Powder Coating questions.

[Zero_Accel]

With the holidays behind us I've finally gotten around to looking for a shop to have my powder coating done on my black Friday bumper. Just wanted to ask a few questions from some of the folks around here who've had this sort of work done before.

A big one would be cost, I figure this is going to run from $400 to $600 depending on the shop around here.

I managed to find a good match for the Poison Spyder front bumper color from Prismatic Powder at a good price, just not sure how much to buy, would you guys think 5 lbs be enough for both the rear bumper and guards? (Please excuse my poor tape measure placement, I was trying to get a photo done before I ran out of light.)

Trying to match this beaut on the front, looks like Prismatic is a dead ringer, not bad at 14 bucks before the discount too.

I was very tempted to paint this myself in my back yard with some semigloss Rustoleum given that the rear bumper is going to be scraped on rocks over the years, but I figured I may as well have it done right and match the existing Bumpers and Rock Rails.

Any insight you guys may have is very much appreciated!

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[rharr]

Powder shops provide the powder every time i have delt with them. Each shop has a preferred brand they use and are comfortable with. Each shop will also have a wall of sample colors to pick from. I was able to easily match the rock rail powder used on the ruby for my front bumper.

i think i paid something around $250 for my bumper. I didn't have brackets or items to add.

If the shop makes you buy the powder and has no samples of the colors they offer find a different shop.

if you plan to rattle can it, rustoleum appliance epoxy paint in black is a great paint.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Powder shops provide the powder every time i have delt with them. Each shop has a preferred brand they use and are comfortable with. Each shop will also have a wall of sample colors to pick from. I was able to easily match the rock rail powder used on the ruby for my front bumper.

i think i paid something around $250 for my bumper. I didn't have brackets or items to add.

If the shop makes you buy the powder and has no samples of the colors they offer find a different shop.

if you plan to rattle can it, rustoleum appliance epoxy paint in black is a great paint.

Exactly. Some (most) won't use carry-in powder.
I use my own for what I powder coat.
When I had my front bumper done by a shop because it's too big for my equipment, they had a powder perfect match to Jeep bumpers.
$250 for the MOPAR steel bumper clone, includes Iowa tax.

Trust me - a bit of powder goes a very long way. 5 pounds will be too much.
But don't buy any powder- don't until you check. Even then if a shop does allow using carry-in powder, they will tell you how much.

I can cover a lot of stuff with a few ounces of powder.

 

[Zero_Accel]

Exactly. Some one use carry-in powder.
I use my own.
When I had my front bumper done by a shop because it's too big for my equipment, they had a powder perfect match to Jeep bumpers.
$250 for the MOPAR steel bumper clone, includes Iowa tax.

Trust me - a bit of powder goes a very long way. 5 pounds will be too much.
But don't buy any powder- don't until you check. Even then if a shop does allow using carry-in powder, they will tell you how much.

I can cover a lot of stuff with a few ounces of powder.

Gotcha, thanks for letting me know, I've been asking for quotes from some local shops and right now I'm getting $600 from one. I know that Rebel off-road charges $350 for coating, but I'm not sure how much of that cost is absorbed through the bumper sale itself. I wanted a semi-gloss finish that matched the front anyways since I'm changing the rear bumper, didn't like the look of the Go Rhino rear and I wanted steps so switching to Rebel was the choice I made.

I'm waiting for quotes from two other shops right now and one of them is a certified applicator for the Prismatic Powder. I'd be happy at $400 to be honest, but I understand that these guys need to make a living too, so we'll see what the numbers are from a reputable shop. I'd rather spend a little bit more to have it done right, rather than do it twice, learned that lesson from "cheaper" parts before. But at the same time, $600 feels like a lot, and that doesn't include the material.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My bumper parts after powder coating -

 

[Zero_Accel]

My bumper parts after powder coating -

Looks good, that's the ebay bumper right? I remember you mentioned that it came off of your old truck, and had it redone after two winters started eating at the "factory" coat.

I'm talking with the certified shop right now, they're saying they can buy the powder themselves at the price I'm looking at on Prismatics website so that saves me the trouble. Just waiting on numbers at this point.

 

[Hootbro]

$400-$600 sounds a bit high, especially for El Paso, TX. What about the Mexico side?

 

[Zero_Accel]

$400-$600 sounds a bit high, especially for El Paso, TX. What about the Mexico side?

Haven't looked around, my Spanish is terrible so I usually stick to the El Paso side. Yeah that first quote isn't looking so hot.

 

[drewcnit]

I paid $345 for the front and rear Motobilt bumpers I had powder coated. Front bumper, bar, and skid plate. Rear Bumper, plus frame strengthening brackets for rear.
That being said, I did my own powder coating on my diff covers, I bought 2 pounds of powder from Prismatic and it was probably enough to do both bumpers plus the diff covers and some skids.
It goes a LONG way.
The only down fall to DIY powder coating is a big enough oven to cure it, spraying the powder is relatively easy.
DIff cover I powder coated and some small bumper parts as well, the color is Black Jack by Prismatic Powders.

