powdercoating cleanup

[woodwright]

I just had the rear axle from my 70 powdercoated. The finish is alright, but the inside is nasty. I left the axle bearings in, as well as the races for the pinion bearings since they were all in good shape.. Theres overspray on the races, and the axle bearings are full of sand and powder dust. Is that normal, or do reputable shops do a better job of masking? Whats the best way to clean all that crap out? Its everywhere inside.

[Terry Crist]

Sounds as though you are going to have to flush out the complete housing. You should just go ahead and replace all of the bearings and seals.

At least that is what I would do.

[Tx Firefighter]

Crappy workmanship. Don't use that place anymore. You need to find a coater who cares about his work.

Powdercoating shops are just like paint and body shops. You've got your hacks who do 200 dollar paint jobs and get overspray on everything, and you've got your shops that do 5000 dollar paint jobs who pay attention to the details. I'm not trying to drum up work for my shop either, I'm booked solid until the day after forever, just telling you what I know about the craft.

[Tom Vogel]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Crappy workmanship. Don't use that place anymore. You need to find a coater who cares about his work.

Powdercoating shops are just like paint and body shops. You've got your hacks who do 200 dollar paint jobs and get overspray on everything, and you've got your shops that do 5000 dollar paint jobs who pay attention to the details. I'm not trying to drum up work for my shop either, I'm booked solid until the day after forever, just telling you what I know about the craft.

^^^^^^^^^Yuuuppp

[Undone]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Crappy workmanship. Don't use that place anymore. You need to find a coater who cares about his work.

Powdercoating shops are just like paint and body shops. You've got your hacks who do 200 dollar paint jobs and get overspray on everything, and you've got your shops that do 5000 dollar paint jobs who pay attention to the details. I'm not trying to drum up work for my shop either, I'm booked solid until the day after forever, just telling you what I know about the craft.

Share you powder coating prep secrets?

[Tx Firefighter]

The issue here is customer expectations and perhaps the coater not informing the customer of the pitfalls of doing it the way they did. Personally, I have to stand behind every job I do, so I only do it "my way". If it fails, I have to strip and redo it which is a magnificent pain in the keister. So, the only way I operate is how I know to assure my success. It takes forever to build a solid reputation, but only a second to undo it. For me, no bearings or races left in place on a rearend housing. That gear oil is still up in there just waiting to bite me if I don't strip it all the way down.

Undone....

Everything has to be white glove clean in all areas. All areas. No bearings or bearing races left in place. There is oil behind them. You heat the part to 400 degrees and the oil will migrate out. Every time.

The part must be absolutely stripped bare without fail.

Then degrease, run it through the oven to liquefy any remaining gunk.

Media blast

Now its time to mask. Wear latex gloves during the whole process. Mask all areas that are machined. Mask all gasket surfaces. Plug all bolt holes. Mask all studs. Mask all voids.

Now, powdercoat.

I made my reputation by focusing on the details.



















Again, I'm not trying to drum up work. I quit doing customer for hire powdercoating work a year ago. I just restore motorcycles now. No more answering the phone or email. No more bidding jobs. I'm a better craftsman than businessman. Just trying to offer what I've learned over the years.

[Mt Airy]

I have had good and not so good .
The best I have had is DAYTEC in Ca the prep is great than they buff the parts and than when they send them back you see they care by the way the wrap them .

[Hawghauler]

That's some very nice work Tx! The attention to detail is obvious.

[woodwright]

Yeah, this place doesnt have the best rep, but he only charged me $60. My truck is not a show truck, but im coating everything so I can drive it in the winter. I think I'm gonna pull all the bearings and races, and hit the carwash. I would think the high pressure degreaser should get most of it out.

[fp1967]

TxFirefighter, you do nice work and give good advice. I had a lot of the parts in the picture below powder coated, including the frame and rear axle housing. I degreased everything the best I could, I scrubbed the parts with Davies DC99 degreaser and then rinsed with a pressure washer. I figured the more I did before I brought the stuff to the powdercoater, the less it would cost me. I plugged the holes in the axle housing. I have a small lathe, so I machined plugs that were a light press fit in the ends of the axle tubes and where the pinion seal goes. I put the cover on with all the bolts, so the bolts and all got powder coated. The only problem is the bolt heads are now oversize, I just used a 13mm socket instead of 1/2". Even the 13mm had to be pounded on the bolts the first time. I should add that on the greasy stuff like the frame, I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed many times to get it as clean as I could.

[fp1967]

I goofed up and ended up with the above post twice. I couldn't figure out how to delete the second one so I edited to this. If a moderater would delete this, I would appreciate it.

[67ctener]

What is this finish? It looks awesome. Sorry for the hijack

[In The Ten Ring]

Glad I came across this topic! I plan on getting some powdercoating done next summer.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by 67ctener

What is this finish? It looks awesome. Sorry for the hijack

Its black wrinkle.

[TBONE1964]

I agree 100% with TX. It is absolutely a must to be surgeon clean with parts before any paint work or powder coating.

With that said, you still face the fact that you have a powder coated rear end that is full of sand. This means the only way you are ever going to ensure that that bearing destroying sand is going to be completely removed is by a complete disassemble of the rear end and all parts get thoroughly washed.

If you have never had experience with setting up a carrier, it is better left to an expert. There are tolerances that must be kept to maintain proper gear and bearing life.

You could just hose it out with some brake clean in a can and pray it survives for a while but I would not recommend it.

Good luck.

[TBONE1964]

I agree 100% with TX. It is absolutely a must to be surgeon clean with parts before any paint work or powder coating.

With that said, you still face the fact that you have a powder coated rear end that is full of sand. This means the only way you are ever going to ensure that that bearing destroying sand is going to be completely removed is by a complete disassemble of the rear end and all parts get thoroughly washed.

If you have never had experience with setting up a carrier, it is better left to an expert. There are tolerances that must be kept to maintain proper gear and bearing life.

You could just hose it out with some brake clean in a can and pray it survives for a while but I would not recommend it.

Good luck.