The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Powdercoating at home

Has anyone tried the powdercoating kits from Eastwood? I send out my parts to be powdercoated, but sometimes it would be convenient to do small parts in the shop. Just curious...

Andy

a good friend of mine started with the kit from eastwood and an old oven pulled from salvage. he now has an oven large enough to bake frames and has moved up with a pro setup. hard part is figuring how to bake different sized items.i.e. getting the heat right. tom

Hi Andy,
Quite possibly the best investment I ever made. I bought the Eastwood kit shortly after it came out so I have used mine for several years. A pint of powder from Eastwood sells for about 12 bucks. That is enough to coat 4-5 intake manifolds for a V8, or probably the same number of stoveolt valvecovers. Once you make the investment it is very economical to use. I prep all my parts in a blasting cabinet, blow off the dust, spray down with non-chlorinated brake-kleen, and start coating. If you are coating used parts that came in contact with oil, or are porus such as aluminum, prep as described. Then you will want to prebake the part to remove all residual oil, then complete all the prep steps a second time. If you skip the prebake, oil will seep from all kinds of unseen sources during the curing process requiring you to start over from the beginning. Been there more than once. I might be a little obsessive, but every little bracket, clip, bolt, etc.. on my truck that will fit in my oven has been powdercoated. My oven is an old electric bar-b-q grill. works extremely well but is a little small. I've got a buddy who bought the biggest galvanized trash can he could find, put a electric stove heating element in the bottom, installed a themostat and started coating.

John

Excellent! That's just the feedback I was looking for. What temperatures do you have to bake it at and for how long?

Andy

I haven't used my kit yet...it has been in "storage for two years"...really!! But I'm about to get it out and i think the temps run around 400 for 20 minutes but it may vary a little. I will start out with the stove but if you do be sure to put a temp guage in it to make sure the stove setting is correct....

Yep, 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Start the timer after the powder begins to flow-out. Thin sheet metal parts might begin to flow in just a couple of minutes. Large cast parts might not begin to flow for 10-15 minutes.

John

Can you powdercoat the springs? Will it hold up?

I personally haven't done any springs larger than carb return springs and the like. Holds up great on those. Most aftermarket coil springs come factory powder coated and hold up great. I have talked to guys who have done their leafs with good results also. Maybe someone with first-hand experience with leaf springs will reply.

John