I frequently get the question of what do I do before i powder coat parts do I clean the parts? do i media blast? is there any other process?
I figured i would take you guys through the steps of what you pay for when you drop your wheels off at LPC and not only just here at LPC but Any professional powder coating shop.
OK so my customer stopped by to drop his wheels off and picked his color which was Moondust Orange over Ink Black so here the process step by step.
Heres my costumers wheels when he dropped them off. he bought them from some one else and it looks like they used an automotive spray paint on the wheels. Not that i got anything against rattle canning your wheels i actually have seen some that came out pretty good but the longevity is not all that great but as for these wheels they came out looking like CRAP!
First thing we do is wash the wheel off and get any dirt or grease off.
We then cut the valve stem off and remove any weights.
Once cleaned we then submerge the wheels in a chemical stripper for 15 to 30 minutes to remove any rattle can or factory paints that are on the wheel.
your end results is a clean bare metal wheel and notice that before the crappy paint job made the spokes look like the the metal under the paint was scraped or damage well that is not the case.
Now that the wheels are cleaned and bare metal we can now media blast the wheels to give it a slight profile. A light media blast profile will help the powder bond to the metal once cured.(Before we media blast we inspect the wheel for any minor curb rash that need to be fixed but with these wheels that was not the case)
As you can now see in the picture the wheel on the left is one that just came out of the chemical stripper and the one on the right was media blasted.
Last step before we coat we spray an Iron Phosphate coat which will protect the metal from rusting and also improves the powder bonding to the metal and making it even stronger.
OK we are now ready to shoot the wheel.
Since this is a two stage coating we first shoot the ink black powder.
off to the oven it goes to flow out and cure
Once the ink black cures and cools off we can then repeat the same process with the moon dust orange which is a clear coat with a color changing flake in it.
I cant get the pics to come out as good since this color changes orange , red , green , gold pics do not do it justice but here is the final results
So there you have it these are the steps we take to give you a quality powder coating job in the end. This is what you pay for and this is how it is done by the Pro's Besides Bonehead and myself i do not know any other shop out there that will explain this process to you or if they even go through all the steps at all!
So i hope this helps and i hope this clears any questions for any of you guys who want to get your wheels or any parts coated at LPC.
And one last thing this is definitely not directed to any of the tristate community because you guys are always nice and respectfull when coming to my shop or commenting on tristate ( well except for that one member who has but 1 post and that 1 post was to just come here and register and to bash me .... yeah you know who you are and dont get it twisted i know who you are too IDIOT! and stop lying because i never did any parts for you!)
But anyway we take every step and process to give you a quality and durable finish at the end with that being said you must also take good care of your finish parts do not use chemicals to clean it! DO NOT bang your parts around! again powder is more durable and less prone to cracking or chipping but it is not bullet proof OK?
So if you cracked or chipped your parts dont go blaming me saying LPC did my parts and they chipped because you were not carefully or you just dont care.
( Again this is for a lurker or two who really dont contribute to tristate but to just start a mess in here to the rest of you i love you guys and i got some new stuff this winter to introduce to you all
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