My First Boomie and Comstars

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:46 am

Very, very nice. I wonder how a stock Comstar would look in gold?

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:41 am

Tom,

Great to see that you worked out a process. I know that must have been tough because I painted my 900F wheels and, while the results were good, I am sure no where near as nice to have the PowderCoated.

Super work.

So, you've blasted the wheels to remove the old coating, then you restore the finish on the rims and edges of the spokes by sanding.

When you go to remove the excess powder from the rims and the spoke edges, do you have to do anything to ensure a good clean line between the coating and the bare metal? What do you have to do to ensure a clean accurate line. I am curious about that detail.

Again, great work!

Scott

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 2:56 am

Scott,

Believe it or not, I was able to get a nice, clean line with just a damp fingertip carefully moved along the edge. It's easier than it sounds and I'm positive that I couldn't have gotten as nice of a line if I had masked off the edges instead. This picture doesn't even do the wheel justice, but it gives you a better view of the crispness of the lines:

Between the first color coat and the final clearcoat, there's no differentiation between where a black area meets up with a bare clearcoated edge. This is the beauty of powder - it just blends together where they meet... and you sure can't use a fingertip to wipe away excess paint!

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:50 am

I finally got around to a job I've been dreading - finishing the rear Comstar and sprocket carrier for my 750F project bike. These are not an easy job due to all the bare edges involved. First there's the blasting, then edge sanding to bring back the shine, then washing, etc. I needed an extra day off to tackle this, so today was the day.

I shot the entire wheel in black just like the front one, then began removing the powder from the rivets and spoke edges, along with the rim itself. For bulk removal, I vacuum away the powder, then do the final cleanup with a damp fingertip.

If I rush, I risk the chance of knocking powder off an area that isn't supposed to be bare. Needless to say, I've learned the hard way how to deal with little errors like this.

First cure, then clearcoat and final coat, and here we are!

Thre rear came out even nicer than the front, but it took quite a bit longer.

Now it's time to tackle the brake rotors...

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:04 pm

Super Nice!

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:17 pm

tomk1960 wrote:

Now it's time to tackle the brake rotors...

Oooooh. I know how this one turns out.

F-tastic.

Thanks Tom!

Barry

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:25 pm

You Sir are an F'n artist!! Beautiful results from patience, preparation and persistance!!

Keep up the great work,

Chris

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:57 pm

Thanks guys - I appreciate the good words.

I had a good sized coffee an hour before I started working on the edges of this last wheel and was wondering if it would affect my steady hand. Luckily it didn't. Wink

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:16 pm

Just happened on this thread while looking for something else and I must say the results are outstanding. I have seen tomk1960's brake caliper work and very impressed by the results so it is nice to know these old wheels can look showroom new again.

Thanks for the great post.

Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 4:42 pm

Just to go along with the gold boomies, here are some disks I just finished:

There isn't a whole heck of a lot of powder on these pieces, but the masking involved (both sides) is very tedious and time-consuming. It takes approx. 2 hours to blast, wash, and mask each disk and only about 20 minutes total to shoot the gold basecoat and final clear topcoat. I was happy with the results, but I'm not sure I want to do a lot of these unless I can come up with a faster way to do them.

Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 10:45 pm

Tom you have come a long way!!! I love threads like this... Truly inspiring and a great learning curve.

Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 1:56 am

Very nice Tom.

That rear disk is a toughie to mask properly. I've tried to paint them and I know that the masking is the tough part.

Scott

Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 2:37 am

sbparks wrote:

Very nice Tom.

That rear disk is a toughie to mask properly. I've tried to paint them and I know that the masking is the tough part.

Scott

Scott - the rear disk is normally the harder one to mask, but in this case, the fronts were worse. I think these were from a GL1100 and have a more detailed backside with rivets that are outside the radius - you can see the difference between the front and the back disks:

Not only is all the masking more involved, but after a basecoat/clearcoat of powder, the buildup on the tape makes it necessary to carefully go around all the edges with a sharp blade to cut down to the steel so that the masking tape can be removed. That takes time too. The easiest disks to do are the ones for the 1100F's:

The 750F/900F disks aren't too bad, either, since they only get one coat of powder and therefore aren't so bad to "unmask" after curing.

At least I know they can be done. Wink

Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 11:57 am

Have you tried "painting" the areas you do not want to coat with silicone, let it dry, shoot the powder and then peel the silicone with the overshoot powder off before you cook?

Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 12:50 pm

DOHCRob wrote:

Have you tried "painting" the areas you do not want to coat with silicone, let it dry, shoot the powder and then peel the silicone with the overshoot powder off before you cook?

No, I haven't, Rob. Interesting thought - that approach might work in certain applications. Are you talking about some sort of liquid silicone rubber that you can buy in a can that can be applied by brush , or just the stuff in a tube that you squeeze out?

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 1:38 pm

Beautiful work Tom!

Sly

Twinstar Joined: Apr 22, 2018 Posts: 218 Location: Toronto

Tom sort to call up an old thread but what colours were the gold that you used that was so close to anodizing?

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 12:57 pm

I used Columbia Coatings Metallic Gold M2648004 with a super high gloss clearcoat. If you want them to look a little closer to stock then a satin gloss clearcoat will get you there. I did a pair
of boomies last summer for one of our members. That was my 5th set of that particular wheel. They're a lot more work than a CBR wheel, but it's well worth the effort.