Powder Coating vs. Painting

[Micko..]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question about powder coating chassis, has anyone compared the weight of powder coat to normal paint (acrylic or two pac)? Has anyone had issues with the thickness of the coat on brackets etc? Are teams that are powder coating their chassis happy with the finish (I have head of it cracking on chassis).

When you get them coated do they get sandblasted first? If so what is the sandblasting like to the thin tubes and brackets?

Any help would be great
Cheers
miko

[Micko..]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question about powder coating chassis, has anyone compared the weight of powder coat to normal paint (acrylic or two pac)? Has anyone had issues with the thickness of the coat on brackets etc? Are teams that are powder coating their chassis happy with the finish (I have head of it cracking on chassis).

When you get them coated do they get sandblasted first? If so what is the sandblasting like to the thin tubes and brackets?

Any help would be great
Cheers
miko

[jack]

the cracking is caused be cooling the chassis off too quickly when it comes out of the oven. if you let the temperature ramp down, you can avoid any cracking.

we have never sandblasted anything, either for painting or powder coating. we have found scotch-brighting the parts to work fine.

[Mark]

Up till last year we have had the last 6 cars powered coated black. We never really had a problem with it cracking or chipping. The only issue we had is that it was dark (couldn't find fatigue cracks easily) and it was impossible to touch up with spray paint if you ever had to fix or change a portion of the frame. So last year we went to automotive paint. We had the local Chevy dealer spray us a nice burnt orange (basecoat-clear) and the frame looked awesome!....... when it was fresh, over the 4 months of testing we had on the car various chips and scratches started showing up. We had a couple cans of the same color in single stage, but just like the powder coat, the touch-up was noticeable. So all in all I would say stick with powder coating. The prep work is the exact same (scotch brite) and the durability is much better.

[Erich Ohlde]

Powder coating is good but it will stretch and hide fatigue cracks on welds. Our last years suspension guy was anal about absolutely no powdercoated parts. So all of our metal is rattlecan flat black http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif. Touch up is a breeze

[D-Train]

We get our chassis powdercoated, and a few of the holes (particularly those with shoulder bolts in them) need to be reamed or tapped after coating as the bolts don't fit any more - no big issue really. Awesome finish though, and damn durable. In all of our past cars that i've had a good look at, i've never seen any evidence of cracking.

[Chris Boyden]

Anybody ever gun blue steel parts? Seems like it would be nice and light. No chips, easy to see cracks. A Black oxide coating would be cool. The black oxide on tools seems to be very durable and has a nice matte black finish.
IMHO, Powder coating adds significant weight and the cleanup of the holes is just one more thing to have to take care of. I think our chassis weighed 5 lbs. more coated.

[markocosic]

I've used the DIY room temp gun-bluing kits in the past (on non FSAE automotive stuff) and tehy're a complete waste of space unless heavily oiled afterward.

Commercial grade black oxide should be ok for track machines that live mostly indoors. It'll probably die if used near road-salt/the sea though!

If you want a hardcore finish that'll also show cracks go find your nearest supermarket trolley electroplaters...

[rjwoods77]

Copper plating and wood grain laminates are the way to go if you want that old school duesenberg look. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[BryanP]

Has anyone tried POR15? If so how did it work?
regards
Bryan

[Jersey Tom]

We powdercoat our chassis. Looks great. No problems.

[DaveC]

For utility I have found nothing beats a good industrial single stage (no clearcoat) automotive/tractor paint. My current favorite is DuPont Nason. I have also used a PPG middle of the road (I forget which exact finish) single stage, and it was shinier, but not as durable. The DuPont Nason has a remarkable resistance to chipping/gauging, and is easy to touch up because there is no clearcoat. Powdercoating is nice, but more expensive and a PITA if you want to make any changes to the coated parts. It basically ruines the entire powdercoat job. To me, powdercoating is more for utility so you dont have to re-paint on a regular basis. On cars, it never seems to work out. It ALWAYS chips, or you want to weld something onto it, etc.

Besides, racecars generally use the 50/50 bodywork rule. If you cant see it from 50 feet away when the cars going 50 mph, it doesn't exist.

[SeanM]

Frankly on a race car i don't see the need in spending extra cash on powder coating or specials paints, it's a race car it's mean't to perform it doesn't have to look amazing it's gonna get bumped around a little, your gonna wanna change something on the car yada yada so personally i'd go with canadian tire bought black spray paint for the chassis like 5 bucks a can easy to touch up

Also if there is a lot of fabrication that is really well done sometimes it looks better to leave it raw then painted. also i've found in certain situations like amatuer cart racing it's easier to make quick repairs when you don't do a lot of painting

[Brent Howard]

We had one chassis powdercoated after the competition was finished and it weighed a little over 5 lbs more than when it was just painted. Flat black spray everything, saves time, money, and weight.

Brent