I couldn’t find any info on this: I know the concern regarding chroming an older axle, I have a Super Bell tube axle that is painted, I would to have it powder coated, will the baking process be a concern ? thank you in adavance.
The heating process would be far less a concern to me than using a cast axle rather than a forged axle. Superbell is now making forged steel axles. I sold the Magnum cast axle I had and bought a forged axle from SoCal The temperatures involved in baking powder coating are low enough that they won’t hurt ductile cast steel. Given the examples we’ve seen of broken cast axles I don’t think you should use it.
Powder coat cures at 350*, some may use 400*, so the process will not be a problem. I will be having my front suspension coated this winter and my axle is a Super Bell dropped tube with the cast ductile ends and I have complete confidence in the axle.
The cure process temperature for most powders happens to be the same temp used to bake parts to eliminate hydrogen embrittlement. The only difference between the 2 processes is the bake duration.
Do it, it will hurt nothing. I had a buddy coat my I beam, we did a silver color baked it and then taped it off and did a blue in the inset of the beam so it got baked twice. Came out killer.
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