Re: [Chrysler300] Powder Coat rams

[Keith Boonstra <kboonstra@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Out here in West Michigan we make a huge amount of office furniture, and 
powder coating is about the only way they finish the product anymore.  
It's a non-toxic and non-polluting process, and actually fairly 
economical and good looking.  The air quality folks love it. It works by 
inducing an electrostatic attraction between the surface to be painted 
and these tiny little bits of dried thermoset plastic or polymer in a 
powder form sprayed at the part.  Then when you heat it to about 390 
degrees it melts and flows onto the surface.  Works great, but this is 
indoor furniture.

The problem with using powder coating for anything that will get wet or 
damp from time to time, is that powder coat is almost never as complete 
as an applied liquid coat of finish, and the inferiority can show up 
quite soon after application.  When the powder is sprayed onto the part 
it's almost impossible to get the powder to wander into all the little 
corners and crevices, and there will be only a thin coat, if any, in 
those spots.  Then over time rust begins at those thinly finished 
corners and proceeds to undermine the powder coat starting at that 
point, and it starts flaking it off.  Then about the only thing to do is 
put your part back in a burn-off oven at 800+ degrees to remove what's 
left of the coating and start all over.

On the other hand, when you spray wet coats of any finish on the part, 
the wet material actually flows into all the corners and crevices, and 
gives you the most complete coverage possible short of dipping the 
part.  You can use enamels to paint an engine as they did at the factory 
and get a nice result, or by using a base/clear urethane (2K) you'll 
have it looking like new for tens of thousands of miles.  Either way the 
liquid coat performance will always be far superior to a powder applied 
coat for endurance.  The only downside is that it's just nastier to 
apply it wet.

And for those of us with the silver hemis, one added advantage of using 
a liquid 2K finish is that you can tightly control the exact amount of 
gloss you end up with by adding flatting agent to the clearcoat.  Gloss 
is next to impossible to control with the powder coat method.

One final option to note is good old baked enamel.  Most enamels can be 
baked while they're still wet at 250-300 degrees, and give you a really 
tough finish quickly.  Better drag your wife's oven out into the garage 
before you use this technique though.

Keith Boonstra


On 1/30/2013 2:45 PM, Ryan Hill wrote:
> I had this discussion with John Hertog about 10 years ago when I found he was powder coating an engine and wondered why. After some debate, he eventually agreed with me that powder coating wasn't really a great choice for engines, especially when performing a real restoration. (Perhaps he agreed just to end the discussion.....) In my opinion, powder coating looks great and is a fantastic coating for many things; engines are not one of those things, if you want it to look like it should. For less money and greater ease you can paint an engine yourself with good quality primers and paints and get a much more authentic, long lasting finish.
> Just my two cents.
>
> Ryan Hill In rainy (as usual) Vancouver, B.C.
>
> To: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> From: rpjasin@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:10:07 -0800
> Subject: [Chrysler300] Powder Coat rams
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>        I've got to chime in on the engine powder coat question as well, if I might.
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> In 1985, I had my rams and valve covers powder coated on my 300G.  Now the
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> valve covers are black and the rams are red, so it is a bit different
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> situation than the 300K.  I've never had a problem with the black parts,
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> they have held up well.
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> The red rams though, turned a lighter, almost pinkish color after about 10+
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> years.  Why?  I really don't know, the black stayed black, but the red
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> didn't.  My point is that powder coating is not necessarily the absolute
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> best way to go in every situation, as many people believe.  For one thing,
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> it is very difficult to remove if the need arises.  Abrasive blasting is
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> about the only way to get it off, and you must use an aggressive media to do
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> it.  Any screw thread hole that get coated must be rethreaded with a tap or
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> die to get the threads into spec again.
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> In building on Mike's point, if the engine block will be painted
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> conventionally, and the rams and valve covers powder coated, you may find
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> yourself with a mismatch at some point in the future you had not
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> Having said that, you can always paint over the powder coat with
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> conventional engine paints, that's what I did on my rams, by hand mind you,
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> with an artists' brush, and they came out looking great, but an engine block
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> repaint would be more difficult.
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> Bob J
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> Hi Larry,
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> You probably already know this but I wasn't sure by the way your message
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> reads; The entire engine is turquoise, not just the rams and valve covers.
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> Also, why powder coat? Harder to touch up if needed and you still need to
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> match spray able color for the rest. I can probably find the formula I mixed
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> to closely resemble the old plasticoat #210 turquoise which Gil said was a
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> good match.
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> A single stage urethane applied over either epoxy or self-etch primer is
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> very durable.
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> Mike Laiserin
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