Going For It... Full Body PowderCoat

Dan, you're further away than Kentucky, but not as far as Texas - let me know the contact info of the powdercoating place so I can at least see if they can do it (sounds like they can) and approximately how much it would be. I'm sure it will be expensive, but I think it would be the very best way to do something like this race car body with the cage already installed. No way you could get paint on the top of the roll bars now. And it would give all the tin work a good finish. I haven't found powder coating to be nearly as durable as many people claim it to be either, and I wouldn't attempt to use it as finished exterior finish; I just want all the inner unibody, cage, and underside all powdercoated. I'll refinish the exterior and paint it.

I'd sure appreciate the contact info on the TX and KY locations too!

 

The stuff looks pretty smooth to me but you will never get the depth that you can get with clear coat.

 

Chuck ... all the contact info should be on their website I posted ...

 

if you painted a normal paint job over the powder coating that would probably be one hell of a rust preventative right?

 

Oops, sorry Dan. I missed it. It blended with your signature box. Duhh.

 

Here is the one in Dallas.
http://www.yellowpages.com/info-LMS57349017/Crosslink-Powder-Coating
He said that there oven can do about 24 x 9 x 7. I bet that is the oven size and the actual part may need to be smaller.
Provided I bring it on a rotesorie, the interior and the floor/undercarriage, firewall for about $350, in matt black.

 

Here is a place not too far from me. I know they have a HUGE oven.

http://www.prostrip.com/

 

any time i have seen paint over powder coat,it doesn't stick. the powder coating is too hard for the paint to adhere. and the coating is not that durable when exposed to elements and chipping and such. once it chips,it will come off easily with a pressure washer. it doesn't adhere to the part as much as candy coat it. this has been my experience,and i see alot of it on the race cars we paint. it is good for tin work on the interior,that won't get chipped and smacked around alot. i have seen alot of it coming off of cages and such. the cars we paint have the cage that falls out the bottom of the body,so it is done before the body is dropped over it.(outlaw 10.5 cars). just my 2 cents. but to each his own. and the shine will not last even with the clear powder coating,it doesn't have any UV protection in it like regular paint clear has. have fun with it,don't chip it. ----george

 

Thanks for all the links and advice. I've had powdercoated suspension pieces on one of my previous Mavericks and agree it's not nearly as durable as alot of people claim. What I liked for doing the unibody of this race car chassis I have is that it would cover every nook and cranny including the floor, the sides, the underside of the roof, the dash, and behind the dash area. I intended to strip the powdercoating from the exterior and paint the exterior normally. The cage is already installed, so there's virtually no way to paint all sides of the bars, especially the top of them near the roof. Also, the headliner was left in when the cage was installed, but now the headliner has been damaged. I don't think I'll ever be able to get a new headliner installed properly with the cage in place, so the underside of the roof will need blasted and painted. I can't see being able to get any kind of good paint coverage on the underside of the roof around the cage work. So, my thought is powdercoating this thing will get a decent color finish on parts that would be next to impossible to cover adequately at this stage. I'll keep everyone posted as to what the places tell me and what kind of price they estimate. Thanks again for everyone's input.

 

I know what you are saying... but I would have to say that the problem most powder coated parts have is that they wern't cleaned and dried for the best adhesion.
I have bought steel fence panels that were peeling when I hit 50 mph with my trailer lol. The gates that I build (and the extra parts on the side ) get cleaned by me personaly so I know how clean it is when it gets to my powder coater. He wipes it again then does his thing. No problems yet and he and I have done business together for like 5 years now. The first guy thou, he was fast... but his stuff would peel. I peeled some flaky off and seen the problem first hand. He had no helpers to clean and do the kinda prep required, charged a good pennie too .