neeonbrowwn

whelp, sent my old raleigh off to the powdercoater, only to have forgotten to remove the lower headset race, and it is now coated in beautiful RAL 6027..

how should i go about remedying the situation? painstakingly remove and sand the bottom race? remove and replace? would heavy duty paint stripper work on powdercioating?

thanks for the advice ahead of time.

Dylansbob 

If it were mine, I'd take a razerblade and carefully cut around the underneath before removing the crown race. Might help to keep the powdercoat from chipping. I forget exactly what chemical dissolves PC, but if you search there was a recent thread about it. Maybe oven cleaner. I'd just remove the race, drop in in a container with that solvent.

As big of pain as it is to clean powdercoat off of crown race seats, I've never thought it a bad idea to put a sacrificial race on during painting.

nlerner

I'd knock that race off and replace it with another.

P.S. Nice color!

canopus 

Yep, razorblade to trim under the race and cut it from the fork, remove the race.
Use a small torch to burn the PC off. Polish with some ought steel wool and oil, then reinstall.

repechage

Ask the powdercoater how they prepped the metal.
I have a hunch they media blasted it. The coarser the media, the bigger the need to find another race.
which might be a trick.
They would also know the approach to chemically remove the PC.
Razor blade to control the separation is probably not a bad idea.
Conversely, if you just assembled it, the powdercoat will degrade soon enough, you would feel it as the headset gets loose, might take a few headset repacks to clear out the plastic.

Andy_K 

This is what happens when you try to make a non-Bianchi Celeste. You got off easy. I've seen far worse.

oneclick 

How about just scraping the coating away from where the balls run; a small sharp blade should do, clean up with a wire brush.

Especially if the plating is poor.

smoothness 

Bad News: It'll likely be a futile effort to clean off that crown race without doing abrasive/chemical damage.

Good News: You can definitely remove that crown race. Take a brand new carbide blade (boxcutter, snap-off) and score flush around the seat a bunch of times. Once you have a noticeable trough, remove with a crown-race puller. If you're going to use a homemade remover/chisel, cover the crown race with some high-friction tape, as the paint will be slippery. Get the seat re-faced, and coat the bare metal with boeshield before installing a new crown race.

gugie 

That's harsh!

neeonbrowwn

Update:

did the razor / paint stripper method, and it came off nicely, and stripped beautifully.. looks as good as new!

thanks everyone

gugie 

One of the things that doesn't work well to remove powder coat is media blasting. All of the powder coaters I've worked with send out the part for chemical removal. Also, you don't want to media blast a bearing surface, for what I hope are obvious reasons.

degan

Leave it and install the fork and headset with the paint in there. Let the grinding of the flaking powder coat be a constant penance for your forgetfulness.

repechage

I don't disagree, just have seen stuff at powdercoaters and the soda blast cabinet... places I did not use, but but one never knows unless you ask.
I agree about the bearing surface too, just when it gets left on... the initial image of the coated fork showed a burst bubble, makes me think there was some oil that got expelled.

Narhay

Just an fyi- the bottom race and cup is not specific to any threading and just relies on the crown race diameter and the head tube diameter which in a Raleigh's case is one of the bog standard options. I think they are 26.4 crown races.

I know your race came off and you can reuse it but as an alternative you can buy a nice Tange headset with a sealed bottom cup and replace the lower portion of your headset.

repechage

I was thinking that the original spray paint may have been blasted off.

Mr. 66

I heard that gasket remover works on powder coat.