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Triumph TR6 - Powder Coating Chassis

Hey Folks,
Just discovered an industrial shop locally that has agreed to powder coat my 71 TR-6 Chassis for about $250 USD. They have a 10'X10'X6' curing oven. Color: semi-gloss black. Apparently color determines price!! They're accustomed to doing space qualified parts but will take other work. Looking for comments as to whether this is a good price?? The chassis will be clean (ie sand blasted etc.) elsewhere and any necessary repairs done before taking it to this shop. Comments?
db
Doug Baker

Sounds like a fair enough price to me. How equipped are they to hit the inside surfaces of all the boxed members though?

Rick O.
Rick Orthen

Rick,
They tell me that because the disposition of the powder is electrostatic that boxed areas are no problem for uniform coating. They offered examples of their work for reference, photos as well as actual pieces. I have only spoken with them on the phone. Will visit with them, maybe this week to check out their facility etc. Certainly better than POR15 or trying to etch prime, paint etc. all of which would probably cost as much in the long run. Bears checking out. They also agreed that they would do smaller parts if needed and as schedule permitted, so I'm considering having them do the suspension parts, maybe in a gray or silver for contrast which along with the SS brake pipes should go well...in case anyone is ever looking underneath the car:)
db
Doug Baker

My concern would be prepping the boxed sections for the electrodeposition. Ask them about that. Sure will be a beautiful frame when you're done!

Rick O.
Rick Orthen

Be sure there is no rust where you have the powdercoating done. I took my windshield frame to a place that works on Indy cars. They said they sandblasted the rust off first but after two years in the gagage waiting for rebuilt chunks of the powder coating were flaking off where there was old rust under the powder. Just my experience,others may not have had problems with powder coating.
Dick Porter

Dick,
Thanks for your comment and experience. Clearly the substrate must be sqeaky clean or the coating attaches to the rust or whatever is there. It's my intent to make sure I offer as clean a product as is possible. I just got my bumpers back from the chrome shop and they look great...except...!! The front bumper has a boxed bracket for attaching to the frame. I did not cut into this or drill a hole or whatever before I sent the bumpers to the plating shop and neither did they so now I have beautifully newly triple plated bumpers with boxed in brackets that still have rust!!!! Not sure yet what, if anything, I'm going to do about this problem, but clearly in the chassis such would be untenable. I also was advised recently that POR15 had flaked off an application, again probably because of preparation of the surface. All the literature (and advice) says to prime the bare chassis immediately after cleaning...sand blasting or whatever, but I have not found sand blasters who paint nor painters who do a lot of sand blasting in their shops so how do you get the chassis from the sand blaster to the paint shop without exposing it to the ravages of the elements??? Haven't figured this one out yet, but working on it.
db
Doug Baker

Doug,
do you have any chemical dip companys around you?
I had my frame chemicaly dipped it came perfect clean metal inside and out. I did two coats of Por15 on the outside and sprayed the inside with Rustcheck, a sticky
oil prouduct. If you are going to powder coat then the dip method should work well.
Chris
Christopher Trace

Doug- I am a huge advocate of powder coating as I have triumphed the process on this board for years. I try and have P.C.'ed about anything that can be done when I remove something from the car. Chris's suggestion on dipping is by far the best idea for this part. The only concern is getting all the (liquid) dry. Another concern is getting it to the P.C.'ing shop before it starts to turn which can happen very quickly in areas as mine and humid areas as yours. I say GO FOR IT.
Don K.
DON KELLY

Just wondering of the "Flexible Flyer" characteristics of the TR6 frame would be detrimental to the powder coating. This wouldn't cause cracks?

Just wondering (not that I'll ever have the opportunity to make my LBC that nice)

Don from Jersey
(The Goose left something in my yard...)
D Hasara

Hi Doug

There are baffle plates in the interior of that boxed frame. Average about 10 to 14 inches apart front to back all rails. There are a couple only 4 inches apart though in the front section and jacking points. I think original they were a fairly tight fit inside the frame with one spot weld on a bottom bend. So far most I have seen are very rusted so serve no purpose for rigidity but still work as a sand and chemical retainer.

Sandblasting will not clean the inside. May be the worst thing you can do. The sand and rust junk will retain water and float any oil away from the surface you want protected. There is no way to get it out. Believe me I know.

With the average rust damage to the baffles chemicals should clear fairly easy in a standard multi part bath sequence.

I'm fairly familiar with powdercoat and I can't see any way of getting an even coat inside. Due to the baffles even if clean. Stuff will flow into larger cracks but won't realy seep until fluid or hot. Even then won't move far. Likely leave a lot of bare spots?

Having the frame dipped galvenized and then powder coated may be an option? The interior is protected and the outside is pretty?

By the way Powdercoating at least the concept is far from new. Print a page out of your laserprinter or copier and look at the print. Yep identical system? Much simpler process powder coating.

Here's some reading for you pertaining to powdercoat over hot galvenized metal. Its a search page but lots of good pro's and cons.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=powder+coating+galvanized+metal&spell=1

Since I'm rebuilding my frame any feedback is most welcome. I've been whacking my head against a post for a couple of years over this...:)

Bill
Bill Brayford

A wee question on powder coating.
If you have a tub sand, soda, or dipped, you are not to touch it before the primer with bare fingers as you deposite oil (body oil) on it and this is a no no . Is this true for PCing also? Maybe helpfull info to Doug.
Doug, at $250. you could not do it yourself when you take your time and materials into account. Yes go for it.
Rick C
Rick Crawford

Hey guys,
Lots of good comments. Thanks. I'll keep y'all posted on how this goes. Don, regarding cracking, the shop told me that one of the desirable attributes of PC was that it would flex with the frame (to some extent, I guess) and not crack as would paint or other hard appliques.

Haven't found a chemical stripping bath anywhere nearby. The closest may be Memphis and that's just a bridge too far! I'll keep looking though. Clearly that'd be the route to take for cleaning inside the baffles.
db
Doug Baker

Doug,
normally when any metal comes out from the chem. dippers they spray the metal with a very diluted mixture of mineral oil and water. This prevents rust. They say it washes right off and primer or in this case powder will go on just fine. They say they have never had any problems with it before.
This might be worth thinking about, get the frame dipped have them spray it with the dilute mineral oil and water mixture.Just before the powder goes on spary the frame with several cans of brake cleaning spray,
(this suff is basicly dry cleaning fuild in a can
toxic as hell but leaves the metal cyrstal clean and evoporates in seconds, to hell with the environment this is a TR6 after all ) Start at the top and spray so that any oil will drip down and off the frame. Forget trying to clean the inside cause you'll never do it.
After the powder is baked on spray the inside of the frame with an anti rust sray like RustCheck
and Bobs your uncle forget about rust ever again.
However, you must spray the oil in both directions
of every hole that is in the frame to ensure complete coverage and then it will drip for at least a week.
Not to say anything against Por15 I'm very happy with it but had I to do it again I would go the powder coat route. Just get all your welding done first. As Don says, flexible flyer is right. Weld your box in pieces to the Diff. hangers and arches and any stiffening you are going to do to the frame. 2 in" angle iron welded in a web to bottom of the frame works wonders.I added all those things after coating with POR15 and it was a bugger to get it off. I'm sure powder coat will be just as tough if not tougher to get off.
Chris
Christopher Trace

Hi guys,
I do a lot of powder coating and plating. On occasion even dip stripping. If anyone needs a a couple of good firms email me and I will be happy to help out my TR buds.
Marcello

This thread was discussed between 15/11/2004 and 23/11/2004

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