Frame Coatings.. Which ones?and why?Powdercoating,Rhino lining ?

[Blownz28man]

Ok guys. NNot sure if this fits under frames but seemed pretty good place for it. Getting ready this winter and i'm gonna strip my frame. What did you guys go with and why? I was thinking a Rhino lining coating or a spray on bedliner coating for abuse reason's. I'd cry if I chipped powder coating. Wouldn't want to get ruff with it. What about the duplicolor rattle can bed liner? Thanks!!

[Mopar]

I say powdercoat is the ultimate frame protection.....

[dillon_b12]

Powdercoating is nice but it does occasionally chip. It is however much tougher than paint ever thought about being. We use powdercoating on our Baja SAE cars.

I have Line-X(better than Rhino IMO) bed liner in my truck and the stuff is pretty much bullet proof. If weight isn't an issue I would go with it. It is pretty heavy stuff though. One suggestion if you go with Line-X/Rhino is to be sure and mask any bolt holes in tabs, etc... Spray on bed liner is THICK stuff and will make reinstalling bolts a bitch. Another thing to thing about is that bed liner is hard as hell to remove should you ever need/want to remove it. I don't know of any way to chemically remove it and I'm not sure media blasting would take it off. I think if you wanted it off you would stuck grinding/sanding it all off.

Powdercoat has a tendency to fill up threaded holes and tab holes a bit as well. When we get our parts coated any threaded holes get old bolts threaded into them to keep the PC out. Holes in tabs just get a drill run through them real quick.

Don't waste your time with rattle can bed liner. We have used it here and there in the past and it's nothing special. Spray on bed liner is much better than it in every way possible.

[yummi]

Can powder coat be spot repaired or does it require 100% application? Seems to me that should be a consideration?

[TutTech]

Powder coat has improved over the years and the powder coating on my car is amazing.. I have taken rocks clean through my side panels and front skid plate and no chips!! yes the powder coat is gone of corse but no extra chipping flew or broke off.
Very impressed with powder coating. You will also have to ream all your bolt holes etc after powder coating as it gets into everthing also making bolts not go back in.. trust me better to reim your holes then to fight all of them.

Line X was also better then the rhino lining for us at Mosebillt and we did all the floors and panel bottoms etc.
The stuff weighs a ton and can be scratched and even peeled off on rocks etc. I know as I have done it. The linex coating fills in your bolt holes to the point of re drilling and reaming them big time... but that is why it is so cool though. It is also very tough and very hard to scratch or peel off.
But on the bottom side of arms and floors it does happen.

I would say you may scratch powder coat easier than linex but it does not weigh as much and comes in a ton of different colors etc. Plus if done right with your stuff being sand blasted first then it should stick an not chip.. mine is not chipping it is just taking a beating and scratches and what not are getting through it but my car is 3 years old and you should see a pic.. it still looks good.

As far as I know from what stuff we had fixed then sent back to powder coat they sand blasted and re powder coated the entire piece... hmm not sure on linex...

Anyways good topic please keep posting info as people have it or experience to add.
Good topic to help everyone learn more and decide on what to coat their cars with.

Oh and Powder coat has several types of coating that looks like linex and is thicker or even hammer
tones if you want for arms etc. But I actually think my solid color is doing the best at not showing the scratches etc.

[K-fab]

Powder's the way to go.

It's tough stuff. Basically it's an epoxy paint that requires heat to set it (thermoset). Once it's on, it's on pretty much permanently.

The colors available are well on the way to being equal to anything you can get in a regular spray type (liquid) paint. Some of the candies and pearls look even better in powder than spray.

The biggest key to getting the powder to be as bullet proof as possible is the prep work. (which should be done by the powder coater, not the customer). It usually requires a blasting/cleaning step of some sort. Depending on what's being powdered, the stripping work can be anything from course sand to some sort of nut shell (walnuts seem to be quite popular) to baking soda.

