Powdercoat quality?

[OB6]

How has the frame powdercoating from FFR been lately? Everyone happy with it? If so, it still seems to be a good deal. I've only seen one in person and it appeared to be nice.

[mladen]

I'm not sure how competent I am to judge this, but I've been happy overall. I haven't seen anything I'd consider an issue with it, and the price seemed like a great deal compared to trying to do this all by my self.

[edwardb]

The Factory Five powder coat I would rate as "ok." If you like satin black it's a good value. Will also match any normally powder coated components provided. Like control arms, etc. I've had the factory powder coat on several builds. On my truck, I wanted a different color plus I planned a frame mod for power brakes. So had it done at a local shop. Did give me a chance to clean up the welds a little more than the factory does. But it was much more expensive.

[Blitzboy54]

I think for the money like most have said, it's real good value. Not perfect but bang for the buck is very good.

[Chopper]

One other consideration: Is there local shop that can fit a chassis in their PC Booth? Is there a reasonable way to transport the chassis to the shop available?

[OB6]

One other consideration: Is there local shop that can fit a chassis in their PC Booth? Is there a reasonable way to transport the chassis to the shop available?

Definitely a big consideration. Fortunately in the DFW we have several shops who can handle this size job. And getting the frame to them isn't a problem.

[JohnK]

One other consideration: Is there local shop that can fit a chassis in their PC Booth? Is there a reasonable way to transport the chassis to the shop available?

Any shop that does commercial coating work will have a booth big enough to do the chassis. FWIW - when I had mine done locally I called a towing company and they sent out a flatbed tow truck. We just rolled the chassis on it's cart onto the tow truck, strapped it down and towed it to the powder coater. Easy.

I can't comment on the factory coating quality directly, as I received my chassis bare and had it coated locally, but I'll assume the chassis PC is the same quality as the PC on other coated parts (control arms, etc.). I've also seen a few other people's factory coated chassis. Couple of comments, as others have also noted. It doesn't appear that any prep work is done to clean off weld spatter, etc. Kind of surprising actually, as any decent volume coater will first abrasive blast before coating to clean parts and provide a rougher surface finish for the PC to adhere to. Most weld spatter would come off in a process like this. Secondly, it doesn't appear to me that a primer coat is laid down before final powder coat, but I may be wrong on this. It appears to me that it's just a single coat of black PC. Is it easier and cheaper than doing it locally? Sure. But when comparing prices to having it done locally, you need to understand what you're comparing. If your local shop is blasting, priming, then final coating, of course that's going to be more expensive (and a much better result).