Expert: William Forster - 11/1/2006

Question
i was wondering on what kind of experiences you have had with powder coated base coats for paint jobs? could i still get a great paint job and finish with a powder coated base.

if i did this option with my paint job how would you handle it? should i go fully cured or partially cured and  which color gives the best shine?

my grandfather owns a powder coating shop in ohio and i can get my chevelle done for relatively cheap.

Answer
Hello Richard! Wow, an entire car? I don't know. You really need to discuss this with your grandfather. Powder coating is an electrostatic process, and my concern is, body fillers and primers may not be compatible with that process. I also don't know at that temp that powder is baked at. Modern cars are baked at 140 degrees F., for 40 minutes. The old lacquer paints were baked at around 170 for 40 minutes. I wouldn't feel good about trying to bake panels with body filler on them at much higher a temperature than that, for a much longer period of time. The wiring and interior components won't take temps much above 200 for very long, either. I'm also not familiar with how well this stuff buffs. Powder coated parts I have seen look great, but not show quality, on large flat panels. I would prep an old fender, do some body work spots, prime them like a normal job, then powder coat it to see how it reacts to the process. All the parts I have seen done were bare steel, no fillers or primers. Unless the car is totally pristine, and can be stripped to bare metal, have 0 body filler, and have all plastic parts stripped off, it may not be possible. I may be wrong, however. I firmly believe that if powder was a great finish for show cars, everyone would be doing it. I know of no one who has. But, hey, you may start a trend! Talk to Grandpa. He will be more help than I can be. Bill