Spray Paint on Engine Tin

[glutamodo]

The factory paint is gloss, but not a high gloss. I had some tin powder coated in the early 90s and went with 40% gloss and it looked pretty good to me. I've used low-gloss and semi-gloss rattle can engine paint over the years and generally liked how those looked as well.

[67jason]

[jhicken]

Powder coating is for lazy people, you do it once and never have to do it again.

Contrary to some folks opinions, properly cleaned and prepped, it is incredibly chip resistant. It may chip if you hit it hard enough, but most likely the damaged piece would no longer be usable. I powder coated Chevy C-20 split rims, you know the kind that you need to beat on the outer rim to install the tire. After mounting four tires, not one chip in any of the rims. Not in the outer rims, nor the edge of the inner rim.

The sheetmetal and rims of my '79 vert were done 21 years ago and over 100,000 miles. With a little wipe of Windex, they look as fresh as they did when new. Paint is ok, originally tin and rims were painted from the factory, but besides chipping, specially with the tin being exposed to gas, oil and heat, rattle can paint will start to dull within three or four years with normal use. If the car is just a weekender, properly cleaned and prepped, it'll last much longer, but with powder coating, you literally will never need to think about it again.

I powder coated all the sheet metal in my '69 and on the wife's '79 bus, I did the rims and all the sheet metal, intake manifolds and fan housing. I'm so lazy I even ceramic coated the exhaust manifolds, heat exchangers and muffler!

So, I'm lazy but my tin/wheels look good!

-jeffrey
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Der Kleiner Kampfwagens

[txoval]

Powder coating can get expensive when you get into multiple colors and you select a powder coater who does high end car/motorcycle parts.

If you can stick to basic colors, find an industrial powder coater who is shooting black 95% of the time and you can damn good prices. just a tip

[Thomas Lindemann]

I simply fail to understand how powder coat equals lazy, most people dont paint either.

[Zundfolge1432]

As with most every other topic discussed here what it comes down to is ask around then do whatever the hell you want. I agree with the statement powder coat is for lazy people, they generally fall into a category having more money to spend than the poor bastard using rattle cans. I' m probably biased towards the paint because that's the way we've always done and have access to a bead blast cabinet. The only thing I pay for is the paint so I can do an entire engine for less than twenty bucks and have some pride in knowing I did it myself. Have fun whatever you do including paying someone to powder coat your stuff

[jhicken]

-jeffrey
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Der Kleiner Kampfwagens

[johnhous]

well I've decided to go a little of both ways just to see. I am getting the cooling tin powder coated and some of the stuff one does not directly see, like the tin near the firewall, cooling ring mechanism, and the oil pump cover and valve covers done with Duplicolor 1635 Semi Gloss. I thought the Duplicolor 1634 was a little dull in comparison to the og paint. Not sure what to do with the fan shroud, most likely have to go powder coat just so it matches. Thought the powder coat was a little pricey. $150 for 8 pieces of tin and the crank pulley. They did know aircooled vws though which I thought was a plus. I will post the picks whjen its done.

[glutamodo]

This was my 40HP engine back in 1992, with the 40% Gloss powdercoating (all except the crank pulley, oil filler and air cleaner)

This is it from a few years ago - the only pieces from the above photo with the powdercoating are the cylinder covers and rear breast plate. Everything else is all painted rattle-can.

[cory464]

i use rustoleum, the professional stuff in the silver can. always use primer underneath and it will look much better. the rusty metal primer works miracles.

as for powdercoat, not all powder is the same. there are huge quality differences in the powders used. and huge variations in the skills of the powder coaters. as with anything, do your homework before spending money.

now, here is the Achilles heel of powdercoating. it relies on electrostatic charge to stick. on tight inside corners the powder has a hard time getting into the bottom of the corner, as it wants to stick to the sides. this is where the skillls of the powder coater come in to play.

[Cusser]

My blue spray painted tin after 35+ years on my 1835cc engine (runs better than it looks)

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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297