William A

OK, thanks to Lex, I am sending a sample to NIC Industries to match. If they have to formulate a new custom color for the match, and assuming that color is a spot on match in every way, I will be ordering the powder. There is a 5 lb minimum. I certainly won't need all that powder for my purposes. I am covering the expense associated with the match, but then it will be priced on a per pound basis.

If anyone here is intested in piggy backing on my order once I am satisfied with the match, let me know.

I will post pictures and info as they become available.

William A

This project took on a life of its own. But I now have a finished product that is acceptable. It only took getting it shot 4 times!

I can't remember how many people I asked in the hopes of finding out what treatment the factory used originally on these parts. So ultimately, taking Lex's advice, I talked to NIC and they matched the color to Feather Bronze. I ordered and took it to the first powdercoater who kept getting "fisheyes" in the finish. He shot it 3 times, it got better, but never satisfied me.

Then I took it to another guy who was recommended. First, he said the inside should never be coated since fuel fumes even coming backward up the system will eat the powder and end up in the engine. Next, he said the fisheyes are more a function of the material being used than the prep, though that can be a problem too. He doesn't like to use NIC products for that reason, but any other supplier he recommended would require a 100lb minimum to mix the right color, and I've already lost my mind on this project but not that bad. So he agreed with a disclaimer that he would restrip and shoot the NIC powder.

I did end up with a bare hint of a fisheye or two, but they did a fine job and the color is a close as I have seen. The pics don't do it justice, but Doc Brown has seen more than a few of these and said it is "dead nuts on".

After talking to everyone I could from all sorts of Porsche folks(I never could get an answer as to what it was and still have feelers out to find out once and for all) to powder and paint experts, I am pretty convinced that the original finish is not powder, but some kind of epoxy base with a paint finish.

With that said, here is the result of 3 months of hitting my head against the wall:

William A

Last but not least, thanks to everyone who posted and gave me direction. Fabulous support here as always!
Cheers,
W

Shark_Week

William, looks real good. i finally received my pieces back from the powder coater. after not being able to get anyone to match the color i went a different direction, bright silver with a touch of flake then clear coat. looks ok i guess. possibly gonna add color to the lettering. all this after six months at the painter's and after he blew two holes in the intake plenum. had to replace it! then the plenum and covers were not as detailed on the inside as i thought they should have been. spent another 12 plus hours getting all the remaining chips removed from the inside of the plenum. very frustrating experience.

GregBBRD

The color, the sheen, and the texture of William's efforts are as close as I've ever seen to the stock finish.

Rob Edwards

Yeah, I think that 'Feather Bronze' is the best match that I've seen. Way to stick with it, William, nicely done! (golfclap)

Mike B

Looks great William...Thanks for your persistence!

Is there a way another could order some of this powder? I have another intake, cam covers, etc and would be interested?

Thanks.

pcar928fan

Just remember guys at least one person has lost a motor because the sand blasting and powdercoating material was not fully removed from INSIDE the intake and thus it was sucked right in to the engine...ruining it! DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN TO YOU!

William it looks SPECTACULAR! I would LOVE to do that to my '88 and '92!

William A

Hey Mike,

The cost of the NIC powder was cheap, about $10/lb. no minimum.
(541) 826-1922 and I talked to Jessie Abeyta in Prismatic Powders. I bent her ear quite a bit, but I don't think it would hurt your case to use my name and that you need it for a 928 application. I found them to be very helpful.

I do caution you that while the NIC Feather Bronze powder is, to my eye, the right color, tone, and finish, it is not easy to apply.

The guy that I finally went to who I have high confidence in warned me that their powder tends to be inconsistent and therefore it is possible to get sub-par results. As I mentioned, the alternative was to order a custom color from a premier supplier. But they require 100lb minimum to mix the color. I personally wasn't ready to spend $1,000+ and end up storing 97lbs of powder I'll never use!

In the end, my intake and cam covers came out not great, but really good. After abortive tries with another plating company, I used Embee here in SoCal to apply, and they had experience with NIC material and did a great job of applying it with the best results possible.

Others might have different experiences. These are mine and hope that helps.
W

MrLexse

It looks great. All that work was worth it.

Tom in Austin

Hey William, where is all the oily residue on the inside of your manifold? Doesn't your GTS suck a lot of oil through the intake or did you clean it all out?

BTW, FWIW, the Brian Long book says Porsche added some kind of "plastic coating to the intake runners" on GTSs, presumably to improve airflow, gain 0.5 additional hp, etc.

William A

Hey Tom,
BTW, always loved the color of your GTS!

Oh yes, plenty of oily residue inside the intake before I cleaned it for the pictures. You can kind of see where I wiped away a small area inside the bottom of the intake, the rest is black w/oil in the picture below.

There was definitely some kind of coating inside that was different from the outside finish. I left mine bare magnesium. As such, it has a "gritty" texture, and I bet airflow would be marginally better with a finish of some sort inside.

That is interesting about the plastic coating. I always guessed that the intake was dipped in something initially, then the outside painted. The way the finish comes off in sheets, I would hope that would not happen on the inside of the intake where the engine would ingest all that peeling material. For .5hp, I prefer to take no chances with an interior finish of any kind that might come clean.

Mike B

Thanks for the info William!

BC

I hope they haven't changed it. I just ordered five pounds, so I can redo the intake and covers on the low mile 86.5 I have. Cross your fingers.

SMTCapeCod

Would be another bulk cost that would be great for O/C to buffer, if the coffers can sustain it and the distribution/sale could be sorted out.