Which parts benefit most from powder coating?

[Bmachine]

When deciding what to paint and what to powder coat, what is your criteria?

Is it mainly, whatever gets exposed to flying road debris? Ie, suspension bits, brake bits, nose cone things like headlight buckets?

Or should just anything that can physically be powder coated be sent to the oven?

 

[HB Chris]

Bo,

I wish I had removed and powder coated my subframes, paint takes a beating. Buckets and disk shields are also good candidates along with other items, cheaper to do it all at once.

 

[eriknetherlands]

I think your list is quite complete; Rear & front subframes, trailing arms, torsion bars. torsion bar brackets, I'm not sure if the coil springs can be done as well (anyone knows?)
I did the wedge (to block the car when replacing a wheel) from my toolk it as well.
Things that have threads on them need some attention; there is rubber tape that widthstands sandblasting and powdercoating (ask your local powdercoat shop) to wrap around areas that you want not coated. close of holes of area's where the powder coat should come ( bearing seats, seal surfaces etc) with wooden or aluminium caps.
You write "brake bits", but i would NOT do the do the brake calipers. they should be yellow zinc.

Powder coating adds some thickness, so be carefull with tight fits.
one note to powder coating; a downside of it is that *IF* the coating cracks, water enters between the coating and steel surface and grows rust faster then it would without coating, as it can't dry up after that incidental rain shower, your surface will continue to be wet for weeks instead of air drying in 1 or 2 days.
Solution to that is to pre treat the steel surface with an Aluminium-Zinc thermal spay coating (anyone knows the correct technical english term for that proces?). Such a process leaves a very tough, dull grey coating that is especially wear resistant. Ideal for stone chip prone area's. Apply the powder coat on top of that .
For parts with threads or other exposed surfaces, an electrochemically deposited yellow or bright zinc coating can be used under the powder coat.

Erik

 

[Bmachine]

Thank you Chris and Erik!

Large parts such as subframes or sway bars could not be done at home given their size. But it might be worth getting a gun and find a used full size oven. Where space is at a premium (as in my case) it could even be left outside if covered after use since it would only be needed for the duration of the restoration.

 

[HB Chris]

You'll be money ahead to have someone else do it, so many of the parts are just too large for do it yourself.

 

[stphers]

I have been powder coating all y own parts for quite some time, using both an oven and infared lights for bigger stuff. I like it for all sorts of parts, especially because of the different colors and textures that you can get from wrinkle and translucent colors. As far as the subframes go and a lot of the undercarriage stuff, I use POR-15. It will stand up better under tougher conditions. I like to drive my cars all the time. Engine parts, trans parts and trim stuff looks great powder coated. I can glass bead the part in the AM, powder coat it right away and in a couple of hours, bolt it on.

Here are some pictures of some BMW 2002 engine parts for my son's car, some Alfa stuff and some suspension parts for a 911 that I did. Springs can be powder coated without any issues

If anyone has any questions feel free to email me [email protected]

Thanks, Rick

 

[Bmachine]

Great work Rick. That is inspiring.

 

[Markos]

Rick,

Great job! Are the last two pics plated or powder coated? If coated, what is the name of the gold powder? Does it have color shift in it to look like cadmium plating?

 

[stphers]

Hi Markos,

No they are plated, I actually grabbed the wrong photo Here is the Porsche suspension that I did