Powdercoating anyone?

[DanielW]

I've considered doing it myself and also had it done. But a couple of years ago I brought a set of Allis rims and the fenders from my tool trailer to the powder-coaters I used at a former job and for some home projects, and they surprisingly told me they wouldn't recommend it for all the reasons stated above. It's a great, durable finish that'll last ages in static applications. But if you scratch/ding it (which you're inevitably going to do on a set of working rims before too long, and will definitely do with a set of fenders in no time) and it'll just harbour surface rust behind it and eventually peel off. They told me a good epoxy sealer/primer and a good top coat would be better, which is what I did.

 

[Don B.]

More powdercoating today
Doing the front spindles as we speak right now, last of the gray at least for a while.
Back to black at least for a handful of stuff.
I've talked to others (back when I paid the last time to have it done/ and since on various forums) and most ive talked to seem to agree that powdercoating in small batches rather than an assembly line type setup such as in a factory seems to fare better. I've never had anything coated that the coating fell apart. And some of which leads a pretty tough life. Hopefully my DIY coated stuff lasts as long.

 

[Don B.]

Proper preparation

Without an acetone clean and sandblasted rough surface powder coating ain’t gona stick.

Powder coating might not have overspray but the electric gun application and oven curing makes it a challenge for the garage hobbyist to apply correctly.

I have been using the Eastwood "pre* as a final wipe down with a few of my parts getting a lacquer thinner wipe instead. The stuff I've been able to do "farm to table" style but rather straight from sandblaster to coating with no sitting around in between I've only blown off with an air wand with no wipe down in between.
The only thing so far I have questions about regarding durability might be the gas tank straps as those are galvanized to begin with and I've discovered a couple of galvanized peelys once coated.... But trying to scratch with a thumbnail they don't seem to be going anywhere

 

[m16ty]

It appears that the difference may be in as they say "size of sample". Your's is two, welding man's maybe 200.

Well when somebody says "all" powder coat messes up and flakes within a couple years, I can show you 2 that haven't.

Also have a 2018 forklift that was powder coated from the factory. In all fairness, I did notice the other day that it was flaking some underneath. Again, I account that to lack of surface prep. The forklift still looks as good as new on the top side, I'm betting they skimped on the prep on the bottom.

 

[stevieb49829]

Don, how hard is it to find the right color powder to use? Mine would have to be a dark red/black metallic to match my engine color. steve

 

[showcrop]

Don, how hard is it to find the right color powder to use? Mine would have to be a dark red/black metallic to match my engine color. steve

I am not Don, but if you dare you can consider what I post. When I have taken parts to the cxoater they have had hundreds of little aluminum plates with different color and texture of powder coat to help you select.

 

[Don B.]

