Powdercoating scratches! It scratches?????

Any one else out there having problems with they're powder coating job scratching easily. I got my backing plates coated a month ago and put them up on a shelf until I got ready to put my axle together, and I noticed some dust and when I went to wipe it off with a t-shirt, it left little tiny scratches where I went over it.

Is this typical, i've never had anything coated before? If so I'm painting everything!

 

Powdercoating is just liquid plastic.

 

PC should not scratch that easily, but it is not impervious to damage.
It should be 10 x 15 times harder than paint.
Maybe the PC guy didnt cure it completely? I dunno

 

Yeap I found out the hard way too on some wheels, went back to the powdercoater and he said wax it just like paint. I did and it worked.

Rusty

 

Yes, the coatings I have dealt with scratch more easily than paint. I figure it has to be softer to be more flexible. A local coater shows up at the car shows with samples of tin foil color coated on one side. You can fold it, repeatedly, and the coating doesn't come off. Not talking about Rhino line either, just powder coat.

 

Hey dirty, just a regular ol' paste wax?

 

I use Adams Detail Spray on mine. After 7 years, it still looks new.

 

the stuff I used to get powder coated was tough as nails. any type of cleaner wax would do wonders with it if you did have problems. your rag turns the color of the coating though.....

 

And you can buff it also if your very carefull.

 

Different powdercoat plasics have different characteristics, just like paints. Polyesters have good UV resistance but are soft, epoxies have good chemical and abrasion resistance but dull after time in the sun.

Cheers, Mark

 

Don't****ume that because you can hit it with a hammer and it won't chip, that it's impervious to anything. It is basically a high production paint system developed for painting a hand trucks and stuff like that.

If you think it scratches easily, wait 'till you get some chemicals on it. ie Gas, brake fluid, aggressive cleaners. It will make it soft and never hard again. Some chemicals take the gloss right out of it.

Don

 

Not all powders are created equally. Some cost $1.50 per pound, some cost over $40.00 per pound. Before you wax them you might take them back to the coater and ask him to bake them again (maybe 350 degrees for 15 minutes). A heavier part like a backing plate or a wheel needs more time at temperature than something light like a piece of sheet metal or a piece of aluminum to ensure that the part is cured. This should bring the metal up to temp but not too much so it starts to change the color. After baking again and being fully cool, you can wax them.

 

Always ask if the coater is using Sebert powder. Best stuff in the world.

 

Meguiars #7 Show Car Glaze is what I like to wax it with. The more you wax, the more it shines just like a regular paint job.

 

Powdercoat is really nothing other than paint. People tend to think of it as bulletproof, but it is not. In fact, I have washed some powdercoats off with solvent which should not really be, but sometimes is depending on the base formulation and the cure.

In simple terms, powder coat starts as a liquid epoxy or polyester (or some hybrid of the two) and is in liquid form initially. After extruding, chopping, etc you have a fine powder that is essentially a dry paint or somewhat of a plastic with no solvent in it. The main difference is that heat allows the powder to both flow out and cure.

Depending on the resin type and the ability to completely cure a heavy part, the coating will be fairly resilient. A main advantage is the ability to apply very heavy films which help retard rust. Otherwise though, you essentially have paint on your parts.

Powder coat is normally used in the real civilian world on lawn furniture, wheel barrows and other crazy stuff where the main concern is a rust resistant finish. Aesthetics are not nearly as important. Using it in a high aesthetic area will require the same care as a show paint job.

 

I wasn't really expecting it to be like enamel, but i didn't expect it to scratch from a old clean t-shirt wiping on it?

I'll have to check with the powdercoater and see what they can do?

 

Here's a simple explanation.

The T-shirt didn't scratch your part. The DUST did. The only way you can scratch something is by dragging something harder across it, like scratching glass with a diamond. It's more than possible that the dust you were wiping off was from airborn crud in your shop, and since most shops do sanding and grinding, there is probably metal and carbide dust in the air and ends up on your stuff.

This is why god created touch free car washes. All the old brushes and heavy cloths dragged the dirt across the paint and the dirt contains rocks (albeit small ones) and sand. Also the joker that drove his mudding truck through before you got those rocks embedded in the cloths and now they are dragging across your car.

I remember my dad yelling at me as a kid for running my fingers through the dust on the bikes in the garage because it scratched the hell out of them, always better to wash it off.

I still stand by waxing it as it puts a renewable coating on the paint and fills the micro scratches that are already there.
Can you tell I'm bored at work? The day they block this site my heart will break.

 

It shouln't scratch that easy unless the shirt had grit or metal chips in it. MAW has it right though, different resins are made for different applications. An Expoy based paint will be very hard but not cover as well. Polyester resins give a nice even coat but are not as hard. The less hard coatings tend to flow into hard to coat areas better. Also, it might not have been fully cured.

