Powder Coat or POR15?

[Chancer]

Come to think of it you can create a static charge on a plastic comb by combing your hair so powder coat over a painted surface must be possible, its not going to fuse to the metal but from what I have seen most of the times it doesnt anyway.

I guess like plating its down to the preparation and sub coats, the things that cost money and cant be seen so are skipped.

One thing that I do recall is that the powder is an insulator so self r?gul?tes its own thickness, applying the powder is unskilled work, all the operator needs to do is wave the nozzle somewhere near the part.

[Grizzly]

Has anyone actually used Epoxy Powder coat? Epoxy in any paint form sticks unlike anything you could use (they developed it for use it on North sea oil rigs) it also withstands just about any Chemical and if you where unfortunate to damage it or rub through etc it won't lift round an exposed area.

We have all our chassis components Epoxy Powder coated and i'd challenge you to get it back off (we had it demo'd to use and he Paint stripped it and then shot blasted it without much impact). Not all Powder coat is the same (polyester, polyurethane, polyester-epoxy (known as hybrid), straight epoxy (fusion bonded epoxy) and acrylics) you have to know what you are getting as the older polyester is rubbish.

[Davidb]

So I finished painting the frame yesterday afternoon. When I turned it over after painting just the top surfaces I found that excess paint had run through the holes (there are a lot of holes in an Elan chassis) and around the edges creating unsightly lumps and globules. I cut them off or scraped them off with a very sharp blade and noticed that the lumps are full of bubbles-carbon dioxide gas according to the literature. I sanded the areas where paint had come through with an orbital sander and 80 grit but it did not remove any paint! The stuff sticks that is for sure.

I flipped the frame over and found that I had a problem with sand still trapped in various nooks and crannies (The 26R mods that I did created a lot more nooks and crannies). So I spent half and hour trying to get all the sand out and I thought I had but every time I moved the frame as I painted more came out so I have some sand in some areas of the paint-not the end of the world but...I found that if I had a paint run through a hole I could take a lacquer thinners soaked rag and wipe it off the paint that was maybe 24 hours old with absolutely no effect on the "old" paint.

I finished painting and left the frame upside down overnight-this morning when I flipped it over I have the runs around the edges and through some holes again. So now I will trim/scrape those off because they are visible in the engine compartment-although very little of the Elan chassis frame can be seen of course.

[jeff jackson]

Hi Grizzly,
I read somewhere that the guy who started Rustbuster here in the UK developed the Epoxy paint, ( he calls epoxy 121) on the oil rigs.
You say you have had all your chassis powder coated in epoxy, where did you get that done? Can any powder coater do this?
I have a powder coaters nearby who have done all the powder coating for me on various things, so would be nice to know if anyone can epoxy powder coat.
I have a "new" (read that as good secondhand) chassis that needs to go in my car and I want to protect it the best I can.
Kind regards

Jeff 72+2

[Grizzly]

Jef, I really don't know about the guy at Rustbusters but i know they where the first to use the Epoxy Mastic (i used that on some components of my suspension and it is allot thicker than normal Epoxy primer) he could have invented standard Epoxy paint but i really don't know as it's been around for many years and used in many different forms (everything from Oil rigs,Cross channel ferry's,Garage floors, Sealing/High building car Body repairs etc etc) but only fairly recently become affordable so the DIY'r and small garages etc are using it (Epoxy makes great sealer as it's almost Impervious to Heat,Chemicals and impact damage)

As for Epoxy Powder coat, it's just a different product they put on instead of polyester or polyurethane (It's applied and heated in exactly the same way but it's about 1/2 again more expensive, just like paint there are different manufactures and different Quality/Prices) the only down side i can see apart from the extra cost is that the guys that do our Epoxy Powder coating only have Ral and BS colours.

[jeff jackson]

Hi Grizzly,
Thanks for the info.
I don't really care what colour the chassis will end up. All I would like to do is protect it well into the future.
Black is Ok by me!
I think that using your pwder coaters will be a non starter for me as we are opposite ends of the country!
Kind regards
Jeff

[Grizzly]

Jeff. Just ring your local guys, when we where demo'd the product it wasn't a specific powder coaters (It was a product rather than a company that applied it) we just asked our usual place to use Epoxy rather than the standard polyester.

The thing i like about Electrostatic coating is that they can get a nice Finish and grantee area's like inside the trans tunnel or Front uprights are properly covered.

Btw i ended up using RAL 7012 which is a mid grey, it is a bit lighter than the stock Lotus engine grey but looks better than the Iron oxide red they used. Just one thing to remember is to mask out the Chassis number when powder coating because it will be hard to read once it's buried in Powder coat.

Chris

[661]

To be clear, if one were to go down this route, asking for Electrostatic epoxy powder coating would be just about there?
Do you have a favoured brand of product?

[Grizzly]

All Powder coat is Electrostatically applied (its how they get it to go round corners and inside box sections), So If you went into a coaters and asked for Epoxy Powder coat they would know what you meant (its getting quite common now).

As for my preferred type, well we use mainly Dupont Alesta but i've only seen one other type first hand (Paramount) and it looked decent too.

[661]

Just back from POR:

Subject: New Chassis

Graeme, you'll want to use our POR15 rust preventive paint, as it is the most effective line we have for protecting frames against rust and corrosion. Even though you intend to have it bead blasted, you will also want to make sure that you use our Cleaner Degreaser product, prior to the Metal Prep, to effectively remove the oils and other lubricant films that may be present from manufacturing. Bead blasting does not remove them.

Sincerely,
Absolute Coatings, inc.

[Davidb]

Needle, Nardle, Noo...