Powder coating your scooter? Here are my top five tips….

1. Firstly, if your panels are dented get the blemishes leadfilled, not bogged (fibreglass bog falls off in the ovens).

2. Strip the frame down to the skeleton, this includes plastic bits (they’ll melt) and the wiring loom and inspect the frame for breaks and fractures and get them welded. If you powder coat over a crack, rust will leach out and discolour that area of your pretty scoot.

3. Remove the steering bearing shells and put them with the rest of your bits. Old grease and oil hides under here and will also leach out and discolour the finish. Armed with petrol, kerosene and degreaser, clean the bits that you intend on getting powder coated. (Better still, steam clean it!) The powder coaters will appreciate a clean scoot to work on as grease will contaminate their sandblasting grit and I don’t think they like getting their hands dirty.

4. Finally, mask bits that you don’t want to be coated with paper-masking tape (steering column or headset controls). If you have a big hole (?) that you don’t want coated, shove a tightly rolled up piece of gasket paper into it, this will survive the ovens as it has some sort of asbestos in it. Put nuts on exposed threads and screws in tapped holes. if you don’t do this you will end up with stripped threads when you put the scooter back together.

5. As powder coating is in reality, plastic coating, you will experience some problems with the electrics. The best remedy to this is scrape away a little bit from where the tail light bolts on to and where the engine earth strap is attached. I use an Arlec Super Tool for this job. You can also engrave with it!