blame for this idea. Thanks to him, what I really wanted was to have the paint chemically stripped. They dip the whole thing in a hot vat of acid, then wash it, and dip it again in a solution that gives the metal a phosphate coating, protecting it from rust. The result is like newly-forged metal, and every trace of rust and paint is removed from both inside and out (it’s a tubular steel frame).

Unfortunately, the chemical bath is pretty nasty stuff, and it seems no one in the Bay Area does it anymore. The nearest place I found was in Santa Ana, and they wanted nearly $250 just to do the frame. Locally, I called a powder-coat paint shop, and they gave me a ballpark estimate of $300 - $400 to both strip and paint. I’m guessing it’ll be a couple hundred more for the swing arm and all the little pieces of the frame, but the end result will be very, very nice.

The other fact that encouraged me was that new bearings (which are necessary if I pull the old ones to allow painting) are fairly cheap! Between $5 and $10, depending on which bearing.

Tonight I’m trying to strip the frame and hubs down to nothing, including removing the swing arm, so that I can get the bearings pulled tomorrow before some planned recreation in the afternoon. At this point, though, it’s looking unlikely, since I’m sitting here writing this instead of disassembling. But I did get some work done, and here are the images.

Here’s some of the stuff that came off: turn signals, tail lights, the wiring harness, the handlebars, headlamp, console, etc.: