Powder Coating ?s

Is all powder coating heat resistant? Can it tolerate under hood temps? I realize that strut braces (and similar) are coated, but is that a special heat-resistant powder? If to be used under the hood, in a heat area, are you limited in the colors options? Is it possible to powder coat aluminum? ...over anodize? Does a color powder coat have to be clear powder coated for gloss and surface protection, or is color powder coating sufficient? ...Thanks.

-Jeff

Color powder coating is sufficient. Have you ever tried to get powder coating off anything? I took my STB down and sandblasted it. I thought the sandblasting would take it RIGHT off. Nope. Took me 3 hours to blast it clean. My STB is polished now.

Is all powder coating heat resistant? Can it tolerate under hood temps? I realize that strut braces (and similar) are coated, but is that a special heat-resistant powder? If to be used under the hood, in a heat area, are you limited in the colors options? Is it possible to powder coat aluminum? ...over anodize? Does a color powder coat have to be clear powder coated for gloss and surface protection, or is color powder coating sufficient? ...Thanks.

-Jeff

Jeff, Powder coating comes in many different compounds, some of which are more heat resistant than others. Some are UV resistant for outside use, whereas some are designed to be indoor coatings with maximum color and gloss. However, most general purpose powdercoat is good to extended temperatures of 220 degrees once it's gone through the curing process. So, underhood temperatures are usually fine, as long as it's not really close to the headers where infrared radiation might bake it to death.

You can powdercoat over aluminum. You can even powdercoat over anodized aluminum, but the oxidation layer on the aluminum makes it more difficult for the electrostatic process to attract the powdercoat. If you want to just shoot a layer of straight black onto the part, without regard to thickness, you can do the anodized part. If you are wanting an exotic translucent powdercoat though, thickness is very, very important, and if you shoot it without physically grinding off the anodizing to expose unoxidized aluminum, you will have problems with consistent shading.

That's been my experience.

You can remove anodizing in two ways: Grind it out with sanding rolls then manually polish, or else chemically etch it out, then manually polish. Either way, you will be removing about .001" of material to completely strip out the oxidization layer, which has penetrated the aluminum to a depth of about .0005" .

HTH,
--Dan