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Powder Coat or Paint?


MREDDLE

Powder Coat or Paint?  

2 members have voted

  1. 1. Powder Coat or Paint?

    • Powder Coat (candy red)
      5
    • Paint (candy red)
      3
    • Your out your mind
      6


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So I found a thread were a guy powder coated his car. (see attached pictures) this got me thinking. I want to powder coat my 280z the candy red shown, but I also want the roof and rear fenders candy. Then, satin black the doors, fenders, hood, bumbers and hach? So what does everyone think?

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He only painted the inside of the car. I guess you can paint the outside but you will not get the shine and will probably have orange peel.

 

Powder is great tough stuff but is not typicaly used on large A surfaces.

 

I use to be in the business....once upon-a-go. There are reasons this is not being commonly done.

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One important item to consider......it will be near impossible to touch up a given area if you ever have to.

 

Powder Paint is applied very thick and since its baked to allow the powder to flow(~about 350F) it will never blend in perfectly and not recommended for rebake. Its not very sandable and polishable either.

 

As far as bschiltz's comments..not quite correct. There are thousand of powder coated parts exposed to the sun. Wheels, roof racks, architectural parts ...lawn furniture...etc. Modern powders contain UV inhibitors.

 

BUT...that doesnt make them ideal for car bodies. Name one car manufacturer on this planet that PPs exterior car panels!!!!! Its been tried and turned down....

 

Dont bother.......

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i wouldnt do the whole body. jerryb is correct about if you ever need to fix it or touch it up. i have a sign shop and i powder coat a ton of stuff(sign frames, faces and polls) and when it comes to fixing damaged items i have to strip it down to metal in order it repowder it. you can powder over fixed areas but you can see it in the finished product. and it dosent buff very well

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Wow. BMW powdercoats the new 3 series. They go through UV lamps for curing instead of a conventional oven. The reason it is not common is because it has to be heated to 350 min. If my oven was a little bigger I could do a whole Z. I just got another 73 240z and was planning to do everything but the frame because of size. Bought sight unseen because of no rust and the fenders are fiberglass DOH!!! Only epoxy powder is damaged by UV and it isn't used much. Since I can't do frames I'm not pimping myself, just trying to pass on correct information. IF I had the money and a bigger oven I would powderfcoat my car without question. I should make a video of me blasting metal with paint on it, the paint flies off, powder not even close. It is far superior to paint for protection and you can add flakes, pearls, etc. I will be doing the Z's some time and will start a thread when I do. I might do the whole 72 240zt since I am upgrading that to an intercooler (powdercoated), megasquirt and EDIS. My doors, front fenders, hood and everything but the frame I can do now and will start once the snow falls. I have had 4 calls for frames to be done, all by guys building rods. My 78z is the copper metallic stock and I made a clear with copper flake and it matches almost exactly, I did a spare gas flap to test and it came out very close to the original, I will tweak the formula a little more. One caveat like stated is that you can't "touch up" the coating because it doesn't blend in, but my supplier can match any powder and make it a paint for touch up. Good luck.

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Hot Rod magazine did an article a while ago called project f-bomb camero. They powdercoated the whole car in a semi-gloss black. Then they sprayed paint over the powdercoat. The idea was the powdercoat would make a great coating under the car, inside the car, and in the engine bay. They claimed it made a great base to paint off..

 

"The light blasting also leaves an ideal finish for the next step, which is a little unorthodox: The bare shell is thoroughly cleaned and then powdercoated. The entire body, fenders, doors, decklid, inner fenderwells, trunk lid, and hood all get a uniform coat of black powdercoating. Carpenter says, "I don't know why people would be scared of it. If it's done right, the powdercoating adheres to the metal probably better than etching primer, and it's a great base to start block-sanding. The sanded coating lets body filler feather in very well." Also, the process seals any loose blasting media that may be caught in the tightest crevices of the car so that it cannot fall out and get in wet primer or paint later. It's possible to powdercoat a paintable primer, but we used a semigloss black that's a great finish for the underside of the car and for the engine-compartment area if you're building a street or race car rather than a show car. Those areas are easily touched up with satin black paint. It's also neat that the coating gets absolutely everywhere-under the dash, under the package tray, and in every corner of the trunk-and into places where it might otherwise be difficult to add a rust-preventive coating, especially if the car has been dipped rather than blasted. The drawbacks are expense (about $1,800 for our car, including blasting) and the fact that the baking process can be hot enough to make factory lead filler drip a bit, though there was no issue with that on our Camaro. Also, we really should have done the coating after all the fabrication work so the welders did not have to grind off the nasty stuff before welding and so the 'cage would have also been coated rather than painted."

 

http://www.hotrod.com/projectbuild/fbomb/hrdp_0704_1973_chevrolet_camaro_paint_body/body_powdercoating.html

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ok....I do stand corrected...BMW does use a clear powder top coat...but colour? Are you sure?

 

http://www.usautoparts.net/bmw/bmw/assembly/painting.htm

 

Agreed....powder is a very tough paint and near indistructable. Thats why custom motorcycle frames are PP'd. The rest is wet painted for optimal appearance.

 

Wow. BMW powdercoats the new 3 series. They go through UV lamps for curing instead of a conventional oven. The reason it is not common is because it has to be heated to 350 min. If my oven was a little bigger I could do a whole Z. I just got another 73 240z and was planning to do everything but the frame because of size. Bought sight unseen because of no rust and the fenders are fiberglass DOH!!! Only epoxy powder is damaged by UV and it isn't used much. Since I can't do frames I'm not pimping myself, just trying to pass on correct information. IF I had the money and a bigger oven I would powderfcoat my car without question. I should make a video of me blasting metal with paint on it, the paint flies off, powder not even close. It is far superior to paint for protection and you can add flakes, pearls, etc. I will be doing the Z's some time and will start a thread when I do. I might do the whole 72 240zt since I am upgrading that to an intercooler (powdercoated), megasquirt and EDIS. My doors, front fenders, hood and everything but the frame I can do now and will start once the snow falls. I have had 4 calls for frames to be done, all by guys building rods. My 78z is the copper metallic stock and I made a clear with copper flake and it matches almost exactly, I did a spare gas flap to test and it came out very close to the original, I will tweak the formula a little more. One caveat like stated is that you can't "touch up" the coating because it doesn't blend in, but my supplier can match any powder and make it a paint for touch up. Good luck.
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Didn't say color, just coated. The clear is so much stronger than a paint clear I will make a video sometime and show people. Powder if done right doesn't "chip" or "flake

" off because it is baked on a blasted profile. I coat 16 gauge wire so people can twist it all around and it doesn't flake off, that is a big selling point. That is why springs are coated, the don't flake with the flexing of the spring. It is like a rubber paint coating, it is almost impossible to blast off and not warp the metal(if it is thin). The funny thing is in the article $1800 is high to them but I asked a painter how much to paint my Z and I almost $hit myself. Also in the article powder can "bend" in the air and get in places paint can't because the powder is charged by the gun and the car is grounded, it goes to the most negative area first and you can see the powder curve as it is drawn into areas that are uncoated. Though the farady effect can be a royal pain for deep recessed areas.

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Do it.

 

My favorite post!

Sorry for not chiming in earlier. I didn't get any emails that people were posting. I am really liking the powder coating idea. Though what do I do if I don't like the color anymore? Well it will be some time tell I am ready for paint/powder. Thanks for everyone ideas. I will post a thread once I'm ready.

 

What does everyone think of the candy red color?

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