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The nacelle came off with the four dome nuts that hold the detachable windshield, but when we looked at the chunks of chromed steel we came face to face with the rubber mounted brass fasteners that hold in the headlight. With a little twisting and tugging they came away from the case.

There were fastener locking tabs in the front fender which were a bear to reach and punch away from the hex head bolts. Yeah, I know, this photograph sucks, but we had to use it to show the locks.

We removed the wheel first. Not so fast. I had to unbolt the calipers first and discovered the 12-point metric sockets. Everything on that Showa front end was metric even the Allens on the bottom of the lower legs. One was easy to reach, the other a pain in the ass. I needed a long metric Allen.

Here's a quirk. The lower legs were drained of 11.1 ounces of front end lube. I thought that the lower legs would just slide off. Not so. You need to remove the seal retaining rings then off come the lower legs popping the seals free. We were forced to replace the seals.

I removed the two screws that hold the taillight lens in place. There's a junction box behind the taillight held with one large 1/4-20 Phillips screw. The plugs for the turnsignals all snap out of the junction box. The box came loose easily, but the chrome taillight ring was stuck. I thought for sure there were fasteners on the inside of the fender. Not so kimosabe. It was just stuck with an adhesive pad. Once loose we discovered that it was plastic along with the rear fender tip--can't go to powder coat. We had to sand (wet and dry 600) and paint those elements ourselves.

After all the parts were removed, we laid them out and took a picture of the lot for an inventory. Then each component was carefully wrapped in bubble wrap and boxed. Powder coating would take a couple of weeks. We also wrote up an inventory for Custom Powder Coating and made a copy for ourselves. I looked longingly as the UPS man hauled the heavy carton away with more than 80 parts inside.

We nabbed Custom Powder Coating as a sponsor because several of the staff are large fans of powder coating when building custom bikes. We've discovered that if we can build a frame clean enough, we can have it powder coated for a strong, resilient finish at a fraction of the cost of custom painting. There's other benefits. If you want you're sheet metal painted by someone in Tim-buck-too, you don't have to ship the frame, wheel rims and brackets to the high-buck artist. Have them powder coated and send a sample of the finish to your creative-one.

We recently used this formula with a Shovelhead being built at Strokers Custom Bikes, formerly Dallas Easyriders. Rick Fairless who owns Strokers turned us on to Custom Powder Coating. The painter for the project is Harold Pontarelli of H-D Performance out of Vacaville, California. We sent the sheet metal to Harold and the frame and hardware to Steve Marts of Custom Powder coating in Dallas (214) 850-0011.

Amazing shots from Custom Powder Coating in Dallas. Are we good or what?

Steve has been in the custom coating industry for nine years. For 15 years Steve has had the dirty job of coating patio furniture. Steve and his wife Debbie prefer to run a job shop capable of coating hockey goals to bike frames. They can coat dragster bodies up to 20-feet long. Their oven is 6 feet high, 6 wide and 22 feet long. They coat four-wheeler valve covers by the thousands. They coat frames for American Iron Horse and they can virtually match any color using Prismatic Company powders that are dry blended in the Custom Color blending house. Send a swatch to match colors and they can rock.

When I asked about chromed parts Steve said, "If the chrome is fresh and new we brush blast it for proper adhesion and powder coat the part. If the chrome is flaking or old we'll take it to a chromer to have it stripped."

Electrically charged parts were sprayed with the powder of our choice--black, before being baked.

As an indication of the toughness of powder coating Steve discussed removing it. "It's a bitch," Steve muttered, "It's so strong you can't sandblast it off so I heat the parts to 750 degrees and it rolls into balls and runs off. Then I can blast the remaining finish." Unfortunately, that process won't work on some aluminum, "It will burn," Steve added.

Okay, so here's the basic process. Keep in mind that if you need bondo, you can't powder coat. Bondo can't handle the heat. Although, there is a filler now available that will take powder. Make sure all the bearing races are removed. Strip the parts as much as possible and clean them for the best adhesion. Bad welds will be smoother, but they'll still be bad. We discovered that malady when we built the blue flame. The frame looked terrific powder coated metallic blue, but my welds still sucked. I finally coughed up the cash for a MIG welder. On the other hand we had the frame back in a week and were assembling the bike while Harold poured his magic on the sheet metal. The powder coated frame made all the difference in the timing for the ride to Sturgis. Steve recommends giving him two weeks to run through the process. He runs two shifts a day for four days a week. Only one shift on Saturdays.

Masking is the first process after cleaning, sandblasting or bead blasting. Then the part is prep sanded. Steve has discovered that the powder holds better if the part is warmed prior to the powder painting process. With the pre-heated part the paint immediately begins to melt and doesn't flock on the component.

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