Project Morini
In the workshop with Oli's Moto Morini 3 ½ Strada build
Oli’s Morini gets a loving coat of powercoating at Triple S
The paint on the Morini’s lovely frame was a bit of a state, to be honest with you. I'd had it stripped and given a conventional respray sometime in the mid-1990s, but dragging the thing from pillar to post, up and down flights of stairs and in and out of sheds and garages had taken its toll on the paint job. It was covered in chips and wear, and I really want the frame to look good. The amazing Morini frame, as much as the v-twin engine, is what makes the bike so legendary, after all.
To get a decent, tough coating on the frame I decided to go for powder coating. I chose this rather than just paint, which can wear off and deteriorate quickly. At the other end of the scale, the traditional way to paint a frame is by stove enamelling, which is vastly tougher than just paint – but if you chip it there is no way of touching it up.
Rather than just choosing an industrial powder coater who would shove it in an oven alongside garden furniture and metal cabinets, I decided the job should go to somebody who knew their motorcycles. Following recommendations, the frame was sent to bike work specialist Triple S Powder Coating, in Bradford.
David Lightfoot, who runs Triple S, has been working on motorcycle and automotive restoration projects for more than 35 years. Triple S works on restoration projects almost exclusively, specialising in motorcycles modern, classic and custom, as well as on bicycles and on cars, providing a service for everyone from machine restoration specialists to amateurs – and helping create show winners along the way. His son, Matthew, works in the business too.
“Powder coating is a flexible coating that is more durable than paint,”
David explained.
The first thing to be done at Triple
S was to check the frame for obvious damage. Then everything was cleaned and degreased, and the frame was taken back to the bare metal with a blasting medium. Triple S uses fine iron filings which will take the paint off a frame, but where traditional shot blasting can remove a lot
of metal, using iron filings reduces this to a minimum.
The frame is then examined again to check for any damage that may have been uncovered by the blasting process. If necessary, it's sent off to be welded, filled or repaired before work can start. Small areas of wear or damage can be covered by high-build primer.
David said: “This happens quite a lot. You often cannot see damage until you get the paint off. People sometimes think their frame is perfect before sending it to us, or they can find where filler has been used or where there is rust, but without the stripping you won't see it.”
The next thing to do is mask off the bearing housings and any threads that need to be protected before the coating is added.
Then the frame goes into the oven for a 45-minute pre-heat at 150°C. By heating the frame up, the powder used in the spraying process clings to the metal more effectively.
The frame is then electrically earthed, and the powder is positively charged as it comes out of the spray gun. Due to the electric charge, the powder is attracted to the earthed component and wraps around the part, giving an all-over, even coat.
The finish this creates is a grainy, matt-type covering. When this part of the job has been inspected to make sure the powder has reached all the important little places, the frame goes back into the oven. Heating the coated frame allows the powder to start to flow and will create a mirror finish gloss coating, and more than tough enough for hard road use.
Customers sometimes request that frame numbers are masked off, but this
“Triple S uses fine iron filings which will take the paint off a frame, but where traditional shot blasting can remove a lot of metal, using iron filings reduces this to a minimum.”
is a legacy from the days when coatings were applied much more thickly.
“The secret is not to put too much on,” said David. “We get things as close to a wet paint finish as possible.” On older British bikes with worn engine frame numbers, masking is still used.
Gloss is not the only finish available, and black is not the only colour. Powder coating is very big business across the Atlantic and Triple S has access to more than 130 colours and shades from over the pond. David offers several finishes, including the satin look used by a lot of Japanese manufacturers. David and Matthew have worked on everything from radical customs to immaculate Vincents, and all points in between.
“We will try to replicate what the original finish was,” David said. As well as frames, Triple S powder coats wheels, petrol tanks, engine casings and barrels. Powder coating can also be used on delicate parts like switchgear housings to return them to factory finish, and for those who have bikes for which replacement parts are hard to find. Even items as small as washers can be coated. And it's not always a single-colour process on each part, either.
“We can do two colours and bleed one into the other,” David continued. “We can mask off polished areas, and we've done jobs where the whole wheel will be powder coated and then we suck the surplus powder off before the baking process begins, so you get both finishes.”
As well as powder coating, Triple S carries out the increasingly popular process of ceramic coating, used on items that put up with intense heat, such as exhaust systems.
While powder coating is good enough to cope with the heat from an exhaust, ceramic coating will withstand heat up to 1000°C, so those with exhaust systems that have suffered over the years – especially hard-to-find systems – can be revitalised and pressed into service again with a ceramic coat. This is also popular with Harley-Davidson owners for their oil tanks; most of them select ceramic over powder coating.
When the frame got back to me, I inspected the parts for any transport damage as per David's instructions. There were none, as Triple S uses a proper carrier.
I will need to remove any build-up of paint around plain holes, as this may be too much to allow bolts to pass through
cleanly. Masking the surrounding area and working with a small round file should solve any potential problems.
I need to work out where there might be electrical earth points on the Morini and, if necessary, remove the coating there too, covering any bare metal with paint.
David recommends looking after your paint by polishing with a soft cloth and a good wax polish. A good household polish like Pledge or Mr Sheen will produce an excellent finish.
And finally, before getting on with the project, I need to wrap rags or newspaper around the frame to protect it from possible damage from falling tools or parts, especially the bottom rails. This is inevitable... I'm an excellent dropper of spanners.
David advises using new washers under bolts and nuts to ensure a good grip and to protect the paintwork, but this might
“Inspecting the job done on my Morini’s chassis reveals the only real problem with using powder coating in any restoration project. The frame now looks so good that I’m going to have to seriously raise my game when building the rest of it.”
be a bit tricky as some of the washers are thicker than standard, so I'm going to clean up what I do have and see how it goes.
Inspecting the job done on my Morini's chassis reveals the only real problem with using powder coating in any restoration project. The frame now looks so good that I'm going to have to seriously raise my game when building the rest of it.
Now I've got the frame and swing arm back, I've also discovered that the bronze swing arm bushes I fitted 20 years ago do not fit the swing arm pivot. Very careful work to ream out the bushes a micron or two will be needed before I can start the dry build process.
The next step will be to take my barrels to a local engineering shop to see whether I can get away with merely honing them or if they will need a rebore.
Powder coating a frame costs from around £130, and swing arm another £36 to £38.
The frame can be collected from the owner's home and shipped to Bradford, the job turned around in less than two weeks, and returned.
Triple S can be found at triple-s.co.uk or by calling 01274 562474.