Greetings all!

I would like to hear about anyone's experience with regards to powder coating an entire frame/chassis. Interested in the good as well as the bad. Trying to decide whether or not to use the powder coating method or epoxy prime with single stage topcoat. Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

I highly recommend it. Here in the Northern VA area, there is a vendor who will blast and powder coat a frame for on the order of $800.

 

Spent $550.00 to get my 55 88 frame and suspension parts blasted and powder coated he even picked up and delivered!

Hard to beat that getting it blasting and then painting myself with decent products.....

Shop around.

 

I found a place in Greenville Ilinios that quoted me 400.00 to sandblast, phosphate wash and powder coat for 400.00. Not sure yet what phosphate wash is but I am leaning toward powder coat. I've heard POR 15 is affected by UV light ( sun) so that concerns me but I also heard powder coat is more likely to chip. I'm going with powder coat.

 

Just a matter of who is doing the powder coating. It is very rare to find a powdercoat place that will get the inside of the frame. I have seen many frames rusting on the inside because they don't get it covered on the inside. When they spray inside the boxed area it will not stick to everything from blowing itself off and the electric flow is not one direction. My powdercoater will bake it for a while and then pull it out and while it is hot he sprays the inside so the hot metal will cause it to stick on the inside. My powdercoater only charges $150 but you have to take it to him already sand blasted. My sand blaster is only $100 for a frame and suspension parts. $300 will get it all done here in central Indiana and that counts gas to haul it around.

 

There are drawbacks to powder coat but the chipping should be limited to edges that are hit or pried on during assembly. If the sand blaster etches it real good with a powerful blaster then the powder coat is very tough to chip other than on an edges.

 

The quote I got said it can't get all inside. I like the extra effort of Adding some inside while the frame is hot. Sounds like a good vendor to deal with.

 

For the OP, and well, me...what are the drawbacks to powder coating?

 

The biggest is that most powder coaters will not get the inside. It is thicker than paint but that is not a big deal in most cases. You can not use filler to fill the pitting, You have to use something like JB Weld that can take the oven heat. When you apply the JB Weld it has to have already been sand blasted and then the pitting is hard to see and easy to miss many areas. If you fill the pitting you have to bring the frame home between blasting and powder coating and it is easy to have flash rust in that time. On a frame this is not a big deal but you can not get the powder coat in thread holes or on shafts that have to slide inside something. Another biggie is that if you rely on electrical grounds through the frame you can have fits making a good ground.

I had a frame, bumper brackets and all the braces powder coated. the front bumper is grounded through these brackets. I had to add a ground wire to my front bumper to get the parking lights to work.

If you don't get a good job of sand blasting and the powder coat starts to chip, it will keep chipping till it has huge bare spots and looks real bad.

 

Thanks to all for the input. Definitely concerned with it possibly peeling off if not prepped correctly.

With regards to coating the inside of frame sections, isn't that a similar issue one would have with paint as well...being able to get an HVLP nozzle inside factory drain/access holes and coat the inner portions fully and effectively? Most painters I've asked say they will not be able to paint inside most of these sections.

 

I agree. This is a concern. If I were to refinish the frame of my Olds I would definitely use POR 15 though.

I've never heard that POR 15 is UV susceptible. Even if it is I would think this isn't a major concern since the frame of a car sees little UV light. My experience with POR 15 is top notch.

 

The local powder coater I use requests you bring the frame as clean as possible to him (degreaser, brushing, car wash type), he bakes everything at high temperatures to burn off oil/grease and turn it all to ash, then blasts the frame, then coats. Helps a ton with adhesion. I've seen other coaters do something similar... if they can't bake the frame, they use a weed burner torch to go along and heat the heck out of it and help burn off the grease. Media blasting won't remove the sticky stuff effectively.

Poor prep is an issue with paint or powder coating. POR-15 isn't rated for UV exposure (not a huge deal on a chassis), but it's also designed to paint over rust (hence the name). If the chassis has been blasted and prepped right, there's no reason to use it.

 

That's half of what I can get just the frame done for here, well about an hour from here. Can you give me the names or websites of these guys? It might be worth it to go over there to get it done at that price, if it's quality work.

I was planning to tape over all of the holes in the frame after PC and get the eastwood frame stuff and spray it inside the frame.

 

Can you give me a name or website? That's a third less than the shop I have used for some wheels.