R Thomas

[QUOTE=2bking;119038]Its been awhile since my last post so this is an update on progress and activities. I completed assembly of the front suspension and installed the power rack. I safety wired the Wilwood brake rotor screws in groups of four (I didn't have a tool). They aren't real pretty but the screws won't back out. Here are some before and after photos.
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There are quite a few bare metal parts in the kit that need a finish. I came to a place in the build where I needed to install some of them so I had to make a decision on color and finish type. I really like the powder coat and being a DIY guy, I starting looking at some U Tube videos on the process and equipment needed. I watch some where they were using the Eastwood kits and were getting very good results and the process seemed very easy. I just needed the powder gun and an oven plus a few other goodies like tape and hole plugs. One Thanksgiving we needed an extra oven and a midnight trip around the neighborhood before trash pick-up day yielded a good working electric range (but no racks so my son made some out of scrap expanded metal). It had been gathering dust for a few years so I put it to use. I ordered a kit from Eastwood.
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I built a cardboard paint booth using some FFR shipping boxes, a furnace filter, and a desk top fan. The painting process uses an electrostatic charge to attract the powder to the parts so I made a metal horizontal rod to hang the parts from and attached the ground clip outside the box to the U bolts supporting the rod.
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I cleaned the parts using Marine Clean and Metal Ready and chamfered the laser cut edges.
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The following pictures are before and after in the paint booth and then loaded into the oven. The broiler heating element with all its crooks and turns made an excellent way to hang the parts inside the oven.
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I set the oven to 450F and waited for the powder to start to melt . I then turned down the temperature to 400F and let the parts cook for about 20 minutes. I an very pleased with the results and I can't see any difference between the FFR ones and mine. Here are the E Brake and Petal Box assembled with the coated parts.
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I think I'm done painting for now so I can get back to assembling parts.[/QUOTE]