Only pic I have right now of the bumper, done by the Pro shop for me. I probably would have done it myself had I had a big enough oven.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I paid $345 for the front and rear Motobilt bumpers I had powder coated. Front bumper, bar, and skid plate. Rear Bumper, plus frame strengthening brackets for rear.
That being said, I did my own powder coating on my diff covers, I bought 2 pounds of powder from Prismatic and it was probably enough to do both bumpers plus the diff covers and some skids.
It goes a LONG way.
The only down fall to DIY powder coating is a big enough oven to cure it, spraying the powder is relatively easy.
DIff cover I powder coated and some small bumper parts as well, the color is Black Jack by Prismatic Powders.

Only pic I have right now of the bumper, done by the Pro shop for me. I probably would have done it myself had I had a big enough oven.

What gun do you use for powder application?

Cleaning is a big thing - no rust, no grease, no paint, etc. and I handle the parts with gloved hands after prepping.

I do powder coating of suspension parts of my cars and the parts I work on for others, as well as powder coating the starters I restore, among other things.

I bought 2 pounds of powder from Prismatic and it was probably enough to do both bumpers plus the diff covers and some skids.
It goes a LONG way.

It does go a long way. Amazing how many parts I can do - even with a powder to waste method generally recommended.

5 pounds could probably do both bumpers and the entire bottom of the truck.

 

[drewcnit]

What gun do you use for powder application?

Cleaning is a big thing - no rust, no grease, no paint, etc. and I handle the parts with gloved hands after prepping.

I do powder coating of suspension parts of my cars and the parts I work on for others, as well as powder coating the starters I restore, among other things.

It does go a long way. Amazing how many parts I can do - even with a powder to waste method generally recommended.

5 pounds could probably do both bumpers and the entire bottom of the truck.

I bought one of the Eastwood dual voltage systems as a starter set up, first time powder coating was those bumper close out panels and such. Can tell if you look closely at the pictures, there's a touch of the orange peel effect. Your parts look like you are getting a better coat and obviously have more experience, are you using a bottle fed gun or do you have a hopper?
I'm toying with the idea of building me a large oven and powder coating in my free time so that I can afford my Jeep part addiction.
Edit to add - this line of yours - Cleaning is a big thing - no rust, no grease, no paint, etc. and I handle the parts with gloved hands after prepping. This is the big thing, no matter if you powder, spray with gun or a rattle can, PREP is everything.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I bought one of the Eastwood dual voltage systems as a starter set up, first time powder coating was those bumper close out panels and such. Can tell if you look closely at the pictures, there's a touch of the orange peel effect. Your parts look like you are getting a better coat and obviously have more experience, are you using a bottle fed gun or do you have a hopper?
I'm toying with the idea of building me a large oven and powder coating in my free time so that I can afford my Jeep part addiction.
Edit to add - this line of yours - Cleaning is a big thing - no rust, no grease, no paint, etc. and I handle the parts with gloved hands after prepping. This is the big thing, no matter if you powder, spray with gun or a rattle can, PREP is everything.

Yes, so true - prep is king on powder, or paint. I didn't want the mess in my shop and wasn't ready to deal with the final color coat on my little Eagle so did all of the prep hoping to talk a guy who owned a body shop into doing the final color coats. Most shops won't touch such a thing - they want the car untouched so they can do it all because if the prep is bad, it looks like they did a poor job. The owner agreed, having seen some of my other work. They did tweak some areas - a bit more blocking but he said that's because I'd done such a detailed job of all of the other prep they had to take it to that next step.

Anyway, powder............. bottle fed - still using the Eastwood dual voltage system I bought a while back after my first Eastwood gun went to pieces. I guess I used it too much!
I hope to enclose the lean-to on my shop and move the blasting and powder coating stuff all out there because that powder gets everywhere. I'll probably make a "booth" from plastic to contain the mess if I get the lean-to enclosed and setup.
I'm getting so many things sent to me lately that take less powder coating and more plating so my concentration lately has been zinc plating. But my wife told me today (remembering my Javelin has been sitting almost 2 years still apart) that I need to take 1 day a week for me and my stuff. So...... when I finally get around to that and a few other things on my SX4, will probably be doing a lot more powder again. I'm thinking the front differential from that car would look good in powder coat and it would last a lot longer than paint. The differential housing is too big for me, but the smaller parts I'd powder myself.
There are some plans "out there" for larger "ovens" and you can buy portable systems that heat the powder without a big oven per se.

 

[chorky]

Just gonna throw my unpopular .02 for reference and IMO you would be far better off just painting. Every single powder coat item I have ever owned, even very high quality ones, never lasted longer than a year before there was a chip of some sort and rust began. Except of course aluminum and stainless components. Paint is far easier to repair as well. I dont think powder is worth the cost.

