Topic: how much to powder coat comstars

[cb650 bobber]

I was wondering what is a good price or what I could expect to pay to have 2 comstars powder coated in eith black with a clear coat or cherry red with clear coat.....

[Geeto67]

the more important question is do you really want to heat cycle a wheel made of two very different metals that is rivited together?

my powdercoar guy charges between $80 and $100 per wheel.

[rbmgf7]

are the rivets steel or aluminum? i want to say AL myself but someone correct me.

i had the same intentions of powdercoating my coms. of course the only downfall i face is re-riveting the spokes to the wheels. i was just thinking about finding some fasteners as an alternative and making sure to secure them so they won't loosen during riding.

[Steve F]

They're probably stainless steel.  Another consideration: are there those plastic pieces where the spokes meet the rim?

[SteveD CB500F]

I seem to recall that the early Comstars had steel "spokes" bolted to ally rims. The black plastic bits cover the bolts.

But I could be wrong...

[Geeto67]

comstars are steel (not stainless - as they are prone to rust) spokes rivited to aluminum rims with a steel rivet. One of the problems the earlier bikes were plauged with was where the rivits would cause dissimilar metal corrosion in the rim and eventually work loose.

As far as my understanding is, once you take a comstar apart it is junk as it cannot be put back together straight and true without specalzed machinerey and without great difficulty. I have never seen a comstar that was taken apart and put back together (although I have seen a comstar where the aluminum rim was cut and widened, but never removed from the hub).

I would be worried about powdercoating because you are heating two metals (which are rivited together) with different heat expansion rates to over 450 degrees, which could cause permanent warping. I could be wrong about this but it just seems like powder would cause some hassles.