Powder coat or not too powder coat that is the question

So I want to refinish some 914 front suspension parts with a durable finish after they are sandblasted. Should I spend the money and have them powder coated and will it last or is there something better suited to my application like POR15 etc?

Also if I'm rebuilding the calipers can I powder coat these or will the heat adversely effect the internal workings. I know I have to remove the rubber boots but are there any internal seals that could be effected ?

I chose to powder coat, but it was sandblasted at the same facility. I spray-painted any moving parts and add-ons with colors I could go to the store and buy any day of the week.
It seems to be holding up well. Having said that, the original Volkswagen pieces were in fantastic shape with barely any stone chips or rust before I wire wheeled, ground or sanded the ends for welding. I wanted a uniform base color for the chassis, and I didn't want black.

Cory,

Glad to hear your powder coating is holding up. It sounds like if you had to do it again you would stick with the powder coat ? Love that orange it looks fantastic!

It was what I had wanted to do since I started the project -- and I couldn't beat the price. $750 for the sandblasting AND the powder coating.

Definately powder coat. Extremely durable and lots of great colors. I don't know about powder coating the calipers. We powder coated the rotors and then just sanded the braking surface off. That way all the little holes in the vented rotors and the non-braking surface don't rust. Looks cool. The calipers I would be tempted to just use caliper paint. That would save the aggravation of plugging all the holes, some of which (piston) are odd sized and the powder coater may not have the appropriate sized plug to block it off. If the plug is not available, it WILL get material into it and you'll spend alot of time cleaning it out. If you mess up and score the piston hole, you will probably have to throw the caliper away.

angela

Angela, Powder coating the rotors that's an awesome idea. Do you have any pictures I would love to see how that came out. Agreed the calipers might be to costly an item to mess up.

Has anyone tried the do it your self kits they have now ? Most of the parts I'm thinking of will likely fit into a standard oven so perhaps I might give this a try.

Eastwood has a DIY kit --- but they don't recommend using the same oven that the TG turkey goes into. Suspect vapors are toxic.

That Jet Hot coating Angela's talking about is good stuff -- and not too spendy. $160 for a header. ... Comes out a shiny nickel color. It's a company name for the process, out of California somewhere.

This is the only photo I could find that clearly shows the powder coating. In fact, in this pic, the rotor has not been "turned" to remove the coating from the brake surface. I checked, we didn't sand the coating off, we just had a brake shop "turn" the material off.

After turning the rotors, the powder coating remains on the lip of the rotor, on the vanes, in the holes and the "hat".

If you are going to track the car, have a high-temp coating like "jet coat" or similar. For a street car, this holds up fine. After 9,000 miles, our rotors look the same as when we installed them.

The second pic (just found and edited here) is after the rotors are turned. There's a spacer on the hat, but you can still see what is powder coated and the brake surface is gathering a small dusting of rust.

angela

Eastwood is the kit I'm looking at. I'm thinking of replacing the electric kitchen oven with gas so I'm half way to justifying this part of the project with a home improvement project. So it seems that powder coating in general is a good idea.

Now I just need to hear from someone that has tried it themselves to see if do it yourself is a realistic option.

Use a gas grill. There on sale for winter.

not in SC, they charge you just the same as if it was May! Fickers!

Just FYI, you can buy a working used oven for anything to "please just haul it away" (after remodel) to about $75 from a used appliance store. Especially if its a weird green or yellow color.

Fabulous powder coating oven for small parts. angela

I have the Eastwood Hotcoat system and am very happy with it. I bought the basic $150 kit when it was on sale for $100 or so. Came with gun, some coatings, tape, wire and various silicone plugs which are a must to plug holes you don't want coated.

Compared to parts I had done commercially I would say the Hotcoat system is as good. Takes very little practice but be sure your regulator goes down to 5-8 PSI becasue you'll waste too much powder otherwise. Also, be sure to put on enough. Some parts I did could have used more powder for a thicker coating.

Clean the parts extra clean and degrease then try not to handle with bare hands to eliminate contaminants prior to coating. I coat in a cardboard box so I can gather up unused powder and reuse. I attach part to the metal oven rack, coat and then slip rack and part into the preheated oven at 400F. Takes about 20 minutes or so.

DO NOT USE A GAS GRILL!

I use an old table top convection oven that the wife has not noticed is missing but its limited in size. Eastwood sells infrared "curing" systems but they just took like an infrared heater to me so I picked up a cheap one at Crappy Tire but have not tried it out yet.

I just rec'd their Chrome powder and am planning on coating my black wiper arms (did them in grey and not too bad). I also did the headlight buckets/assemblies in grey and I think they look good behind the headlight grills.

Overall, very happy with results and not hard to use at all. Easier than spaying out of a can because the powder flows out in the oven so there's no runs to contend with.

Brian

My guess is that brake calipers would be difficult to do. You'd have to completely disassemble and protect fittings/threads and surfaces that you must not get any coating on.

I'd agree with Wolfgang. That must be why there are so many brake caliper enamel kits on the market. It could be done but it would be a bit of work and would require all new seals and such. Plugging the holes is not a big deal with the silicone plugs...you just stick them in the holes.

Brian,

Thank you so much for sharing your personal experience this is just what I was hoping for.

Can someone explain to me the process of powder coating?

Thanks,
Mark

It works like a dry, electric spray paint.
The guy I went to used a dry chemical and electrolysis. It's almost a plating process, except he's not using a metal powder to bond to the free electrons in the metal; he's using current through the metal to be coated to bind the powdered coating to itself.
There's an air line which draws the powder from a storage bin, an applicator which works like an airbrush with a metal point out the end of it, and the metal point charges the immediate vacinity of the blower tip of the gun. Touch the trigger, touch something that already has current flowing through it and bammo. The powder is bonded to the surface and the other molecules of powder on that surface.
After the powder is evenly applied and sticking to itself, it's uniformly baked in a giant, room-sized oven (in the case of my chassis). The result is almost like enameling. The powder is harder than paint to scratch, and the finish can be shiny and metallic, like a metal flashlight, or satiny and a solid color, like my Hoopty.
It's the only way to fly for me. I'm sold on it now.

Thanks alot for that explanation - sounds like an interesting process.