Powder Coating

[Stuart]

Went back and forth on how to finish my valve cover.  Powder coating was the choice:

 

[mmichalik]

Looks awesome!

Never thought about powder coating.  I assume it will stand up nicely against the head and oil, etc?  Don't know enough about it to know.

 

[hynrgee]

Nice job, Stuart. Did you do it yourself and are thinking of doing anything with the raised letters and lines in another color? I haven't decided on buying the equipment to do this myself or taking it to a shop. 

[stephers]

Powder coating works great on engine parts. I now only powder coat stuff instead of painting.    Once it has cooled off, about 1/2 hr after it has cured, you can bolt it on.  I usually use a gloss or satin clear finish over the initial powder coat , makes it really easy to wipe off and you can let your imagination run wild with colors and/or textures.    Here are some pictures of some stuff I did just a While ago for my son's 72 2002.    The actual powder coating is pretty easy and clean up is nothing but as all things the better the prep, the better the end result.  The setup is not that expensive, you can use an old kitchen stove to do it or use special heat lamps. The problem with the stove is that you are size limited, with the lamps you can do much bigger items but it does take some time. We did my son's girlfriends 10 speed a couple of years ago.  The valve cover is done in a wrinkle black, the blue oil pan was done in a chrome finish first and then finished with a translucent blue.  The last 2 pictures are of my newest toys, a Caswell plating system  I can do bright zinc with the yellow chromate and the silver clear/blue. Just got their copy chrome setup but have not had a chance to use it yet, next week I will try that out 

 

Thanks, Rick

[hynrgee]

Beautiful work, Rick. Looks like you've done the right prep work.  I imagine it was done with the aid of media blasting equipment.  With your volume of work that looks like money well spent.

[stephers]

Thanks

 

I go through quite a procedure for a lot of the small items like nuts, bolts , fittings  etc to get them ready for plating.  First, I clean them by soaking hem in any number of different solutions like apple cider vinegar , then washed with very hot water, let them dry and then they go into a large tumbler/vibrator. At first I use a mixture of sand ( for sandblasting ) and crushed glass. This brings them to what they would look like if I blasted them.  Once they have gone thru that, there may be some of the pieces that will require me to glassbead the parts. Remember, the more polished the surface, the nicer the plating.  Once that is done, I change out the media to crushed walnut shells, this really gives everything a nice polish.  Then off to plating them.  Most of the engine parts and larger stuff, I just glassbead them , then clean them just prior to powder coating, I clean them with a final wash to get rid of any hand marks or whatever may have come into contact with the pieces. I always preheat my stuff to offgas the metal to get rid of any contaminants that have gotten into the metal over the years. Then just spray them with whatever powder color/texture that I want to use.  Each part for powder coating ( depending on the size ) usually takes about 20-30 min for preheat and another 30-40 min to cure the powder and then another 30 min or so to cool off. The great thing about powder coating is that you don't have for sometimes 2-3 days of numerous paint coats and drying time. Once cooled, I can bolt the part on.

 

Here are some pictures of parts after the walnut shells, these were all quite grungy and rusty when I first pulled them out of the car.  Pretty nice ( even if I do say so myself )  Brass and copper really come out nice after the walnut shells

 

Thanks, Rick