The next step is a cleansing and degreasing - a warm phosphate wash is probably the most common. Once that's been dried off, then the item goes to the powder room. It's sprayed on with a static charged gun (piece is grounded, gun is positive).

A trip to the oven (usually around 600F, as I recall) for a little while (20ish min) and then pull it out and let it cool off.

If done correctly the stuff's absolutely stuck to the item that's been coated. It shouldn't chip, it should just nick and dent and scratch. If it chips, the prep work was done incorrectly.

In general, if something needs to be touched up, it requires a total reprep and coating.

If your powder guy's good, he'll have silicone plugs for holes, threaded holes and such. There is also tape that's used (high temp capable) for masking off areas that you may not want to be covered (inside of a rim where it sits against a hub, for example).

You still may be required to do some prep work before assembly.

During assembly, make sure that any place that is under stress (meaning some place that something's mounted), such as where the suspension is mounted in between tabs, is taken back to bare metal (you can rattle can the bare metal for protection), as you don't want the powder coating between any items that need to be snug and secure. The powder is fairly thick (compared to spray/rattle can spray paint) and it will compress letting things like bolts come loose.

Also, any place that you need to use as a ground point on the frame has to be taken back down to the bare metal. A 120 grit pad on a rotary grinder (air die-grinder setup) works very well. If you get too aggressive w/the sanding, you'll build up heat and start smearing the powder into the sanding pad. Take your time and just work the paint off and you won't load up the sanding pad.

If you'd like more info, call James at Radiant Powder Coating in Phoenix, AZ and talk to him. (623) 516-7834. Tell him that Richard sent you.

[Deranged]

We have a powdercoat facility @ my shop, and sandblasting is THE best means of prep., but we also da a phosphate wash of some smaller items. Aluminumn has a different type of wash, but I am too lazy right now to go out and look... Our oven is (I think) the biggest in West Michigan, it is 48' deep, 12' wide, and 10' tall. Some powders require a UV resistant clear coat, especially some of the more exotic colors. We just did a jr. dragster frame in a candy purple with UV clear, and it was
B.E.A-UTIFULL

[dillon_b12]

When we prepped our Baja SAE car for PC we sandblasted everything with playground sand. Coal slag or something with a little bit bigger particles would have probably worked better but our powdercoat has been very tough. We also blew the whole car off with compressed air to get any sand out of crevices and then wiped everything down with some acetone. We have only chipped it maybe once or twice and it was on suspension parts that took direct hits into rocks.

We got pushed into a tree in '08 and bent a tie rod in half without hurting the powdercoat. Also, when the car first came back from PC, it looked like it was dripping wet. We got the frame done in gloss black and it was super deep and rich.

I would recommend anodizing to anyone who has billet aluminum on their car. We have bent the crap out of some aluminum rims and the anodize still looks brand new. The wheel is junk, but the anodize is fine. At the place that does our anodizing, they do what they call "bright dip" and "acid etch". Brite dip basically means that nothing will be covered up. If the part comes in mirror polished, it will go out mirror polished except in whatever color you want(or natural finish). If the part comes in with sanding scratches, it will leave with them if you don't get them polished out. Acid etch eats down into the parts and creates a matte finish and covers up any minor scratches that you may have before anodizing.

TutTech: Did you think the Rhino had more of a rubbery feel to it than the Line-X? That has been my experience. Line-X is more like soft plastic and Rhino is more like hard rubber.

[nutz4sand]

Imma go off on a limb here and say rattle can paint it. Thats just me.

Its cheap. Its SUPER easy to touch up anywhere. Its easy to get back from an area to touch up a weld or crack. Then repaint once cool anywhere. Even in the field.

Yah powder coat can look a little better. But even powder coat wears off the arms and frames of quads we have had on the bottom. Good paint can look good.

Each has its advantages.

[arrowhead]

Just bite the bullet and powdercoat it otherwise you'll be pissin around touchin it up every week

It costs but really worth it,,,,,,,,You won't regret it!

Dale