 

[staying_tuned]

Just gonna throw my unpopular .02 for reference and IMO you would be far better off just painting. Every single powder coat item I have ever owned, even very high quality ones, never lasted longer than a year before there was a chip of some sort and rust began. Except of course aluminum and stainless components. Paint is far easier to repair as well. I dont think powder is worth the cost.

Powder is paint without the solvent. The powder coating found on most of the armor going out these days is garbage and gives the process a bad name. A good powder coating will last eons longer than sprayed paint. Many fantastic indy fabricators opt to ship things bare because they know that unless it's done right, it ain't worth doing. It's not cost prohibitive for small DIY stuff but once you get into bigger ovens, setup skyrockets.

Folks like R/C and most others honestly will powder over grease, oils from hands, rust, slag, anything. This ends up peeling quickly (often during shipment) and requires more work to correct than its worth. It's pure garbage IMO.

As for color matching a standard black satin textured finish, you might want to pick a shop first and bring your parts to match. The shop I used in PA had about 10 different textured black finishes on display, each with varying degrees of texture. Anything color (like my wheels) I'll first match myself via Prismic to get close but the samples come on thin aluminum swatches. I thought I had a match but my coater ended up needing to add some shop yellow to match my sarge green once actually shot on the wheel. As others have mentioned, 5lbs would likely be 5x what you'd need but again, take it to the shop first and be sure to include anything else you'd like coated. Usually with a bumper, they'll coat other small bits for free.

Although dometic is a respected brand, the powder coating on their fridge slide is laughable. The motobilt jerry can holders you see here were done at the shop. After our first trip the fridge slide coating looks like some kid rattle canned it... pathetic, while the jerry can holders which are prone to more shake/rattle/roll look literally new still.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Powder is paint without the solvent. The powder coating found on most of the armor going out these days is garbage and gives the process a bad name. A good powder coating will last eons longer than sprayed paint.

The differences between commercial products powder coated and the good stuff -

The good-
The good stuff a quality shop coats is nothing at all like paint. It's not paint without solvent, it's a polymer resin. Epoxy and polyester are typical resins.
Just try to remove a quality powder coat. It takes special solvents. MEK, Acetone and others won't touch it. You can spill things on it, even get paint overspray on it and remove the overspray without impacting the powder coat.
It's more of a plastic. I've made "mistakes" before and tried blasting the powder off and good grief, spend the big bucks on powder coating solvent to get the good stuff off. It's resistant to sand blasting (because it flexes and gives, unlike cured paint)
It is much thicker than paint and since it has a certain flex that means it can take a hit and not chip. It's like trying to chip epoxy.

The picture of the things I've powder coated are suspension parts - including springs. Find a paint that will handle the flexing of springs. I even powder coated the cross member of my 70 and it held up for almost 10 years before I sold the car - floor jacks didn't mess it up. The mud and spots of tar, grease, wiped off fairly easily.
I already dropped a steel part on the top of my JT front bumper while working on the truck - I thought oh, crap, there'll be a chip I have to deal with pronto. I can't find where it hit.
Good powder coating will not fade or dull easily, and is resistant to solvents. And - like my 70 proved, handled a floor jack under the cross member.
Many of the parts under my SX4 are powder coated (by me) and that was 10 years ago. Still get perfect scores on the undercarriage.

The "cheap"-
Powder coating from many commercial parts these days is not what I'd use - it's thin (they don't spray to waste) and likely like buying a $2 can of paint - you get what you pay for.
The original finish on my front bumper was powder coating - and it was thin and faded. It was more like paint.
They spray it on thinner - and I'm not sure if the UV cured powder is as good as the heat cured so maybe commercial outfits use UV light and that's the difference. I've not studied the UV cured stuff yet.

There's a huge difference between the good and the commercial stuff that comes on things you buy - especially non-USA things.

One reason I powder coat starters and HVAC blower motors for restorations is that it stands up to heat, gas, oil and other fumes, and power washing, and abuse of engine bays.
Guys can take a starter I've done and not worry about having to touch it up after it's installed because they hit it with a wrench or something.

Folks like R/C and most others honestly will powder over grease, oils from hands, rust, slag, anything. This ends up peeling quickly (often during shipment) and requires more work to correct than its worth. It's pure garbage IMO.

This ^^

Like I said before - PREP is everything. Once I prep something and it's gone through a final wipe-down with the same cleaners used before painting a car, I don't touch the parts with bare hands. It's never touched once cleaned with prep cleaners - and it doesn't sit long.
If I prep a batch and some have to sit for a day or more before I'm ready, they get a spray of metal wash that prevents flash rusting for several days. I sometimes even prep with a sort of acid that leaves a phosphate coating on them. (It's like what VW used to do to protect the steel body parts. Maybe they still do?)

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