Awesome Powdercoat - [email protected]

[Era Vulgaris]

And here's some more pics. Some shots of my alternator cover plate. These were not cleaned prior to powdercoating. Look at all the dust and debris that was allowed to remain on them. How does a professional powdercoater think this is ok?!
Awesome Powdercoat? No, not even close to awesome.
Average Powdercoat? No, not even average.
Acceptable Powdercoat? No, I don't consider this acceptable.
Adequate Powdercoat? Maybe, now we're in the ballpark.
Amateur Powdercoat? Pics don't lie.

_________________
Currently own:
66 Karmann Ghia, L390 Gulf Blue, under construction, here: www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=760505&highlight=
99 Mazda MX-5 10AE, Sapphire Blue Mica, 6 speed, LSD

Previously owned:
98 Porsche Boxster, silver, 2.5L -- 67 Karmann Ghia, Black, 1500sp -- 98 BMW Z3, Atlanta Blue Metallic, 2.8L I6 -- 75 Porsche 914, Laguna Blue, 2270cc -- 72 Porsche 914, Signal Orange, 1.7 FI -- 74 Karmann Ghia, Black, 1600dp -- 74 Triumph TR6 with O.D., sapphire blue

[volkaholic1]

most folks would rather have powdercoated insulation than no insulation
_________________
Volkaholic

[Era Vulgaris]

[Bill Dykes]

Bought a pair of cylinder tin air vanes. Very nice,and came quickly.

[Splitdog]

I just bought a set of his 'California Flaps'. Not horrible, but I drilled the holes for them as his shitty-ass templates show, and one side was off a hole and a half. Both holes. Luckily it was on the back side, so I am not going to cry. I'll just post this instead. They are also too narrow and you either stack washers, or squeeze the shroud closer together. I bought a set from him last year and I think they were a little better.
I also bought 2 velocity rings. One mounted flat on the surface of the shroud, the other halfway up the 'slope'. Whatever.
The first time he didn't include any templates, and I called and asked for them. He seemed agitated and said he'd send them. When I got them they were not marked properly and I called him again. He answered and gave a loud 'sigh' when I asked him how they are to be oriented. I almost told him to fuck off right then. In retrospect, I probably should have. He has horrible people skills, and I recommend you look else where for parts. His powdercoating is far from 'awesome'. Volkaholic. I kind of think he drinks. On the job. Carry on...... *see Andrig instead.
_________________
CH³NO²

Z = z² + C

Der Blitzkrieg Kafers

#notacallooker

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[David Raistrick]

my "awesome" dual port tins. trash. I was going to email the seller until I saw the other identical problems going back years.

the spark plug holes are absolutely out of line with the plugs - you cant get a socket in there, and on some cant even get a plug wire on there.

it seems like they're just built wrong - the vertical stamping is wrong (90 degree bend in the wrong place?), so the top stamping assembles in the wrong place.

this created a _ton_ of challenge getting them to fit, long before I realized the problem was this major.

including a shot of greasy german tin to show how the plug holes are supposed to be.

_________________
...david - '66 SO-44 #231

[Loren]

I wish I had read the reviews here before I placed my order. I ordered a reproduction Porsche 356 cooling ring from Awesome Powdercoat. Shortly after ordering it Clark emailed me and told me he was no longer making them and that he needed to remove his Samba ad and take them off his website. He let me know that he had a used one he would kindly sell me for the same price. I wrongly assumed it was one of his reproduction rings that was off a used engine. I told him that would be fine and I had to remind him that I paid to have it powder coated satin black. He said he would sand blast it and get it coated. I was surprised when I received it and opened the box. It was used all right. Turns out it was from an old Porsche 356 fan shroud and was so rusty that I am surprised there was anything left when he blasted it. I think the powder coat was the only think keeping it together. I emailed him and told him that I couldn't put this on a brand new engine build. This was his response, and he never told me it was a 50 year old part and severely rusty:

"i told you it was used, 50+ years old, i put new tabs on it
plus no 1 will see it on the fan inlet, why worry?"

