Painting aluminum panels

[austingoblue]

I have heard some of you say you powder coated the panels..anyone paint and clear them? If so how does the paint hold up to the aluminum??

[conmech]

Personally, I'd powder coat the panels for durability. Paint, even cleared, can chip, scratch, etc. Powder coat comes in a variety of colors.

[austingoblue]

I'm guessing I'd powder coat before anything or fit and drill first then powder coat

[conmech]

I'm guessing I'd powder coat before anything or fit and drill first then powder coat

Makes sense to me. Just have to clean up the mounting holes AFTER coated.

[edwardb]

Drill and cleco in place first, get everything mounted, then remove for powder coat, and final re-install when finished. Very likely some tweaking, adjustment, even some trimming may be required to get just right. You don't want to do that when powder coated. Yes you need to run a drill through the holes again to clear the powder coat, but that goes quickly.

[Ultimate Track Car]

Definitely want to follow everyone's advice on prefit everything if you powdercoat. I had custom panels made, prefit them nicely with clecos, and still due to the heat of powder coating, they expanded and contracted causing a few to need to be refabricated. Some changed as much as an inch in size. Once done though, powdercoating looks great, and holds up really well to scratching. Well worth it.

[edwardb]

Some changed as much as an inch in size.

Really?? 6061 aluminum panels with "normal" powder coat temps? That's incredible. I'm on my second build, and once the powder coat was cleared from the holes, I've never had a panel that didn't go right back where it was first mocked up.

[austingoblue]

I tried scuffing and painting panel....soon as it dried I could scratch it right off....lacquer thinner and scuffed it all off....tried high heat header paint...aluminum flat....cannot scratch that stuff off and it looks great....cheap way to paint them I think:)

[Jacob McCrea]

Before you get too far down the road I'd research the proper procedure for preparing raw aluminum for paint. It has been discussed here from time to time, and what I recall is that for maximum adhesion you use 2 chemicals, one after the other, on the properly cleaned raw aluminum. My notes say Aluma-prep DX553 and Aldoline DX503 are PPG's version of what I recall is essentially a 2-step surface preparation process. I forget the exact procedure, but Google should bring up some detailed discussions on both boat and airplane discussion boards, if not this board.

[MPTech]

due to the heat of powder coating, they expanded and contracted causing a few to need to be refabricated. Some changed as much as an inch in size.

I've never heard the heat from powder coating changing the size. "as much as an inch"?? What panel? This is hard to believe, given so many guys powder coat all of the panels. Can you elaborate on the process you're talking about?

[gswartz]

I painted and clear coated all my panels and they are holding up great after 1,000 miles of driving. I get the wow factor whenever I open up the hood and the chassis and engine bay matches the body color.

http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv234/lswartzi/25B484E9-B160-47C6-9EF5-1A5C2380404B-15170-00000C1A61452845.jpg


http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv234/lswartzi/cobra/800f932b.jpg

http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv234/lswartzi/cobra/9b9fa932.jpg

[Jeff R]

Ditto what Jacob mentioned about prep. I painted mine 8 years and 40K miles ago the same colors as the body. Still looks great.
http://www.therautenbergs.com/Cobra%20Images/Frame/DSC01557sm.jpg

[QSL]

its so cheap to powder coat, i dont see a reason not to do it. The problem i have seen with paint is on the edges of the panels. It seems to chip off really easy there.

[fastthings]

With any kind of overcoat, paint or bedliner, you must use a self etching epoxy primer-sealer. And follow directions to the T.

Proper sanding, and wax/grease remover.

Even powdercoat will chip right off if not prepped corectly, take the frame of my GTM for example. FF (if it is powder coat) went right over a non sanded rusted frame. I have spots all over it coming off.

Gene

[carbon fiber]

Gene, have you mentioned this to ffr? that would piss me the F#@* off. can you post pics? i'm going to check mine closer, i've been fabbing parts lately and haven't looked the frame over in a while.

[fastthings]

Gene, have you mentioned this to ffr? that would piss me the F#@* off. can you post pics? i'm going to check mine closer, i've been fabbing parts lately and haven't looked the frame over in a while.

Nope, I'm done with that. It is what it is, I'm moveing on. Yes I could post pics, but I won't. I could pic apart everything they made, but my blood preasure goes up. I can make icecream out of horse s**t, and I love icecream. So thank you FF.

(sorry for the hijack guys)

[carbon fiber]

i understand, it's just getting a little ridiculous. i didn't care that my interior parts delaminated - i'm building a custom interior, didn't care too much about the halo clearance issue because i'm doing custom rocker panels in cf, but the powdercoat coming off the frame will be too much. i feel my blood pressure rising so this will be the last i speak of these issues on this forum. i'll deal directly with ffr from now on. sorry for the hijack also, but this is important stuff.

[MPTech]

gswartz, that's a beautiful blue paint job! What color is that called? (also like your matching panel, absolutely beautiful) :cool:

[gswartz]

gswartz, that's a beautiful blue paint job! What color is that called? (also like your matching panel, absolutely beautiful) :cool:

Its the blue that ford put on the GT super car in 2005. I painted my 65 mustang the same color. The key to getting the color to pop is I painted the whole car black first (two coats) then put the blue on top (5 coats). That really got the blue to pop.

Regarding prep of the panels. I DA's all my panels with 180 grit and 220 grit then immediately primed them. I put on three coats of primer and water sanded with 400 grit prior to painting. Anytime I prime or paint I always make sure to clean with wax remover. Like I mentioned before I have had no issues with paint chipping or anything. I put four coats of paint on all my panels and three coats of clear. A majority of the panels were drilled but even the panels that were not drilled prior to installation had no issues.