Ask the powdercoater what he used and if it could be a curing problem.

 

Gents...it is a combination of all the elements mentioned before that can affect the final product. I have powder coated everything from bumpers to HumV exterior antenna parts and have never had a problem with scratching or God forbid peeling. Prep and good products are the key. I do things on Gov. and Mil. projects and have the stuff that comes outta the sand box (Iraq) looking just like when it went in. Find someone who knows what they are doing, take some basic care of it and it will last longer than any paint job.
JMHO
Fitysix

 

It's not the powder paint dude! It's the T-shirt!!!! Look what happened to my freshly painted wheel after wiping it down with my new Chaddilac T-shirt. It ruined it! I'm very upset.

 

I bought a Summit alternator that was supposedly powder coated black. I wanted it to be a little more resistant to rocks and junk than paint. I wish it just scratched! Hell, whole chunks have fallen off. Looks like black paint to me...

 

Hey Chaddilac,

I need a T-shirt to strip the paint off of my old white wires on my RPU..... I'll take my T-shirt in a***L tall please.

Thanks!

~G

 

GR.... I'll have to sow two XL's together for that mellon head!

 

I'm thinking of a word..... starts with****... ends with hole....

 

I can think of a word that starts with Jack!

 

Unfortunately, those "touch free car washes",use caustic solutions, that are hard on finishes too.Hand wash with clean wash mitt still the best. Oh and don't get near powder coat with brake clean.

 

LMFAO!!! Too funny,Poverty Flats the humour is greatly appreciated.

 

when i started powdercoating i became very disapointed in it very quick but ive learned that that are tricks and things to avoid. just the other day i painted a guys 32 frame and sure enough gloss black, the worst color to have because of the gloss. this stuff scratched worse than paint. that frame came out top notch smooth as glass and the guy was thrilled ( hes had many done by us) but when ever i deal with the customeres i always tell them texture is the way to go. and seibert isnt the best powder out there, its just another one. somthing in the chemical make up of the textures make them very durable and alot of the time just so much better looking. weather it be a wrinkle, hammertone, or vein they just offer so much more. personally i realy go for the hammer tones and veins because their usally a semi gloss and in the light look realy good. the vein is a hammertone (looks like hills and valleys or extreme orange peel but nice) and the hills will be one color and the valleys will be another like silver vein will be all silver and then black dots (valleys) very cool. as far as fixing scratches ive never heard of pollishin them only becasue we paint not detail. alot of our more regular customers will do the color they want then clear over it making it seems realy deep.

 

I ran into this post and I know is an old one, but just had to post a comment. I'm a custom coater located in Mexico, and I've been powder coating for 10 years now. Powder Coatings are tough and durable but not invencible as posted before. I agree with Valkokir and cadillacoffin on their posts. HiGloss smooth powder coating is just beautiful but small sand scratches will show easily. Here at the shop we have tried different brands and systems (resins), from Cardinal to Axalta, Poliester and Urethane, with the same result. We though at first there had to be a problem with the product applied but it turned out thats the way it is. As mentioned above, dust are small parts of sand, and if pressed against the surface when wiped, it will make small scratches to the paint (powder coating is paint) and because of blacks dark color and the high gloss, it will show. This high sensibility of powder coating to dust scratches won't show on black semi-gloss or flat black, but, if a smooth high gloss clear is applied over any of those two, it will suddenly become very sensitive to dust wiping scratches. What we have learned from this at the shop is that these small scratches from wiping dust/sand off powder coated substrates happen over all colors, but they just show on high gloss smooth dark colors. So, whenever costumers wants a high gloss black finish applied, we always tell them first about this particular characteristic. Still, black smooth high gloss powder coating is becoming these days more and more popular. Personally I like it a lot, but would'nt recommend it for parts that will be handled a lot or with heavy duty uses. With the right care, the surface will stay scratchless for a very long time. When we powder coat parts, we always wait for the costumer to arrive and check the parts before wrapping them and getting them ready for transport. Sometimes costumers arrive a week or more after parts are ready and they get dust all over them. The way we clean them to avoid scratches is first we blow off the excessive dust with compressed air, then we take two cloths, one wet and one dry. First we wipe in circles with the wet one, and then with the dry one before it dries. Always in circles. Linear movements, if they scratch the paint, they will show a mile away. This has worked well for us.

 

New life,old thread,but my old beater has a powder coated insert and the wheels have the same finish,they have been coated for almost 20 years and I haven't noticed any scratches and there is just one small chip on the insert,it's accompanied with a big dent from a rock.HRP