Tech : How to Powdercoat a gas tank

This is a step by step pictorial of what happens when someone hands me an item to be powdercoated. maybe this will help explain or justify pricing to some folks. Its also just neat to see the steps taken and how its done.
So, buckle up and hang on, here we go.
The item is a 1966 BSA tank and it belongs to modern day James Dean. he wanted a satin black tank body with some "mad flake" in the badge centers.
We opted to use a Satin black from Eastwood and a "Silver Flake" from Caswells

the first step was trip to the blasting booth, this tank has sat for 20+ years on a shelf and had a liberal amount of light surface rust.



then we wet scrub the tank with green scotch brite pads





then we do a phosphate scrub so we can get all of the rust neutralized.









then we low temp bake the phosphate to make sure it gets totally dry.




then we scrub the phosphate with a worn out green scrubby and basically am flattening the surface out, but dont want to remove the coating or protection form the tank at this point.




Then we prep the tank for the first color, the silver flaked badges.








Then we do the powder application



Then ever so carefully so as to not disturb the powder, take off all of the masking tape and paper and its ready for a trip to the oven.



This p*** will be a full cure bake .



next step when cured is to remove from oven, let cool and get ready to tape over the silver flake, it has to be perfect so the black goes exactly to the edge of the silver.







when thats done, whew, then we get to do the tank in the black satin.






Once the black is done, the tank goes for another trip to the hot box, this time will be a partial bake, only to get the "flow out" of the powder started to "lock" the powder in place. When the flow out begins, yank from oven and hang and let cool enough to again, carefully remove the masking tape off of the badges

 

Then, its back to the oven for a full bake and final flow-out and cure.




here you see the fender hanging done to match, it also went through all the same steps.



Here is the finished tank, this tank had some old school lead repairs and such, the owner/client requested to leave the surface, lead imperfections etc etc as it was, for a more of a natural real world old tank look.
I am more than sure he is going to be stoked when he sees it. I am pleased with the end result.

 

Nice work.

 

Do you keep your paint in a beer cooler?

 

Who sells the "phos-pho 9" rust converter you used on the tank?

 

Looks like it says banner labs on the bottle
Dave


http://www.bannerlabs.com/
theer ya go

 

hahahahaha, its an insulated big cooler, I have a small bulb in it to keep it around 72 and dry for the powders.

 

yup

 

Does it work as good as Ospho? Price? Can you get it locally?

 

I've never used ospho, this is a houston company, so it is local to me, they would ship I am sure. I dont remember what it costs

 

Nice work, I may have to talk with you once I get more into my new project & have some items coated since you are local.

 

Tim, would you be able to relink the photos to this post? I have some factory steelies for my truck that I am wanting to get powdercoated and would like to see the step-by-step process they would go through.

Thanks,
Chris