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Mine is pretty battle worn. I would like to go with powder coating, but i dont know yet. i could also paint, or polish it. I searched, only found one that was powder coated. I might have searched wrong. im afriad polished would be too flashy. what are most guys doing for this? i plan on using this as a runner.

i paint them. i'm going to start powder coating stuff too, once i get a hold of a big enough oven for a half decent price.

Thanks scr8p. I had thought about getting a powdercoating setup, but i dont think it will cost very much to have a few small parts done.

it will add some weight too, but not enough to worry about, I dont think.

I would have to remove the coating where the countersunk screws go. also, what about the front parts of the chassis that screw together? would you have to remove the coating at the overlap area.

I'll apoligize in advance, I might have a lot of questions. I'm reading all that i can, i promise!

all of the parts will need to be striped down to the bare aluminum. i have access to a glass bead cabinet, so that's how i do it.

anodizing has to come off? i thought it did, but couldnt remember.

My neighbor powder coats stuff in his garage and we just powder coated a couple chassis a few weeks ago.

The aluminum has to be completely clean for the best results. I media blasted the chassis, but you can also sand them. I would suggest removing the anodizing prior to sanding. You can use oven cleaner in a well ventalated area to remove the gold / black finish.

The powder coating will cover up most of the small scratches, but will not be thick enough to cause a problem when putting together the chassis and the nose plate. After the coating has cured, I would suggest using an 8/32 tap or a steel 8/32 screw to clean out the threads on the nose plate.

Regards,
highwayracer

Thanks for the tip about removing the anodizing. I plan on stopping by the powdercoater and seeing what they will charge, and what colors they have.

scr8p wrote:i paint them. i'm going to start powder coating stuff too, once i get a hold of a big enough oven for a half decent price.

Not to sound like a cheap ass, but it seems there are always a couple of old ovens sitting at the transfer station (mini-dump) up the road from us. Most the time the oven is ok, but the burners are screwed up. The price is usually right. (free)

toaster oven, hah.

bngiles wrote:

scr8p wrote:Not to sound like a cheap ass, but it seems there are always a couple of old ovens sitting at the transfer station (mini-dump) up the road from us. Most the time the oven is ok, but the burners are screwed up. The price is usually right. (free)

i've had my eye out for one just like that (oven works, burners don't, free, etc.), but i need one that's big enough to do 1:1 car parts too.

my wife bought the fume free oven cleaner. doesnt seem to be working so far. been about 30 minutes.

the one thing with powder coating is you need to start of with nice parts. if you have a lot of deep scratches in the parts you want to do, and you can't sand them out, you have to live with them being there after you powder coat. at least with paint, your able to prep them the same way, but you can shoot a couple coats of primer on them to fill the scratches. sand the primer and repeat if nessecary until any imperfections are gone. then paint it. you end up with a much nicer product. i'm not saying paint is better than powder coat, but like i said above, the parts just need to be nice to begin with for a powder coat job to look good.

paint is the way to go for multiple colors and designs, though.

just my $.02

i was thinking about that myself. It really has only one deep scratch, and that one isnt too bad. I could go out and use the tig to fill it if i wanted. might have to think about it a little more.

does powder coating add strength to the chassis also?

GAMMACRUSH wrote:does powder coating add strength to the chassis also?

No sir.