murpia
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| posted on 12/9/07 at 04:44 PM |
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Poweder coating chassis and body panels
Hi folks,
A few questions on powder coating, any advice is appreciated.
1) Roughly how much to powder coat a chassis?
2) Should it be painted in primer first or can it be coated 'raw'?
3) I assume the floor is welded in before priming & coating?
I've heard of people powder coating the ally body panels:
4) Can you rivet them in and get the whole lot (chassis & panels) coated in one go?
5) Or, do you prefit them and drill the rivet holes, and then rivet them in once they're coated as separated bits?
Thanks, Ian
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BenB
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| posted on 12/9/07 at 04:52 PM |
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I think it has to be powdercoated raw cos the electrostatic attraction won't work as well with an insulating layer of paint......
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StevieB
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| posted on 12/9/07 at 04:54 PM |
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Budget £400 for a good job and you should be OK. MK charge about £200 for their chassis and wishbones etc, but it's not the best finish
I've ever seen.
The metal will need to be cleaned up with thinners (to remove all grease) before you send it to the podwer coaters - pick a place that will blast the
surface first as this'll give better adherence and a nicer finish (and it'll last longer)
You'll need to weld anything on that you want welding as it's effectively a plastic coating, so you won't be able to weld onto it in
the future. You could always fit an ali floorpan instead, which is lighter, will never rust and can be rivetted on afterwards (most kits have this,
so I don't see why a home made locost shouldn't).
I guess you could rivet in the ali and get it coated at the same time, but you'd be better getting them done separately - the finsih will be
better and you won't ttrap any impurities between the ali and steel that will cause erosion later on.
That said, why bother powder coating the ali? The main reason for it is to prevent rusting in the steel, which won't happen to ali, so all
you're doing is adding extra weight.
And as Colin Chapman once said - for speed build lightness!
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murpia
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| posted on 12/9/07 at 05:43 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by StevieB
That said, why bother powder coating the ali? The main reason for it is to prevent rusting in the steel, which won't happen to ali, so all
you're doing is adding extra weight.
Scratch resistance, and to get it coloured.
So, no primer needed, no panels is best and look for a powder-coater that shot-blasts first.
Thanks! Ian
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StevieB
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| posted on 12/9/07 at 06:12 PM |
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Thats about the top and bottom of it - don't forget to clean it with thinners too though, as a lot of places won't take it otherwise (they
don't like getting grease in their blast media, plus the finish won't be as good).
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Mal
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| posted on 12/9/07 at 07:17 PM |
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Powder Coating
A powder coater explained to me that a single top powder coat could be applied, but for more durable protection a priming layer of powder could would
be used. This was in connection with alloy wheels, but presumably the same applies to a chassis.
An important consideration is having the chassis surface shotblasted before coating.
Mal
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