Questions on PCing HD wheels

[oldgoat69]

I have spent 5-6 hours reading posts on this forum and have a couple of questions before I try my hand at powder coating the cast aluminum wheels on my 1991 Harley. The wheels are the standard 9 spoke cast wheels that HD has been making forever. I stripped the original finish on them with aircraft paint remover. I then wet sanded the edge of the spokes and the outer "lip" of the wheels, starting with 220 grit wet or dry sandpaper and finally ended up with 2000 grit. Buffed/polished the outer lip and it looks really good, just like chrome. The edge of the spokes are about 1/4 inch wide and I could not get a consistent buffed finish on them. I finally used Mothers mag and aluminum polish on them and they now look good also.

Questions:

(1) I want to mask the polished edges and lips and shoot the rest of the wheels gloss black and then shoot clear on the polished parts. Will the Mothers polish cause any out gassing?

(2) Caswell's customer support has told me that I don't need to clear the gloss black. Will it hurt the gloss black to have clear applied over it?

(3) Should I mask the areas that I will coat black first, shoot the clear, cure and tape the clear and then shoot the black?

(4) If I shoot the clear first and then mask it, will the clear stick to the masking tape (I bought it from Caswell) when I shoot the black and then cure it?

(5) It would be easiest to tape and shoot the black first then unmask and shoot the clear. I don't know if the Caswell PC masking tape will leave any residue on the polished parts, after shooting the black and removing the tape can I let the wheels cool and give them a final cleaning before shooting the clear?

(6) Could one, or more, of you pros give me the proper sequence of steps that you would take if you were doing this job?

Thanks, OldGoat

[hvac36]

Firt I would heat the wheel to 425 to help remove the polish from the wheel or at least wipe down with Acetone. Once done tape what you do not want black and shoot the black then clear. No you do not need to clear coat the black and it will not hurt it either.. So tape and PC...

Jim S...

[pickleboy]

i fully agree. that is how i would approach it also.

[ShelbyCSXT]

I have not yet used my high temp tape, but also wonder the same question oldgoat has: does the tape leave a residue on the part after going through the cure cycle?

[UnorthodoxCreations]

Originally Posted by ShelbyCSXT

I have not yet used my high temp tape, but also wonder the same question oldgoat has: does the tape leave a residue on the part after going through the cure cycle?

I've used it many times and have never experienced any residue on any type of surface no matter how much or how little it is baked.(This is with Caswells tape, I dont know if there are other brands or how they would act).