Powder Coating Issues

[09Nightrod]

Two years ago I purchased a 2009 Night Rod Special. After 6 months of owning the bike the powder coating on the lower triple tree started to bubble and flack off. I took it to HD and was told that it was my fault for living by the ocean. Now two years later and many more problems later I am now having the same problem on the lower forks and on the neck of my frame. HD has fixed the lower triple tree as of a week ago but still doesn't want to complet the job.
I have been to 4 different professional powder coaters in my area and all say that this bubbling and flacking is due to bad prep work before the powder coating was done. It could also be due to HD now alowing the the coating to dry and cure properly.
I am looking for advise on this issues as I go head to head with HD. Is there any one out there with experience or possible having the same problems as I am?
Please get back to me. I am new to this site.
Thanks,
Semper Fi

 

[kemo]

I was going to have some powder coating done by an independent shop. I took the piece to them and he said he would not do them until I had cleaned every nook and cranny and had them media blasted. I decided that the effort was more then I wanted to get involved with so I took everything back and polished them at home and that is the way the pieces will stay.
Ken

 

[TQuentin1]

Good luck with your quest on the powder-coating, NightRod. If you do live near the ocean, and particularly around beach sand, even the best powder coat job is not going to last. You are constantly sand blasting the lower extremidies of your bike, and the powder coat technologies just can't hack it.

I live in the Houston area, and although we are not close enough to the Gulf to have beach sand on the roadways, there is enough construction going on around here on the roads that they are constantly grinding up the concrete producing a very aggressive blast media. The bottom of the engine and tranny on my Dyna look like they have been in a sand blasting cabinet!! The front jug looked that way too until I redid things in '99.

So when I did the top end job in '99, I had all the flat black powder coated parts that were all raggedy from the road blasting stripped and redone with teflon by a company called PolyDyn Performance Coatings. The process is called PolyDyn, and the teflon is adhered to the aluminum just like on your kitchen cookware! The stuff will not come off unless you remove metal!!

Check it out if you decide you want a more permanent fix.

Performance coatings by Polydyn

TQ