I had to go thru 3 different greens (and redo the door hinges as I used those as my test pieces) to get the right one for my truck door and hood hinges. Those sample plates aren't always right and those (my name for them) model car bodies they show are also "off" especially if looking at pix of them online.
Look at the RAL color system as I found that easier to pick. All are a 4 digit code for example all greens are 60xx. I believe blues are 50xx not sure about the reds what number they started with.
You can even Google (for example) "difference between ral 6009 and ral 6028".
It will bring up a color square that's 1/2 and 1/2 each color you are considering. There Are a lot of places online to buy powder, Sherwin Williams among others even sell them. I bought all but the green I liked from the Eastwood store, I happen to have one about an hour north of me. They sell a lot online, but there are only about 5 brick and mortar locations in the whole US. Mine is the farthest west in the whole USA. (Alsip IL)
Next closest is parma OH (wherever that is) and one in pasadena MD and I don't remember where the other 2 are, I believe one is in PA somewhere.
Most online ones will sell by the pound and some give a price break at 5 lb. Some only sell in 25,50 and more lb quantity. Unless you are doing it commercially you don't need 25+ lb. Some sell it 8 oz at a time. The black and red I have used so far seem to go the "farthest". The squirrel gray seemed to go on the thinnest and I had to recoat a couple of times. I coated them, baked them, pulled them out of the oven, recoated, baked the gray parts again "just" until I saw the powder melt and coated again.
Some recommend a powder primer, I haven't heard of a down side listed for priming while others say priming "not necessary". Everyone who recommends it says it's even more durable with it than without. The important thing is it has to be CLEAN. If it starts out greasy or oily it's best to pre bake these parts before the first layer of powder even after blasting. A wipe down (I'd do this only for "cold" parts) with acetone or something like Eastwood "PRE" before coating never hurts. But make sure parts are dry before laying on the powder. I sometimes wipe things down then bake them just a few minutes to make sure they're dry before I coat them. I'm still new at this and am still learning myself. I figure I'll completely get the hang of it about the time I'm done coating everything I want to coat for this particular job.... But for the difference in Price "having it done" vs DIY version, I can't afford not to DIY. I couldn't believe the difference here within the past couple of months when taking a pile in foe a quote for someone else to do it for me vs what I had done before nnalert. Eastwood always has a sale, for what you can get the powder gun for (I suggest the dual voltage one, you'll mostly use "high" setting) plus a cheap electric kitchen oven from marketplace or a garage sale you're still cheaper than what it will cost to get it done for you.
Hope it's ok with everything I posted on this one, I know it's more than you asked for.

 

[Don B.]

Well when somebody says "all" powder coat messes up and flakes within a couple years, I can show you 2 that haven't.

Also have a 2018 forklift that was powder coated from the factory. In all fairness, I did notice the other day that it was flaking some underneath. Again, I account that to lack of surface prep. The forklift still looks as good as new on the top side, I'm betting they skimped on the prep on the bottom.

This isn't "universal" by any means but I mostly seem to see factory manufactured parts that were powdercoated that peel and don't hold up than parts that were (re?) done after the fact.
I've asked local powdercoat guys about it and they say it's all in the prep and when your goal is to cram a certain quantity of parts down an assembly line vs handling smaller quantities of parts piece by piece more attention can be paid to details
In manufacturing where they have mass quantities to lay down color on, places like the EPA are ever present and VOC emissions has gotten to be a big sticking point of f which you don't get with powder. Ever noticed driving by "certain" body shops and even some of your neighbors they're always paint fumes in the air? These VOC s are in those fumes. (VOC means volatile organic compounds). I definitely am not an expert on what those might contain or what problems they bring. I've seen it mentioned on spray paint rattle cans bought locally, even.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

They thought us how to do it on a toolbox in high school I still have it it’s holding some model railroad stuff. Looks perfect but been inside

couple of the local factories use it and will run a flatbed through (or racecar)for you I have had it done. My trouble with it is though it is perfect at the start and fast inevitably it will get scratched and then what to I do? If I fix it you can tell where I was. If I modify a hold down same answer.

 

[Don B.]

If you look at that RAL color system they show paint as small as the "touch up" to gallons to match to any given color.
That RAL system I think was based in Europe.

 

[Don B.]

I just got some powder primer I'm gonna experiment with. I re sandblasted some door hinges that came out the wrong shade of green to redo and compared to some powdercoated parts I've stripped my efforts came right back off easier than most. I also have some motor mounts and engine accessory brackets to do after those. Who primed, who doesn't under powder, in what situation, is it better to prime under some parts and not others? Does this effect color that any given powder turns out?
I'm not gonna backtrack and take off any parts Ive already coated and installed. I do know that the more recent parts I've coated I've left in the oven longer than the first batches I did. Those that I left in linger so seem more durable

 

[Don B.]

