Powder coating panels - best process?

[benbobs]

Hey Folks

My kit arrived a few days ago (yay!). Inventory is done and the panels are all off. About to start the build for real now!!

Been looking at a few post and build blogs etc and a few of you are powder coating the aluminum panels. I much prefer the look of the black panels too and was considering doing this.

My intuition is to divert from the manual flow and instead drill and cleco everything (or as many panels as possible) before stripping them and taking them to the local powder coating place. Has anyone done it this way or do folks generally powder coat then all before drilling ? (Not sure if I can erase silver marker on powder coated panels with acetone or if that’ll take off the coating too).

Anyway- any help or advise on doing this would be greatly appreciated. Also any opinions on whether I even need to coat all the panels or not! (Not exactly sure which panels will be seen from the cockpit or engine bay, for example).

Also looks like I might have to wait on the front suspension until I get the F panels i (I presume there’s a reason the manual recommends doing these first). Is that right?

Lots of questions - but excited to get going !
Thanks!

Ben

[JeffP]

I drilled and cleco'd before sending to powder coat. I mainly did my engine bay and footboxes to save money. Didn't have any cockpit or trunk PC'd. The PC will fill in the holes a little bit so don't be surprised if you have a hard time getting a rivet in when they the come back.. just a quick turn of a drill bit cleans them back out.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Fit and drill (with a #30 bit) prior to PC.

Jeff

[benbobs]

Awesome- thank you!
Did you wait for them to come back from PC and then fit all the panels before moving onto suspension etc or will it fit around it?

[Ron J]

You might consider anodizing the aluminum. I found it to be a cost effective alternative to powder coat.

[benbobs]

You might consider anodizing the aluminum. I found it to be a cost effective alternative to powder coat.

Interesting- Did you do this yourself?

[Ron J]

No, it's an involved process. I had a local shop (Sacramento, CA) do the anodizing. I pre-drilled for pop rivets. The pricing was cheaper than powder coat.