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MG MGB Technical - Cost of Powder Coating


I've submitted the suspension parts of my '67 BGT for sandblasting, etch priming and powder coating. All the underside parts, including the stub axles, are being done EXCEPT the rear axle and drive shaft.

I would really appreciate opinions on how much I should expect to pay for this job as I believe I've been quoted an outragous price. The parts are in very good mechanical order with only superficial rust.

Thanks in advance,
Brian
Brian McIlvenna

Brian,

I have found a lot of variation not only in price but also quality from shop to shop. It's probably good to get some local advice, maybe one shop has a better reputation than another. My last powder coating project was to have all five of my Rostyles blasted, prepped, and coated for a total price of $125.00 U.S. three years ago.

Doug
D. Cook

Brian,

I am not sure how much it costs in Ireland. Are you including the cross member in this. I would imagine it would be about $400-500, stateside. It really depends how much cleaning is involved, and then blasting. Powdercoating is quite cheap and quick, but the prep is where the cost is.

Shareef
Shareef Hassan

£50-100 is your target range, anymore and you are being ripped off, and the lower the figure the better.

Bear in mind that vendors will try to charge you more because it is automotive, rather than industrial.

Try a sandblaster for just sandblasting, then get a quote from a powder coater for powder coating, and compare.

Always get three quotes, and make one of them out of town, just in case the locals have a little agreement about not undercutting each other.

Tom

Brian, Tom has a good point. I was going to have the dash on my 58 MGA powder coated in red but the price was $150.00 which included the media blasting. To get the price down the owner of the shop suggested that I get the media blasting else where and that I change my color to black.. In this way he could include my part in the day he was doing black.... New price was $35.00.. I wanted red so I opted to let the body shop paint.. The powder coating shop did trailers as there primary source. So to add my part was probably just beer and pizza money for the employees.... You may want to try a large outfit like that.. my $.02.. Mike
Mike

I don't know if you can do this with the shops you have to work with there in Ireland, Brian, but in some cases I have been able to have powder coating done for small lots of parts by requesting they be added to someone else's larger order. In those cases, I got a bit of a price break as powder coating shops tend to like to do large batches things rather than piecemeal little odd lots. It might be worth asking about. FWIW
Bob Muenchausen

Brian, I want to ask what is the etch priming you refer to? I undestood that powder coating was applied directly over the bare metal with no primer required, just a good media blasted surface that is spotlessly clean. I don't have any idea of price comparisons, as things are so much more dear over there than here in the US.
Bill Young

Brian,

I powder coated several items in my engine compartment a few years back. everytime I look at them I am happy I did it, they look as great today as they did two years ago. I only paid $50 US for brake cover, radiator shroud, struts, and various other small parts. I would guess the parts you are talking about should be abou 40-50 each. I however was lucky in that I live in a city that has multiple locations and I got some competitive bids.

You might consider shipping some of the parts to a mail order site that could reduce the price but you will have to waait on the shipping. another alternative is your own powdercoating operations from the eastwood company. you can do it yourself. not really cheap but may be something you migth look into as an option. oh yeah don't use your wifes oven to cook the stuff cause you can't use it as an over after that and the cost of powdercoating really goes up wwhen you have to replace the oven.

here is the link to the eastwood company powder coating site

www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=458

Edward

edward

Guys,

thanks for all the comments. I plan to coat all the under parts (including crossmember, excluding the prop shaft and rear axle: a total weight of around 50kg.

Originally the shop quoted me 250euro (305$) but due to alleged cost increases in the last few months the cost was quoted at 450euro (459$); a rip-off. Admittedly, there is some sand blasting to be done, I estimate 4hrs as there are several small parts. Accordinly cost of powder coat material has jumpted this year.

The shop advocated an etch prime preparation, I don't know much else.

I've talked to a local sandblaster for a quote, he's going to look at it soon.

Will keep trying. Any other help will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Brian
Brian McIlvenna

I probably should have shopped around for a powder coating place, but I found one close to home and the proprieter seemed like a good guy. I got five early steel disk wheels prepped and coated for $325. They put on a layer of silver-gray and a layer of semi-gloss clear over that.

I learned an important lesson about powder coating. Once it's done, it's done. It's not like paint, where you can sand out imperfections and touch up. One of my wheels had an area about seven inches long on the rim, close to where it joins the center piece, that had been stressed during manufacture, leaving a two-inch flake (for lack of a better term) and five or so inches of rough metal. Of course, I hadn't looked at the wheels closely before bringing them in, but now that they were all cleaned up, the defect was glaring.

The flake looked like a piece of paint, and I told the owner of the shop that the wheel just didn't look like it should for $65. The owner maintained that they had removed all the old paint, and the flake was in the metal. But he wanted his customers to be happy, so he would remove the powder coating and I could pick up the wheel and repair it, and he would coat it again for free.

I did pick it up and was a little mortified to find that he was right about the flake. I brought the wheel home and spent way too many hours welding, grinding and sanding that stupid two-inch area, which was in a place most difficult to get my tools into. The wheel is at the shop now, and I'm debating whether to offer to pay for the second coating or not when I pick it up.

Next time I do wheels, I will have them sandblasted and paint them myself. Last time I did that was 20 years ago on another car, and the wheels still look fine. -G.
Glenn G

This thread was discussed between 17/09/2004 and 23/09/2004

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