Plastic Coated Carbs

[yaddy]

Hi everyone,

i just thought i'd share these pics with you.
My good friend Bribird plastic coated these carbs and shipped them to me for my 650 Kat / cafe project.
These truly are a work of art, i can't take any credit for them myself so i thought they deserved their own thread to show them off! Sorry BriBird, i know you don't like to brag, i on the other hand, have a set of gorgeous looking carbs and i want everyone to know how much i appreciate the hard work you put in. So here they are people, hope you enjoy the pics as much as i enjoy them in person.

Thanks once again Buddy, these are fantastic!

[Nessism]

Carbs look great. By using powder coat, issues with having gasoline eating the coating should be minimized. Regarding the pods, are those K&N's or generic?

[yaddy]

Hi Ed,

Carb's do look good don't they. I'm not sure what the chemical resistance properties of plastic coating is, but i'll bet they are pretty resistant to fuel spillage / leakage. I'm not sure what make the pods are, i can't find a makers name on them so i guess they are generic? They came with my bike in a box, never fitted, i've somehow managed to put a small dent in one as well, Doh! They fit my bikes colourscheme to pefection though and this older style fits my cafe project a lot better than the oval type K&N's would do.

[Bribird]

Hey Yaddy, you are very welcome!!! I am glad you are happy with them. Dont worry about gas hurting the finish.... theres also a heavy coat of clear powder over the chrome powder. I am not sure how well they would take to being soaked in carb dip for an extended period of time.. but hey, next time I am shooting some powder, I will bring along a test piece to soak in carb dip to see what happens..

Now hurry up and get that bike built already!! lol

[TheCafeKid]

Those pods appear to be EMGO conicals. Just a word bout them Yaddy. They look killer, but play havock when trying to dial the carbs in. Especially so I would bet on a vaccum carb. They dont flow for crap, and they dont filter crap either. Someone splain that one to me...lol I had a beotch of a time getting them tuned on VM carbs, I would probably go insane trying to tune for CVs...I thought at one point in time K&N made their own conical filters like those??? Just a heads up man, they look killer, but I got fed up and put the good old standard oval KN on my cafe project...

[yaddy]

I'm going as fast as i can BriBird, it's costing me a fortune in "midnight oil" and these candles sure don't last long when you burn both ends!

That's re-assuring to know cafekid, and here i was thinking i might have trouble setting the thing up!

Seriously, that does worry me a little bit now, i've never had to mess too much with carb settings. My 1000E was Dynojetted when i got it and carbwise, it's been steady as a rock, even when i switched from sponge filters back to standard airbox, all i had to do was take the jets down a size and it's perfect (seems to be at least).
I know K&N used to do a filter just like these many moons ago, because i used to run them on my LC's and a KH400 i had loved the extra air. I haven't seen them for a very long time though, i'll have to have a search and see what i can find. I do have a set of black foam filters that came off the 1000, i bet they don't fit the carbs though.

I own a 4-bank set of mechanical vacuum gauges with no pipes or connecting tubes, i guess i'm gonna have to blow the dust off them and try to get some fittings sorted. I've a lot of reading up on the many threads about carb balancing to do then, best order another delivery of midnight oil and candles!


Thanks for the input there, the heads up is most appreciated, cheers.

[tejasmud]

Those carbs look great.


The pods look like EMGOs, but the boot on them is molded to the element.
EMGO pods usually have the chrome ring on the carb side, which creates a rather large lip inside.

[blown_n_on_fire]

He did a great job on those carbs! Did he rebuild them also or just do the cosmetics? I am looking to get a set done like this?

[yaddy]

He did a great job on those carbs! Did he rebuild them also or just do the cosmetics? I am looking to get a set done like this?

Hi there, and welcome to the forum, you'll find plenty of helpful chaps on here to help you out with any probs you may have.

Bribird coated the carb bodies, tops, bowls and both mounting plates for me. I painted the choke rod and associated bracketry and put the carbs together. I used Stainless bolts and washers along with stainless braided fuel lines and black braided breather pipes.

I'm not sure of the process involved with the powder coating but i think it started with a good blasting of the carbs before coating. Maybe Bribird could offer some comments on the different stages, he has a few "during" pics somewhere too, he might be able to shed some light on the "how to" process for you. Good luck with your carbs then, i hope they turn out as nice as these!

[Bribird]

Hey Yaddy, here is a link to the pics of your carbs during the process of powdercoating them. My bad..., I thought I had already gave it to you. doh!
Thanks blown! If you have any questions on the process of powdercoating.... feel free to ask..

http://s404.photobucket.com/albums/pp121/bribird68/Steves%20carbs/

by the way, you got any pics of em on yur bike yet??

[oshanac]

Bribird-Did you do those yourself with a simple DIY Harbor Freight type powder gun and bake it in your oven? That chrome powder looks JUST LIKE polished alum. Minus all the work!

[Bribird]

Bribird-Did you do those yourself with a simple DIY Harbor Freight type powder gun and bake it in your oven? That chrome powder looks JUST LIKE polished alum. Minus all the work!

hey oshanac, ya, I used my powder gun that I got from eastwood, but not eastwood powders, I just have not had good luck with them. I use columbia coatings powders and never had a problem. I started out with a old elec oven for the baking but now have a lab type incubator oven which works really good and is a convection type oven too.

[oshanac]

Wow, that is awesome Bribird. Just think of all the money you save by doing it yourself. I'm going to have to get my frame powder coated (doing a full restore to my gs) because I don't have an oven big enough for it. But on all the smaller bits, it may save some major cash to do what you did. Thanks for the tips!

[Bribird]

Wow, that is awesome Bribird. Just think of all the money you save by doing it yourself. I'm going to have to get my frame powder coated (doing a full restore to my gs) because I don't have an oven big enough for it. But on all the smaller bits, it may save some major cash to do what you did. Thanks for the tips!

Thanks!....Ya man, thats what got me started in the powdercoating... I called a PC shop and asked how much to do my motor cases and engine covers.. they said like 700-800 bucks. So I did a bunch of research and taught myself how to do it. I already knew how to paint, so its very much the same kinda thing.... its all prep work.

[yaddy]

Thanks for the link to the "during" pics BriBird, they look even more amazing now, when you can see the process taking place.

Just a note on the oven:
Am i right in thinking you shouldn't be using your best oven in the kitchen? I think the powders would give off fumes that you wouldn't want in the house or to contaminate your oven?