Quote, originally posted by Rob »

How about 1?

never underestimate the power of stupid people (TCL) in large numbers

it was too hot.

i was waiting for someone to take this literally

Quote, originally posted by kessler »

If I've learned anything from playing Command & Conquer, this will not end well.

"It would take a cross-wired star trek replicator, if not an act of God, to make a left-hand-drive Skyline GT-R for the U.S." - Don Schroeder

That's what she said.

726 pictures at flickr
| 2003 Z4 | 1999 Legacy Wagon | 1993 Wellcraft 215 Eclipse XL |

I worked at a place that made components for heavy truck, and we had a massive powder coat line. The parts were fed into it on a moving chain that went through a cleaning booth, drying booth, spray booth, and then a long oven.

We used to put all kinds of **** through that thing. It wasn't uncommon at all to look up and see a fender of an old Chevy moving around the line with all the normal stuff. I've used it for lots of suspension parts.

On the bigger stuff though, the finish quality really starts to show. Those fenders would probably last forever, but they didn't look all that great.

Another disadvantage is weight. Powder coating is a much heavier finish.

Adaptive Headlights are cool

(Oo\(llll)(llll)/oO)
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When you need to crank out 400 cars per day per line, powdercoating does not help

E-coating is good enough for rust-proofing and a faster process

gold buggattis

Quote, originally posted by T-Boner »

Damn. I don't like to compromise, but it sounds like I'm going to have to settle for the Rhino snatch leather.

Quote, originally posted by bum »

"I thought engine oil was a byproduct of engine operation."

Repair is a good point. You have to completely strip the part if you want it to look decent.

Adaptive Headlights are cool

(Oo\(llll)(llll)/oO)
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Quote, originally posted by Rob »

How about 1?

726 toothpicks on the floor. Yeah, definitely...

If the part is prepped right, it's VERY durable. That's why it's used on suspension parts, and in lots of marine applications.

Adaptive Headlights are cool

(Oo\(llll)(llll)/oO)
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yes, it is VERY durable, especially compared to paint.

couple reasons why it is not used
- finish is sub-par
- heavy
- difficult to correct (chips etc)

Its no more time consuming then other paint, it only takes 15mins or so in and oven to cure. And its not incredibly high, 350f or so

It's costly and time consuming from a production point of view. Imagine an oven large enough to bring an entire car body and all its parts up to 350 degrees, and be capable of spitting one out every 60 seconds (meaning it would have to have at least 16 or 17 inside at any given time. That's a massive heat load to have to pay for.

Adaptive Headlights are cool

(Oo\(llll)(llll)/oO)
\__.\_______/.__/

Past VWs
84 Jetta GLi (used) 86 Golf (new)82 Scirocco (new)73 SB (used)

I think they don't do it on cars for many reasons:

1. Most powder is designed for metal and cures when the SURFACE reaches 400 degrees F for at least ten minutes. You have to get special powders that cure at lower temperature for application to plastic. These probably aren't as durable as the 400+ degree cure powders designed for metal nor may they match the finish exactly.
2. Heating up a whole car to 400 degrees surface temperature takes a hell of a lot of time and electricity, making the process inefficient and costly.
3. Hard to repair, you have to bake whatever part you want to repaint.
4. Surface isn't as consistent as multistage liquid paint i.e. can't get it as perfect or shiny. Like this is a two stage candy:

Lookin good there b3rt

i'm pretty sure porsche uses something similar to powedercoating on the new 997 for the primer/base coats

Quote, originally posted by justanotherusername »

It's costly and time consuming from a production point of view. Imagine an oven large enough to bring an entire car body and all its parts up to 350 degrees, and be capable of spitting one out every 60 seconds (meaning it would have to have at least 16 or 17 inside at any given time. That's a massive heat load to have to pay for.

We do use some special plastics for some parts and a specific supplier for powder coating those parts.

Overall powder is a great material, it is impossible to touch up properly, has a orange peely surface in general (though some color formulations flow out better than others), is very durable but will not provide a class A surface one would expect on a car exterior.

Modified by kmead at 10:15 PM 11-3-2009

Past VWs
84 Jetta GLi (used) 86 Golf (new)82 Scirocco (new)73 SB (used)

I heard from the guy that prepped my aluminum wheels that powder coating doesn't hold up to the uv rays? He sandblasts and paints railing for like universities and hospitals and said if you see powder coated railing it might look good but as soon as it gets weathered for a year or so it looks like crap cause of the sun.

Any truth in this?

i would argue, but its useless with you.

WTF are you going to argue? That it's not going to be expensive to bring 17 or 18 car bodies up to 400 ****ing degrees and maintain it for 24 hours every day of the week?

Modified by justanotherusername at 6:00 AM 11-4-2009

Adaptive Headlights are cool

(Oo\(llll)(llll)/oO)
\__.\_______/.__/

UV tends to kill the glossiness of powder, however there are different kinds of powder. Some are completely unusable outside due to UV instability whereas some are formulated to maintain their gloss in the midst of sun exposure for years.

So yes, there is some truth in that, one would have to use extremely durable powder for those rails. If one cheaped out and use regular powder it probably wouldn't last.

Quote, originally posted by Mehr_PSI »

Women purchase fake breasts to enhance their looks. I will purchase fake BBS to enhance my VW's looks

Hitler hates VWVortex

http://www.wrightcoating.com/s....html

You can, there's special extra low cure temp powders for plastic.

By the way Powder is just paint with no solvent in it.