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February 17, 2005
2.0 Hours

Powder Coat Update

As promised, here's an update on my attempts to duplicate the look of cad plating using powder. I initially thought the argent silver was too shiny and chrome-like, so I had to find some way of knocking the shine down a few notches. I posted a message at the Eastwood "Ask an Expert" forum to see if I could get some answers. They gave me a few ideas, so tonight I tried a few.

And instead of working on my parts and building up too thick a coating on the plates, I cut out some metal coupons from some steel duct work I had lying around and experimented on them instead. I already had some deglosser and some satin finish clear, so I mixedup a few different batches of various combinations to see what would happen. You may recall going through something like this a while ago when I was conducting the Great Gloss Debate and it made the results easy to determine.

Steel "coupons" were easy to coat and cost nothing. They are also
easy to write on so I can document the results (from left to right:
20% deglossed argent/20% deglossed clear, straight argent/20% deglossed
clear and 20% deglossed argent/20% deglossed clear).

I tried straight argent covered with straight satin clear, straight argent with 20% deglosser in the clear, argent with 20% deglosser and straight clear and deglossed argent under deglossed clear. The final finish that I felt was satisfactory was the straight argent with the deglossed clear on top (center coupon above). It gave me the right amount of silvery shine without looking like chrome plating. The satin clear really helped take the edge off, and even the straight argent/straight clear combination was a big improvement over what I had last night. I'm pleased enough with the results that I'm going to coat a lot of the parts that are supposed to be plated, including the water pump pulley, which I have been unsuccessful in plating on 3 separate occasions. I may even use the clear over some parts that were successfully plated, just to help preserve the finish.

One interesting note about the clear powder--in most of the tech forums I've read, most people say that clear powder can get cloudy if you cure it like regular solid powder. To get good results with clear over, say, chrome-type powders, they recommend curing it at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. I thought that perhaps the clouding would help me and give a more authentic appearance, so I cooked it normally. It turned out pretty well.

Final result looks enough like cad plating for its location under the car.

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E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net

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Last modified on 03/20/2005

Thanks, Fidget!