mrmunky

Hi rennlisters-

I really don't know too much at all about podercoating, so don't laugh if this is a ridiculous question. Would it be possible to powdercoat body panels? Columbia Coatings has a powder called Super Mirror Black that is just awesome and I'd love to have my car done in.

Here's a pic:
<img src="http://www.columbiacoatings.com/SupermirrorblackReflect.jpg" alt=" - " />

let me know!
ian

Tremelune

Sounds expensive, but possible...I imagine they'd have to come off the car...Hell, I dunno, I just wanted to say that looked cool!

Perry 951

Yup... they have coated a few cars. They did a candy apple Jeep and the mirror black Integra.

I know you will need a huge kiln or the IR lamps. I would not tackle it myself, but as you can see, it is possible.

mrmunky

thanks for the quick feedback..
what would the cost be like on a project like that? If I did the removal of the panels, there's only the cost of the powder ($8.60/lb), the cost of prepping the panels, and the labor for spraying + baking it. I could prep the panels if I really save expense, but that's very time consuming. Even if I didnt prep the panels, surely that couldn't cost too much more than a nice paintjob. thoughts?

Perry 951

Materials would be very cheap. The problem is baking it or using the IR lamps. You can see on their site that they are about $1k each.

Shoot them an e-mail and see what they say.

BruceWard

What about the plastic parts? I assume they cannot be powder coated, so what color would your bumper covers be?

Tremelune

Any pics of the Integra or Jeep?

mrmunky

At infratech-usa.com, they sell a dual head 1500w IR lamp (3kw total) for $379+s/h.. That would cover up to a 4x6 area, and it's fine for plastic, so it would work. That's the homebrew route though, i'm going to call some powdercoating companies locally and see what they say.

And yeah, are there pics of those cars?

Thanks for all your help everyone-
ian

adrial

Ian, far as I know you cant powdercoat plastic.

The way powdercoating works is that whatever you're coating is "ground" and then the powder itself is charged as it exits the gun. So whatever you're powdercoating needs to conduct electricity.

mrmunky

could you possibly coat the plastic in a conductive substance?

Travis - sflraver

you can but its more difficult. The way it works is that the piece is neg charged and the powder is pos. You can have static on a plastic piece so you can do it. The only problem you might have would be on some types of special anti static ABS or the plastic being coated melting at a lower temp. than the powder.

Tremelune

Powder coating is so cool. Do you, like, wax it like paint?

I wonder if they'll start doing this to the bodies on McLarens and crap...

Cass944

ian, I have a gun and the compressor box thingy around here somewere. i was going to try some powder on my brakes jsut to see if i could figure out how to do it. I heard your car was in town last weekend. sorry i wasnt around to see it. Did you get your bumper back on yet?

Dick Ruddell

Working for Ford Motor Co in the early 1970's in
Dearborn, Michigan, I remember an experiment they
attempted which involved powder coating Pintos
(OK, stop the laughing! It was a popular car for
at least a portion of our population)

The process was judged a failure because they
could not obtain consistant results on large
pieces. The process was desirable at the time
due to new and increased laws concerning air
pollution, a constant problem with spray
booths. The powder coating process would have
alleviated many of the problems incurred.

The conclusion at that time was that powder
coating was only feasible for small (wheel rims
and smaller) parts

qoncept944

This'd be great for fenders and the hood and such, but how are you doing to do the roof and pillars and such?