Thread: Powder coating vs paint??????

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Talk to your coater but I think he will tell you body work and paint. The PC will end up with the slightly orange peel look.

As far as imperfections my coater has told me that there is a special filler that can be used under the coating......I'm told it is very pricey though.

We had a sand buggy PC'd and I have to say it was a big mistake. It looked nice when the buggy was done but one trip down the trails and it frankly looks like crap. The suspension parts look like they have been glass beaded and the rest is rather dull. It may clean up with elbow grease but not like paint.

The big problem is if you need repairs and need to weld where it has been PC'd... get yourself a big pile of sanding and grinding materials. It is a royal PIA to grind off. When you are done if you are lucky it can be stripped and redone. Some pieces can't. The really good PC guys say they can fix it but it didn't look like it from what we got back.

I'm still all for plain old paint for rough and tumble cars. PC is for show cars.

It does cover some sins.

Don,
Mine is PC'd and I'm happy with it. Yes, it has a slight orange peel - but - very little of the frame can be seen without crawling under the car. I've dropped fasteners, wrenches and body parts on it - and no dings - yet anyhow. The frame was originally painted with DuPont Centari - and it was slicern' - well you know what. BUT - it had dings and chips about every time I worked on the darn thing. I for sure didn't want to strip the chassis again with all those nooks and crannies and the many hours it would take. I disassembled the entire chassis in about 2 hours, took it to the PC guy who grit blasted it back to near white, then coated it - and all for less then $500($475). My time and the cost of the prep and paint would have cost more plus the fact that I for sure could not have cleaned those nooks and crannies PLUS coated the insides. Chances for dings is much less and nasty rust streaks about gone. I did black so it will be easy to touch up if necessary. Down side - if you forget a bracket - and I did, but ended up bolting it on instead. The PC guy even coated the bracket for coffee and donuts.

This photo doesn't show the fender frackets, running board brackets and cross members that were also part of the deal

I am learning to appreciate my location near the Hanover Air Park/Airstrip since there is a lot of high tech light industry there. I bought a solid aluminum flat dish racing steering wheel (Speedway) so I can get in and out of the tight '29 cockpit and it came with a "brushed satin" finish. It looked good but picked up finger prints and a few little dings right away so I got estimates to coat it. Result: $85 for epoxy paint OR $85 for powder coating but the paint guy told me the PC would be much tougher than any paint he could apply so I went with CLEAR PC and it is beautiful! The shop in the Air Park seems to make their living on PC treatment of relatively small parts but they did my wheel. I am surprised IC2 found a shop that could do a whole frame. At that shop I saw several bicycle frames which looked smooth as silk and in fact on my steering wheel and all the parts I looked at there was no sign of orange peel. If/when I finally get my steering column set up I will show a picture of the wheel in the car on another thread, but so far the mockup of the clear-coat silvery aluminum against the maroon dash dazzles your eyes!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

I am surprised IC2 found a shop that could do a whole frame. ........ If/when I finally get my steering column set up I will show a picture of the wheel in the car on another thread, but so far the mockup of the clear-coat silvery aluminum against the maroon dash dazzles your eyes!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don,
This is my powder coater ; http://www.powdertechinc.com/default.htm

Big capacity ovens !!!

Looking forward to your photos

Dan mentioned there is a filler called something like all metal or whatever that can be used to smooth stuff first. Being that it is a fenderless car and everything is going to hang out in the open, it seems the only way we can get a glass smooth finish is to spray and buff. Powdercoating would have been nice from the aspect of just dropping it off and picking up the finished product though.

Thanks for the input so far guys, I appreciate it.

Don