Guys, Just had a ton of parts powdercoated. Included were my split front wishbones, and I am not real happy with the appearance. The powdercoating looks fine, but the pitting was fairly deep on the bones and really didn't help the appearance much. (not deep to a point of being unsafe mind you, just deep enough not to look real nice). What is the best method of smoothing these things out? I was thinking of some filler, sand, primer, then paint. Do I have to rough up the glossy powdercoat or can I just skim over it with the filler? Thanks for your help! Mike
I don't have the details with me, but my powdercoat guy says there is a filler you put on before the part is coated. The filler is baked, then sanded smooth. THEN the part is powdercoated and its smooth. I'll try to get some brand info, etc. Gary
Metal fill. There are a few brands out there. JB Weld even works, just not as well as ones made specifically for it.
Yeah, I probably should have done a little more homework on that stuff before I had the parts done. I think I am just gonna go the paint route now. Is the bondo that you buy at the local auto parts store the stuff you work with? I have never really done much paint work (other than spray bombs) in the past. Mike
rough them up with 80 grit , glaze coat them , primer , sand , repeat primer and sand if necessary and paint...
well paint them,or take it to a polisher and he should be able to belt the pits out without taking to much material away,or at least clean them up good to make filling less dificult. I had my belted,all the pits are gone and the bones are pretty thick material....looks good
evercoat make a finishing glaze (thin bondo of sorts....) and a metal glaze...either would do what you want , but you'd have to paint them instead of more powder coating.....a couple coats of high build primer would fill some too and hide the 80 grit sand scratches....... brandon
hit it with 80 and up and shoot it with some feather fill, You can get feather fill at any auto body place. Its a really thick high build primer. after you do that, sand the feather fill, re-prime it, and spray it. should look nice and smooth
Ask the powder coat shop if they mind if you take those 'bones to all the shows you are going to next year with their name on them, giving them credit for the quality. They could have forewarned you. Maybe next time they won't be so hasty to do a job that would be obvious to them that wouldn't turn out good. Unless they did them for free. After that conversation they might have a solution.
A good QUALITY shop would have said something. 29 has it right. Tell them you are going to show EVERYONE the type of work they do,,,,,, good or bad.
I had a lot of parts I gave them, including my frame. They actually did an awesome job on everything (I think). Its more my fault for even giving them these bones in this condition. Thanks for all the help guys. I think I know what to do. Mike
You are generous. Your blood pressure is probably lower than mine too, by nature. Keep on keepin' on. .
It's your parts, but a powder coater is a painter by definition (it's just a powdered paint, not a liquid one). Had you brought those to most painters, they would at least ask "do you want them this rough?". I have had guys bring me designs or drawings to cut for them and I always ask if they want it EXACTLY as seen or want me to smooth it out? Often they want them rough, but thats THEIR choice, not mine. If you brought a car in for paint that needed body work, would you expect them to at least ask before shooting? I would. I don't see a difference here. But, I do "sweat the small stuff" so like I said, your car,,,, but I dissagree with it being "your fault".
If the pits aren't that deep can you use the powder coat as a filler by sanding the powder coat till its smooth? If powder coat is like an acrylic paint, can it be sanded smooth then polished?
I own a powder coating shop, so I'll throw in my 2 cents. First I agree the guy you took your parts to should have told you about the pits. Some minor pits you can go over and they will smooth out during curing. Some pits can also be caused by contaminates buring off the metal, like oil. This can be caused by not pre-heating or de-g***ing the parts. Without pictures, I'm guessing these are rust pits. You could try wet sanding with 1500 grit, then buff and polish like convential paint. You could also ask your coater to wet sand them and re-coat. He should do this "on the house" if he is truely at fault, as in not explaining these would show after curing. There are a couple of products you can use if plan on recoating. Lab Metal works but can be can be a pain because you need to use there solvant. If using Lab Metal use the Hi-Temp. This will need to be oven cured before sanded an feathered. There is also a powder coat primer, sold by Powder By The Pound, called Killer Primer. This is a hi-fill primer that can be sanded like convential primer before finish coating. As I said, If the guy is at fault he should make it right. As for the comments, "a powder coater is a painter", yes and no. A house painter is a painter by definition also, but I wouldn't want him to through down a metal flake finish on my old tin. I offer a service and will do as much or as little as a person wants. There has been plenty of stuff I have had in my shop that I probably did too much work on for free because I was afraid of the "my name is attached to it" scenerio. I'm starting to get over that now. Not everyone wants an Autorama appearance on their parts. An alternator braceket generally dosen't need a mirror like finish. I try to go over all the blemishes on a piece with a customer. If he's happy with rust pits showing through the finish, or weld splatter, or whatever then we coat it. If I know it's a show piece, and that is what the customer expects, we offer metal work, clear coating, and polishing, but it cost more then "standard service". The biggest differnce, between us and the automotive finishers, is the wide range of stuff we do out side of motorcycle and car parts. I've done lawn furniture, bird baths, exterior light posts, boat props, and a bunch of other stuff the customers didn't really care about a mirror finish as much as having a coated finish they wouldn't have to repaint every year. The guy should have walked you through all this. Hope you get your problem fixed and everything works out.
Its a wishbone, will be covered in oil in 6 months anyway! Run it. I do like the above response, thanks for your input.
If a powder coater cant see a difference between street rod parts and a damn lawn chair or a bird bath,,, RUN out of that shop. Here is an idea if you powder items and a guy brings in parts, its REALLY EASY to ask,,,,,,,, "What kind of finish are you looking for?"
Sand it down with a DA until the pits are gone (part is smooth). Wipe it down with some MEK or mineral spirits, take it back to the powder coater and have him re shoot it and bake it. This will make it look alot nicer. You can sand powdercoat and re coat over it trust me. I have worked as a new projects engineer at the largest powder coat-ecoat company in North America for over 7 years. I have done this numerous times on friends parts.
kind of late on this one, but... We get show quality finish out of powder coat all the time. We take a good, better, best approach to finishing, and communication is key between our shop, and client. If a clients parts had pits on them, and they got our "good" service, they would leave with powder coated pit's. there are products, and techniques to fix problems like this, and it's not difficult. Communication is key, and it's the Coaters responsibility IMHO to find out what the clients needs are, and most importantly... listen to them.
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