paint or powder coating

[whitstella]

hi,

i have just about completed my wishbones and i was wondering what would be the best finish paint or powder coating. which would last longer and look the best???

cheers steve.

[Talonmotorsport]

Powder coating Pros: looks good, reasonably durable, hides all manor of sins.
Cons: can fade in direct light after a while, will rust under surface if chipped. will not show cracks in welds, can be exspensive.

Painting Pros: can be done at home , can be perfect colour match to other parts, can be touched up later, if using 2k can be cut back and polished, cheap.
Cons: can be nasty to work with espesh 2k, all parts need to properly degreased and cleaned using potenialy nasty stuff, can look a dogs dinner if care not taken ie runs and sags, easy to get bits of crap stuck in wet paint.

Feel free and add and edit to these lists.

[JHewitt]

I have just painted mine.
I cleaned them all up, and put 2 coats of hammerite "smooth finish primer & top coat" in one stuff. Loads of colors avaiable, and I am well impressed with the results. As Phil says it can run very easily, so nice thin coating. Cheaper way of doing it too.
I will have pics up of mine next week.
I will be doing the chassis in the same stuff too.
Joe.

[Bonzo]

For what it is worth, I painted mine with Epoxy Mastic

Here's the stuff I used Epoxy Mastic 121 (http://www.rust.co.uk/epoxy-mastic.cfm)

It can be used with brush, roller or for best looking finish, spray gun :)

Dries to a Satin Black finish & can be over coated with almost any other paint.

Hard as bleeding nails & although the surface will mark if scratched, you'll not remove the paint.
Formulated to be used direct to a lightly rusted surface but sticks well on clean metal if the surface is well keyed ;)

Powder coat is great until it gets dammaged & once it starts to grow rust under the surface, it will fall off in great big lumps.

I guess it's purely a matter of personal prefernce, nothing on a car chassis lasts forever ;)

[SeriesLandy]

Bonzo a couple of questions,
Did you have to use a primer?
How much have you used to do the chassis Ect?
Were the supplied thinners enough to spray or did you need more?

[Bonzo]

Hi Steve

No, the epoxy mastic is formulated to be painted on bare metal ( Bit like hammerite was in the good old days )

I bought the smallest size pack, so far have painted all of my wishbones, rear uprights & driveshafts, still have just under half a tin left ;)

Had I not already painted my chassis with Galvafroid & Red hammerite :o :o I would have got the larger pack & done the whole lot.

It doen't take that much thinners to thin it down .... Tis like treacle when first mixed but the addition of a little thinners really does the trick

Hope that helps mate :)

[SeriesLandy]

Yeah that helps alot cheers Ronnie.

On another note, I painted my wish bones with red oxide and then black exterior gloss. Took 2 weeks to go off and is ok looking but not great.
I wouldn't advise doing it that way.