How to remove Powder Coating

So you've got this sweet new powder coated motorcycle frame and it looks awesome. Until... you realize that it is everywhere. You didn't think twice about not having that part coated when you took it to the shop. Although it shouldn't surprise you any because you've seen it on every reality TV 'Pimp my trash into treasure' show out there. The cool looking parts come back and the crew goes to work drilling out all the bolt holes so they can put it all together again.

ToughCoat did a good job plugging my bolt holes and masking off the threaded studs, but there were a few places that neither of us thought about until it was time to put it back together again. I've posted a few examples below.

Powder coating is HARD. Really hard and thick. I first attempted to scrape it off using a utility knife but quickly found out that was a losing battle. My beautiful wife found this little gem on an internet forum and the following is my experience of how to remove powder coating.

Permatex 80645 Gasket Remover can be purchased at about any auto parts store for about $10. It is an aerosol foam that is much easier to control then a typical aerosol spray.

Mask off anything that you don't want to remove. I used a heavy plastic and masking tape to cover the fork mounts up so I could remove the powder coating from the steering column. (Steering bearings are press fit and you'll never get a set to press on over powder coating.) So, I applied a liberal coating of the gasket remover and let it sit for about 30 minutes.  

Once the coating had softened up, I used the utility knife to scrape off as much of it as I could. Did I mention that powder coating is hard? Well it is. I applied the gasket remover 3 times before I was able to sand off the remaining coating with a sanding screen similar to that pictured below, but cut into narrower strips.

The end result. Bare Metal.

I had several other smaller places that I needed to remove the coating from such as the rear brake cylinder mount pictured below. For these smaller applications I put a small amount of gasket remover on the end of a Q-tip. The foaming remover is very easy to control that way.

Here is a picture of the softened powder coating. You can see that I've already began scrapping it.

It kind of curls up like plastic as it is coming off. Be careful and never cut toward yourself like this bozo is doing. What a dope. After a few applications of the gasket remover and scrapping I again used the sanding screen and ended up with a very clean mount.

If you find yourself in this circumstance just remember to have patience and let the gasket remover do it's job. It's pretty slow and a little tedious but it works well and is easy to remove only what you want gone.