I told him I still didn't want it and that I was sending it back and here is his response:

"send it back, fine, of course it was 50 years old, all 356 parts are 50 years old, not good enough? remember, i was doing you a favor, as i stopped making them new, i dug one out of my stash, put on new mounts just for you, blasted it and powdercoated it. your welcome"

I sent it back and he refunded my money. I will never buy another thing from this guy. Here is what he sent me:

[volkaholic1]

well this guy said something bad, ok, fine, i told him it was a used part, he should not expect perfection from a 50 year old part, i reminded him i was doing him a favor, i was trying to be nice, as i have stopped offering this new, and i dug out an old part, i also put new mounting tabs on it, so now he is complaining,,, fine, he is allowed, but he is being silly, why would he expect a perfect part on a used 50 year old item?

so, the moral of the story for me? should i stop being nice and trying to help out a guy? no, i will continue to do what i can for people, just some people have unreal expectations.
_________________
Volkaholic

[Glenn]

A picture sent to the buyer, before shipping, would of prevented this.
_________________
Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי

[Nick_K]

I posted this in a thread about thermostats, and Glenn suggested I repost here for others to see…

Long story short: I've had four Type 4 thermostats fail after a short time.
Here are the posts from the other topic:

July 2025 - "I've had three of them fail in the past year or so. Maybe something changed in the materials he uses to seal these. I don't think there's anything I'm doing when installing that is causing the failures. Got one directly from AP in December 2023 (failed and replaced/repaired after about 1500 miles, now replacement has failed after about 2000 miles), and another from a different vendor that also failed in a similar short time. I was hoping maybe the other vendor had older/better stock but I guess not.

All were type 4. Other versions may be different."

Sept 2025 (kind of redundant to previous post) - "UPDATE: This one has now also failed. When I took this one out of the van, I could see fluid leaking from the solder joint where the cable nut attaches to the bellows. This is my fourth failed unit. I originally purchased direct from AP, and while I waited for the first replacement, I ordered one from another vendor that was also an AP stat. They seem to last about the same amount of miles and running time - about 1500 miles. With two in rotation, at least I've had a replacement ready for each of these failures, but this is getting ridiculous. I don't know if there's been a change in the materials used, method of assembly or what - but something is not right. I've been careful to make sure they're installed correctly - cable not too tight when compressed, nothing hanging up on the bracket.
Maybe they've always been short-lived and a lot of people never check it other than right after installing?"

[iamdonquixote]

not really problem with awesome powdercoat, but I went against my instincts and bought the scan tin from him:
cylinder tins simply did not fit as shown above.
fan shroud had some weird geometry resulting in bad fan belt angle.
rear tin needed trimming

i would completely avoid the scat tin - i wasted time and money and ended up with mostly stock painted tin.

i did not attempt a refund because I tried to 'fix' the tins. I probably should have asked for one for fan shroud. I could sell it but why would I do that to someone - its going in the recycle bin, kinda a shame.

[thefladge]

I bought one of their doghouse venturi rings and holes were burned through the ring at each spot weld.
See the daylight through the holes?

_________________
1957 Vintage Baja Bug.
2110cc engine, 40 IDF Webers on Gene Berg manifolds, Engle 110 cam, Bugpack 40×35.5 Street Pro Heads, W8CC plugs, 12.5 pound Flywheel, Kennedy 1700 pound pressure plate.

[sled]

these rings are NOT shaped correctly anyway. Very poor reproduction...source original, or wait until AA performance has theirs back in stock.
_________________
drive your split.

[volkaholic1]

no my rings are based on actual original part, they are correct shape, concept1's rings are wrong
_________________
Volkaholic

[sled]

that is not correct, hold up one of your rings to original.

unless you have somehow fixed your tooling recently. Its obvious in the photo posted above ^

not to mention the booger welding.
_________________
drive your split.