79VetteMike

If I get my control arm powder-coated do I have to worry about the ball joints or bushings not fitting because of the thickness of the powdercoat? Do I need to tape off the mounting areas? Thanks in advance......

norvalwilhelm

Powder coating does have a thinkness and if you run into problems which I don't think you will you could always lightly sand the hole to slide the ball joints in. I have lots of things powder coated and I have never had a problem.

vettedan

79VetteMike-
I do tons of powder-coating on my products and on Vette parts. The thickness of the powder is determined on how much powder you apply to the part. You can really get a thick coat if you over do it. Use a good quality Polyester powder. For bearing surfaces I use an aviation grade hi-temp tape to isolate with. I have seen hi-temp tape sold in Eastwood catalogs.
God Luck!
Dan

70PurpleLS7

The place that does all my powder coating taped off where the ball joints went in. I even had the ball joints done and they taped them off, including the zert holes (ball joints were new). Also on the control arms, taped off where the control arm bushings go in.

mvftw

Does anyone use the Eastwood Powercoating system with your oven, if so is it worth it?

vettedan

Eastwood set up works great. Harbor Freight sell a gun that has more power.
Dan

Twin_Turbo

I have literally powdercoated everything I could, using the eastwood system.

As for the arms, just powdercoat them and then use a flapper wheel on a die grinder to remove the powdercoat from where the busings press in (both on
front arms and rear trailing arm)




On the a arms you need to get a small grinding bit to remove the powdercoat from the balljoint rivet/bolt holes.

My handywork:





Pretty neat if I must say myself :crazy:

UKPaul

Hey Mark,
That looks pretty neat! :D

When powdercoating I mask off areas that I don't want coated with normal masking tape. The heat makes it go very brittle & turns the glue into a sticky mess, but white spirit or thinners gets it off OK.
If you're sending the parts out to be done then it's a good idea to get a few small parts done as a tester. Most places are good, but some push your parts through with a large industial job. If the large job involves aluminum parts then they tend to turn the heat down, so your parts can have a sand-like finish where the powder hasn't melted properly. If you want aluminum parts done then make sure that they turn the heat down a bit as I've had parts come back where the powdercoat got so hot that it had cracked & crazed (& it's a real PITA as powdercoat isn't easy to remove). Some places will give you a finish with an orange peel effect but most will give a smooth finish, some of which can be very thick.
Ask them to mask up all bearing surfaces & threads before it gets coated (or do it yourself if you get the parts shotblasted prior to taking them for powdercoating). If any parts have electrical earths on them then put a nut & bolt/screw/whatever in the hole with a reduced diameter plain washer under the head. This will give a decent earth after coating.
The above saves you a lot of time (cleaning out bolt holes, threads, bearing surfaces, etc can get really tedious).
:cheers:

bb69

For those of you using at home systems, what do you use to cure the powder? Your oven or a UV setup?

Thanks
Ken

Also, are you using the basic Eastwood gun or the high dollar one?

Twin_Turbo

I use a big electric oven w/ temperature adjust and a temp gauge for monitoring temperature.