Going to powder coat my rear suspension in all white . But was wondering if any one has ever powder coated or seen the rails powder coated on a sled . Was thinking of doing them in Red .. Or polishing them to match the tunnel. Doing all the front suspension pc's in white also and polishing all the alum. Putting the new white SLP Mohawks skis with red loops up front . Any thoughts or ideas about doing this or dressing up the suspension in general ??
Any one ever powder coat there skid rails ?
- Thread starter pirate
- Start date
That is what I was wondering Indy .. My buddyy has down 100's of steel hot rod parts in his home size furnace with good luck , but that is steel or non stressed type Alum parts. I've also thought off getting them Anodized in red like the new models coming out . But that costs $$ ,my friend is free lol .. But do not need bent or cracking rails either .
Did some research , 400 deg won't affect the alum integrity in 20/25 minutes . But anything over 700 deg drastically can change and or weaken alum even in 20 min oven times . Powder coating is always done between 400/425 for about 25 mins so time to get tearing all the suspension apart ..
Trees4Traction440
New member
Thanks for posting this man, I was gonna but couldn't find the pic on my
Phone. This was my buddies 09 800 renegade. He powdercoated the rails white and we literally made it from Krupps to Pit Stop in Greenland our first night up. We rode pretty respectful since it was 1st week in dec that year and a few sleds were new or had total over hauls like his. We know the guy who owns the shop next door so we swung in to say hi and of course we tore up the fresh snow piles before we left. My buddy literally pulled up to the pile, squeezed the happy lever, did a big tail stand ON TOP OF THE PILE and the sled about lawn darted from the track locking up. Instantly we thought chaincase locked up until I saw the rear boggy wheel about a foot out of place. He was not happy getting to Homobile back to Krupps with me on a not so plush IQr to get the truck.
The powdercoater was dumb founded when we showed it to him, all he could think of was that they pre bake the parts to clean the oils and such out of the metal and then that and the temp they bake it at actually anneals the aluminum and makes it super weak.
We know of 2 sets of rails and also if my memory is right 6 spindles that have twisted or bent from being powder coated.
Ill never do powder coat on spindles or rails but I'm going to either spend the $ for anodizing or paint mine. Another buddy of mine used self etching primer on his rails and a satin black spray paint and it's held up great for 2 seasons
Trees4Traction440
New member
that does make sense and maybe the guy around here that did all the stuff that bent needs to re think the methods
Buddy powdercoated the aluminum rails on his sabercat soon after it was purchased. It has been passed down to his nephew but it now has 12,000+ miles on it. It was ridden out West a few times too, been jumped quite a bit, etc. No issues whatsoever. I did all the metal parts on my rear suspension on my Poo (I didn't do the aluminum rails, since I was just focused on fixing rust), and had a shop do it that does a lot of work with Indy cars and racing motorcycles down here - I think you just have to work with a reputable shop. Half-baked is a shop that I see on some snowmobile sites. I'd call them.
http://www.halfbakedcoating.com/
http://www.halfbakedcoatings.com/
If you look at this link, there are all kinds of rails on here:
http://www.halfbakedcoatings.com/Motorsports_Parts.html
http://www.halfbakedcoating.com/
http://www.halfbakedcoatings.com/
If you look at this link, there are all kinds of rails on here:
http://www.halfbakedcoatings.com/Motorsports_Parts.html
vic_junior
Member
You will be fine. I powder coated my rails on my old fusion and never had an issue. Must people that bend their rails "powder coated or not" is because they try to jump their sled and land the sled vertical putting all of the energy and stress of the weight onto the rear idler wheels. This causes the rails to bend near the rear. I've never seen bent rails near the front of the rear suspension. Cracks I've seen all over rear suspensions, but not specific to powder coating. Have fun with the project and enjoy it. Post pics when done.
If your worried that you might have areas of weakness in your rails just brace that area. You powder coat the metal brace too.
If your worried that you might have areas of weakness in your rails just brace that area. You powder coat the metal brace too.
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Trees4Traction440
New member
these bent rails were 110% because the powder coat weakened the rails, It was the process used to coat them tho, The company that did these heats them up as part of a prep/cleaning process before they actually coat them. This total process weakens then aluminum.
Doing some research on this just make sure you use a reputable shop and that they only bake the part once when coating. This makes a huge difference as far as strength. Also let the company know what the part is and that its a high stress part, most powder coaters don't know or care what they are coating so maybe they can do things differently. Notice even some of the steel (green) suspension components were bent when this all happened. AND HE DID NOT DO A JUMP AND LAND VERTICAL...literally the suspension hardly left the ground when he wheelied.
He replaced these rails with Anodized Ice Age rails and pounded the **** out of this set up with out fatigue (multiple times tail landing and moto-x track rip sessions)
So yes to answer the OP question, Powder coat is perfectly fine to do to the rails but make sure they are done right or youll have some awesome decorations for the shop wall lol
