TO POWDER OR NOT TO POWDER

I decided I might as well remove the swing arm from the chassis and prepare it for powder coating. The rubber boot at the gearbox end of the arm held the universal joint in place, the end of the joint can be seen protruding through the rear bulkhead, where eventually a bearing will join it to the new prop shaft. With the boot removed the joint slipped out, I taped over the pin bearings to stop  the dust and grit from entering and set too with the angle grinder and electric drill.

I used a non woven hard open sponge like disc on the grinder to remove 90% of the paint and a circular and cup wire brush on the drill to remove most of the rest. I bought in Aldi a spot blaster for £6.99 and thought I would use this with my little compressor to get into the difficult nooks and crannies. Well, various online forums said it was rubbish and for about the first time I must agree, up till that purchase any bit of kit that I have bought from Aldi has always done what was expected from it. With this bit of kit, unless I held the end right on the metal it only just began to remove the paint, for the 'nooks and crannies' situation, this was not possible and I had grit everywhere and the paint remained. In the end I resorted to a small chisel to scrape any remaining specs of paint, I also stripped the brake back plate in the same way.

The above shot shows the shiny, bare metal bits in the back of car on the way to the paint shop, where I was told that powder coating would ruin the three rubber oil seals and related bearings, (two supporting the swing arm pins and the other supports the UV joint) I looked puzzled until he said that baking the powder at 180 degrees would harden the rubber seal and any oil/grease in the bearings.

It was decided that rather than trying to remove the bearings, and damaging them in the process. It might be better to traditionally spray them with a two pack paint and in a weeks time I will collect the bits and hopefully they will look as good as new.