Powder coatings?

[AlHale]

Anyone have any experience with powder coating of misc. underhood parts? Such as intake? PCM housing? Brackets? etc?
Any experience with particular vendors? Thanks.

[Ken]

You might want to give Eastwood Company (http://www.eastwoodcompany.com/cgi-bin/sgdynamo.exe?HTNAME=default2.htm) a look-see. They have many options for the DIY'er. ;)

_ken :w

[Subfixer]

A friend of mine powder coated just about everything, but he's not happy with the result. The finish is not really as shiny as paint nor is it as forgiving. You can't touch up a powder coated part. The coating is brittle, so if you tighten a bolt down a little more than generously, the stuff cracks.
It's probably ok for cars that don't get driven much, but for a daily driver, I wouldn't suggest it.

Paul

[69MyWay]

Paul makes some great points.

They do have a clear coat option that gives the powder coating a much more shinny and paint like look. I had the roll bars silver and clear powder coated. They look awesome.

I think it really depends on the part. I am working with some large powder coated parts right now and found you can still scuff, scratch it almost as easy as paint.


On the flip side, painting can yield great long term results when you take your time and prep the surface correctly.

I love builder's cast iron colored paint (kind of dark metalic grey) for engine and suspension parts. I top it off with a liberal clear coat to get a fresh easy to clean surface.