79 Midnight Blue L82

I'm thinking of buying the Eastwood Powder Coating system and was wondering if any of you have one of these systems and what you think of it. I am going to be doing a lot of work under the hood and underneath my car this winter and would like to powder coat pretty much whatever I am working on.

My wife recently bought a new stove for the kitchen, so, I have the old stove and the oven works fine. I could cure any piece which will fit inside it without a problem.

Pros/Cons??

Twin_Turbo

I have one, I think monty has one too.

It works fine, just make sure you sandblast the part (preferrably w/ AlOx) and thoroughly degrease. Wear gloves.

I like to heat the part before coating, it just makes the powder stick better and gives a smoother finish.

I powdercoated just about eveything I could, the results are excellent.

Examples:

A-arms:


Trailing arm:


Coil springs:


The larger the oven the better it works, especially if you spray the powder on with the part IN the oven.

Marck




[Modified by Twin_Turbo, 1:35 PM 12/18/2002]

gkull

I bought their $165 or so unit about a year ago and it just didn't work as good as I expected. Then a friend bought the same model and it worked great. So I think that my electric field generator or what ever you call it was only half up to speed from day one. But I was over the time limit and they wouldn't replace it for free.

I did manage to do some nice stuff it just took allot of time to put on a thick enough coat. I went through 10 or more cans of powder since I got it.

Robd

I have always wondered the same.....


Twin_Turbo,
That looks great!

What kind of curing system do you use?

Oh never mind I see ( I need to learn to read entire posting).


[Modified by Robd, 2:37 PM 12/18/2002]

Twin_Turbo

George, did you have the pressure set properly? I also have an extra drier in the line.

Powder is expensive fom Eastwood, I would suggest finding a local powdercoating business or something. I get my powder in 25Kg bags from a supplier and it's much cheaper.

Marck

Twin_Turbo

The trick is in the prep and getting the hang of it. The more you handle the part when the powder is electrostatically clinged to it (vefore curing) the more powder you're likely to knock off. Another reason to coat w/ the part in the oven. The over will get very very dirty and there'll be a huge buildup of coating inside it :) (nothing a good scraping job can't fix)

Marck

71roadster

I have one too and did a lot of the suspension pieces and the occasional bracket and such. I had problems with the charging unit and called right away. eastwood replaced the whole thing. I get my powder from powdercoating.com which sells small quantities for cheap of any color you want. eastwoods prices for powder is outrageous!

I now wish I had done my upper tubular a-arms in silver rather than satin black, just for some contrast. oh well. at least I painted the new block to match the car. RED!

Chris

79 Midnight Blue L82

Thanks for the comments. Looks like for the $$ I might as well go ahead and give it a try. The locals around here have like a $50 minimum is what is really encouraging me to spend a couple hundred bucks for the unit and some supplies to use. Thanks for the powdercoating.com tip. I'll have to check them out for the powder.

'79ProwlerOrange

Jeeez Marck! if you ever get that vette done its gonna be a show winner! :smash: :jester

Twin_Turbo

Thanks, I'm definitely mr **** :) I can't stand rust & grime, I have to take everything apart and meticulously build it up again.

I even powdercoated the dust caps that go on the inside of the rear spindles & I took all the metal out of the firewall to coat it :D

Pedal sets (I'm gonna use the one w/ the clutch pedal)


or the fan (I gave it away, not using it anymore)




I LOVE my powdercoating setup :)

Marck

gkull

Twin_Turbo

I also found that heating the parts first and spray melting it on works the best. Small things instead of using my oven i just heat them with a torch.

zymurgist

I have one and I love it! I've done just about everything that moves on my suspension with powder coat. The only part I had problems with was my fan... it barely fit inside my oven so the coat came out a little rough and bumpy. Other than that, I've had great results and my friend who works on his kid's Soap Box Derby car wants me to powder coat the controls for him! No problem, I told him... it's actually kind of fun! :thumbs:

'79ProwlerOrange

how big of an oven do you need for suspension parts?

Twin_Turbo

big!

Measure the lower A-arm & the trailing arms, they're about the largest parts (except for the sway bar & steering centerlink, I did those too ;) ) You'd want quite some space between the part and the heating elements (to get a nice even heat distribution and not smoking powder on one side and loose powder on the other)

Something like a huge pizza oven will do.
You'll need 220C (what's that in F? too lame to convert) for the powder to flow.

Marck

Wrecked82

Are you concerned that the balance of the fan is not correct anymore?

Will powder coating stand up to the flex of the springs?

Curious as always.

Zane

For people that are not Lame! :lol: Here it is.
To convert from °C to °F: F = 9/5 C + 32
So °F = 9/5 X 220 + 32 = "428°F" :cheers:

Twin_Turbo

Balance was fine, I coated the blades seperate from the clutch. Since the coating is about equally thick everywhere there isn't a problem.

I'm using electric fans since they make the engine run smoother and I needed the room that the fan took up. That's why I removed it.

Marck

Twin_Turbo

Show off :lol: :jester

'79ProwlerOrange

i would like to get one of these setups. how much do you think it would all run? and how much space does it use up?

Twin_Turbo

You'd need a compressor, a reducer valve & an oven. Access to a sandblasting cabinet would be handy too.

The powdercoat gun is really small, not much larger than a regular paint gun. Then there's a little transformator & some wires.

Marck