Suggestions for baking / curing VHT SP127 paint? home made oven ???

[exdirtbiker]

My head, cover, and cylinders are freshly bead-blasted. Time for paint !

I will not consider using my home oven to cure paint. ( ok, ok .... "her" oven )

I think putting the parts on a cookie sheet, in a grill, would work fine. - If I can find a free grill on the curb.
( I have a high temp digital thermometer )

I don't want to get my own grill full of unknown chemicals.

Any tips / suggestions? How did you guys do it?

 

[Nessism]

I used my kitchen oven and lived to talk about it.

FYI, I used VHT engine paint on my most recent rebuild project and the paint is more brittle than glass. Even with a primer base layer to improve adhesion I have had chunks of paint breakoff under bolts after tightening. Not a fan of VHT anymore.

 

[exdirtbiker]

chunks of paint breakoff under bolts after tightening. Not a fan of VHT anymore.

Yikes ! Just when I think I'm doing things "the best way" ... How about the Dupli-Color ceramic engine paints?

Never a fan of their spray nozzles on enamel paint. Nothing but splatter every time!

 

[Sandy]

I used my kitchen oven and lived to talk about it.

FYI, I used VHT engine paint on my most recent rebuild project and the paint is more brittle than glass. Even with a primer base layer to improve adhesion I have had chunks of paint breakoff under bolts after tightening. Not a fan of VHT anymore.

When I did the top end on my GS1000 I used the VHT aluminum caliper paint and baked in the oven. I taped up any mating surfaces as well as the head bolt/washer surfaces before spraying with a small circle of tape. After baking the paint is like iron, I tried different chemicals such as brake fluid and cleaner to see how good the paint was before I reassembled and was surprised how tough it was. The match was pretty much exact to the stock colour.

 

[tkent02]

I just powder coated my 675 cylinders. Looks great unless you stick your eyeball way down between the cooling fins, then it's a bit thin.

I used VHT on another engine recently, it's coming off in places already.

 

[exdirtbiker]

Dupli-color ???

Found my answer:

"after 5 day cure, one drop of gas removed the paint in 10 seconds".
SO now what??? I'm going to stick with VHT and hope I get lucky, since it sounds like hit / miss results.

 

[chuck hahn]

Grab an old electric stove off the curb and use the oven element and control as the heat source. Build a big insulated box and make your own custom baking oven. Make it big enough to do frames if you decide to get into frame powder coating in the future.

 

[Fjbj40]

Yes, it will peel off when you tighten a bolt down.

One problem is the bead blasting, it does not rough the surface enough and the paint will not bite into it. I use bead blasting to clean and remove old coatings but then follow with a light blast with aluminum oxide to roughen the surface. Paint really bites into it much better than glass beading.

I just did an engine with KG Gunkote and when I torque stuff down there is no peeling. I will never use the VHT or Duplicolor paint again, it plain ol sucks! Even if you prep it the way they say, compared to the gun kote or a 2 part paint.

 

[Nessism]

Yes, it will peel off when you tighten a bolt down.

One problem is the bead blasting, it does not rough the surface enough and the paint will not bite into it. I use bead blasting to clean and remove old coatings but then follow with a light blast with aluminum oxide to roughen the surface. Paint really bites into it much better than glass beading.

I just did an engine with KG Gunkote and when I torque stuff down there is no peeling. I will never use the VHT or Duplicolor paint again, it plain ol sucks! Even if you prep it the way they say, compared to the gun kote or a 2 part paint.

I'm regretting using VHT after blasting all my engine parts CLEAN. The primer is sticking to the metal fine, it's the color that doesn't stick. I had the parts clean enough to Gun-kote too. Big mistake there. I was thinking that I didn't want to heat the parts too hot for fear of loosening the cylinder liners and what have you since Gun-kote requires a fair bit of heat to cure. On second though I could have under cured in the oven and waited for riding the bike to finish the job.

 

[Guest]

same here with the chipping under bolts with the vht. i hung the parts in front of an old space heater to cure. Looks good except for the aforementioned chipping under the bolt heads.

 

[chuck hahn]

Maybe thin nylon washers would stop that??? If they wouldnt be heat melted????

 

[Fjbj40]

I'm regretting using VHT after blasting all my engine parts CLEAN. The primer is sticking to the metal fine, it's the color that doesn't stick. I had the parts clean enough to Gun-kote too. Big mistake there. I was thinking that I didn't want to heat the parts too hot for fear of loosening the cylinder liners and what have you since Gun-kote requires a fair bit of heat to cure. On second though I could have under cured in the oven and waited for riding the bike to finish the job.

With the Gunkote I baked mine at 300 f for 2 hours, no adverse effects to any of the parts. Just make sure you place the cylinders in the oven head side down.

The Gunkote is such a thin coating that it did not peel when torqued down. I even coated the bolts, except threads, and it held up under the torque. I was impressed to say the least as every time I tried painting hardware, even with 2 part it peeled or chipped.

 

[Fjbj40]

Maybe thin nylon washers would stop that??? If they wouldnt be heat melted????

Maybe with low torque fasteners, but anything high torque, meaning 6x1, will compress and deform and then loosen after any heating. I tried that idea.

 

[Guest]

The gun coating products are the best. The best gun "paint" is Cerakote, it is not cheap, but it is really tough.

As far us using the kitchen oven, and chemicals. Very little comes off the coatings during baking. Running the oven through a self clean cycle would turn any residue to ash. Still I know about the her oven thing all too well.

 

[Guest]

I used VHT on my brakes and hung them from the top rack in the BBQ.with wire. Set the BBQ on low with the lid slightly open. They looked great at first but a few years later were peeling. I would not do it again and would lean next time to getting them powdercoated.

 

[tkent02]

Grab an old electric stove off the curb and use the oven element and control as the heat source. Build a big insulated box and make your own custom baking oven. Make it big enough to do frames if you decide to get into frame powder coating in the future.

The trouble with powder coating frames is that it takes serious equipment to get the temperature right in an enclosure large enough to do a frame. Hot air rises, so the top is a lot hotter than the bottom, and a frame will cure a lot different on one side than the other. Commercial powder coat ovens have fans and elaborate controls which do just fine, apparently it's very difficult to do in a home made oven.

Engine cylinders and anything smaller are easy to do and turn out great. The only hard part is cleaning the pieces first.