Had to get more gray powder for the hubs of my new rotors and the backing plates on the rear end. I did the rotors today, (3/4 ton truck with old style inner and outer wheel bearings not a hub with a slip on rotor)
Gonna have to scout the garage sales for a bigger oven I see .. I put bearing caps on to keep powder out of the outer races and I barely got them in the oven I have now which was a cheap Craigslist find to begin with. My oven has an issue that doesn't hurt anything when I do small things that I can hang from the top rack (I use cut up coat hangers and bend them up to hang parts with) but when I had 2, 36 lb rotors in there at once the rotor on the bottom was 40-60 degrees warmer than the top one when I hit it with the infra red to see if it was up to temp before I started the timer... So hopefully the top one got baked enough. I did the fins as well/ but masked the braking surface when I hit them with the powder. These are brand new rotors out of the box, but about 40 years old... Wagners that are old enough to have been made in Canada not China....
I'm doing all I can to avoid using Chinese made anything on this truck. I also redid my door hinges as the green I originally got is way off of what the truck is gonna be. I have the hinges knocked apart so I can reassemble them with new pins and bushings anyway. I coated more than just the one set I need for this truck.... I have plenty of spares.

 

[Phill Tibbetts]

The biggest problem with powder coat is poor preparation. On new metal if you don't get the carbon factory scale off the paint will not last because of it. Poor adhesion.

 

[Don B.]

I have glass beaded everything I want it to stay onto. and most I have also sprayed with Eastwood "PRE" cleaner which Im 98%sure is the same thing as ospho. On the rotors (which are brand new but probably at least 30 years old) I didnt glass bead the pad surface. I don't want it to stick there. I did get a little overspray on that part even though I masked it, the foil and tape came up like a woman's skirt... I tried something different with these rotors than anything Ive coated to date, I used some primer powder as a 1st coat, and I took them out hot and put the color coat on then baked again... This Eastwood squirrel gray I used as the finish coat has already proven to be more durable than I would have expected on parts I coated with it previously.... On my spindles (I didn't have any silicone plugs yet, and I should have run bolts in the threaded holes) I went to bolt the caliper bracket to the spindle and the bolt bound up before the bolt was run all the way in and it wouldn't come back out.... almost like I red Loctited it.... at 43 years old, it originally came apart easier than expected.... I ended up twisting the (grade 8) original bolt that was in there from the factory right off.... I ended up having to heat the spindle with Mapp gas to be able to unscrew the stub after which it came out easily while hot.... but surprisingly the coating stayed well intact.... and this was on something that I didn't prime.... so that's promising, thinking that this PC will stay intact on the rotors...... most of which won't be seen anyway once the wheels are on, just the portion of the hub that sticks out of the wheel, the part where the outer wheel bearing rides within.
On the door hinge parts that I had to redo it wasn't because of a faulty PC job as much as it was that I experiment with a few different greens and it took me 3 tries to get the right shade.... Those that I redid were split between the 2 wrong shades I first tried. so I re blasted them and redid them.

 

[Don B.]

I have 1 more part I'd like to redo, a gas tank for a Kohler generator that I finally found a replacement for....
It had a plastic tank cap on it that I left in place as a "plug" to keep powder out. It didn't take 400* very well, and melted, I had a molten gas cap on fire in the bottom of the oven and it ran down the tank as it dripped onto the oven floor.... so there's spots of spattered plastic on that.
I was able to scrape the burning pile of plastic off the oven floor and let that finish its bake. but its got soot stains and bits of plastic on it haha

 

[urbancase]

Yes it has its place like E-coat, works well in place that are protected and done right you can pass a 1000 hour salt spray. He a pic I took at our coating plant this week going to add a RO halo spray to improve spots that dry in the oven.

 

[Don B.]

I thought e coat was pretty much "powdercoating" because of the electric charge for getting the powder to stick before it has a chance to be melted/ baked on

 

[urbancase]

I thought e coat was pretty much "powdercoating" because of the electric charge for getting the powder to stick before it has a chance to be melted/ baked on

It’s water borne paint, can use zinc or iron as a substright. Ours is a 15 station unit. We are a automotive stamper so the parts like air bag housing, brackets etc we coat.