Mopar Muscle Association UK

I'm gonna go powder coat mate. More durable I reckon.

Calipers I painted, most other stuff I will coat (maybe including spindles)

Great avatar, Mo! 8) 8)

Mo,

All mine has been shotblasted and powder coated satin black. It looks really nice, and is very easy to keep clean and A LOT more resilient than paint.

Powder coat is the only way to go if you`ve got everything off the car.

It will stay looking good for ages

Good question, Mo. I await the response......

Some lower arms were unpainted, others were dipped up to about 1" from the ball joint.

So I guess if you are colouring then they should be black, you can't seperate the torsion bar adjuster so I would paint them and mask inside the hex, then tap the threads on the adjuster before re fitting the bolt.

Remember the T bars are handed

Any threads, mating surfaces, anything that you don't want coating needs to be masked or plugged. Talk to your powder coater he will be able to advise you. Any bushes should be left out until afterwards because of the high temp curing process. Powder coating is rock hard so you don't want to be trying to get it off afterwards.

just picked up this message guys - been away for a few days

as Blue says, mask off all threads, holes or mating surfaces that you definitely don`t want powder applied. It`s tough stuff and a bugger to remove. Powder does appear to be "hard", but it will soften, read on.

One thing to consider (a problem we have come across), is where several powder coated thicknesses are brought together (ie; bolted).
The combined thickness can be severeal hundred microns and what can happen is the paint layer will compress, so when you bolt everything together and torque it, everything appears fine and dandy. With time and movement, the coating can be subjected to heat and frictional forces which allow further coating relaxation and subsequently the bolt torque is loosened. You must remember that coatings are organic and do "move" about (ok, just a little bit) but it can make a difference, so be aware of it.

So to summarise, make sure the powder is not applied to critical areas.
With regard to masking, your coater should advise what to use, as it needs to be heat resistant. Normal masking tape will just about cope, but will leave a gluey mess behind when you eventually get it off again. Heat resist tapes are better. Use silicone plugs and caps for threads, holes, etc.

Is powder coating any good for road wheels Neil, and if so can they be done in metalics (ie silver)?

indeed it is James. Most new alloy wheels are now powder coated, usually with a powder primer, wet silver + wet topcoat (acrylic) or wet silver + powder topcoat (polyester or acrylic).
There are powder silver basecoats as well, which some job shops may use, but any colour you like could be applied, to either steel or alloy.

Satin finishes are available too, I had my aluminium door panels done in satin black, nice finish!

if you do get powdercoat where it shouldn't be, nitromorse makes short work of softning it up, i have used this method numerous times restoring motorcycles when the powdercoat guys dont really listen to what your saying, if it gets into thread holes apply it with a modelers paint brush then wizz a tap down the holes, if you like you can mask off the rest of the job as a bit of insurance against splashes, good coaters use a zinc primer too which stops corrosion so i got told, personaly i think powder coating is ace, i will be doing this to my front end parts when i come to it 8)