Is anyone else totally fed up with powder coating?

[FireJeep]

So far I have had more bad experiences with powder coat than good ones. When it adheres it works well, but I have yet to have any part have good adherence all over. Most times it does nothing more than promote rust and corrosion. It looks good for a short period of time, can not be easily touched up, and works like a diaper by keeping moisture in and rotting out whatever is behind the plastic coating........

 

[Chris]

I've never had any problem with powder coating at all. Maybe your parts aren't prepped right, or whoever is doing it isn't doing it right?

Done correctly it should be very durable and keep corrosion away for the most part.

 

[Mike_H]

Cheap powder coating is awful. Good powder coating, with proper preparation, is hard to beat. I had my boat trailer done a few years ago, still looks as good as it did day one.

 

[Squatch]

Are you talking about the powder coating that comes on some of the mass-produced aftermarket equipment (bumpers, for example)? I've seen some garbage jobs on stuff like that. As far as using a local shop for powder coating, I agree with @Chris: it's possible (probable) that the prep work was less than stellar. I've had several sets of rims powder coated, and the stuff was tuff as nails, and looked great. In fact, I'll be having my new TJ rims done next week, most likely. My single biggest gripe is the cost. But it is what it is. I know some have said in the past (and most assuredly will say it again) that paint is cheaper, easier to touch up or redo, etc., but I really like the thickness and hardness of powder coating. Find a different shop, if yours isn't meeting your needs.

 

[FireJeep]

So my experience has (as was stated above) been from parts from after market manufacturers. I agree that it is a very tough and durable covering, but one chip in it and it seems like all bets are null and void. moisture gets in behind and is trapped in there. You guys may be right, it was a bad prep job (s) and the powder just did not adhere well...... but the amount of damage it caused is very frustrating. Tomken is (or at least I thought) a very reputable company, but their powder coating is less than poor. Granted the part is 13 years old, I know it is old and should be expected to have some issues, but the amount of corrosion was incredible! We are talking 3/16" plate that has flakes of rust coming off that was under an intact area of powder coating. The powder coating came off in both large pieces as well as small ones, there were a few areas (very few) where the powder coating was bonded quite well and in those areas the steel is pristine. If it were just painted I think it would have faired better (and as stated above would be easier to keep up). I also think the piece would have faired better if it was just left uncoated all together, then the initial layer of rust would have been less damaging than the flaking rust the I found.......
Sorry for the vent, just very disappointed......

 

[Squatch]

So my experience has (as was stated above) been from parts from after market manufacturers. I agree that it is a very tough and durable covering, but one chip in it and it seems like all bets are null and void. moisture gets in behind and is trapped in there. You guys may be right, it was a bad prep job (s) and the powder just did not adhere well...... but the amount of damage it caused is very frustrating. Tomken is (or at least I thought) a very reputable company, but their powder coating is less than poor. Granted the part is 13 years old, I know it is old and should be expected to have some issues, but the amount of corrosion was incredible! We are talking 3/16" plate that has flakes of rust coming off that was under an intact area of powder coating. The powder coating came off in both large pieces as well as small ones, there were a few areas (very few) where the powder coating was bonded quite well and in those areas the steel is pristine. If it were just painted I think it would have faired better (and as stated above would be easier to keep up). I also think the piece would have faired better if it was just left uncoated all together, then the initial layer of rust would have been less damaging than the flaking rust the I found.......
Sorry for the vent, just very disappointed......

Venting is good. It keeps us from taking things to the extreme. With what you've described, I think I'd be venting, too! Having said that, the part is getting long in the tooth. Sounds like an opportunity for a new purchase, to me! T'sall a matter of perspective, my friend. Was this a bumper? Maybe you can get the next one "raw", and paint it. Might be a better option for ya.

 

[mrblaine]

So far I have had more bad experiences with powder coat than good ones. When it adheres it works well, but I have yet to have any part have good adherence all over. Most times it does nothing more than promote rust and corrosion. It looks good for a short period of time, can not be easily touched up, and works like a diaper by keeping moisture in and rotting out whatever is behind the plastic coating........

I know powder coating very well. There are reasons Savvy parts aren't coated. Production powder coat is cheap but you need to meet minimums. I designed a part for Superior back in the day. It consisted of about 20 pieces for the assembly. If you wanted to do 2 sets of pieces, it was 500 bucks. If you wanted to do 100 sets of 20 pieces, it was 500 bucks.

Production powder coat is at best tolerable because the line moves at the same speed and it takes longer to heat up large parts so the small parts get good bonding, larger ones just wind up flash coated and peel when they get nicked. Any PC that peels was flash coated.

Custom PC where they do small batches on a rack, blast, hang and cook, is awesome stuff and for the most part, rarely peels. It is however, very expensive comparatively. The above done custom would be 50-75 bucks per assembly no matter the volume.

The worst part of PC is it drives your customer complaint rate, defect rate, handling, and packaging costs way up. You can take a perfectly good, functional and awesome bumper, ship it to a customer and if it has one scratch on it, they get on the internet and bitch and complain about how they got screwed over if you don't send them a new bumper. That and your handling costs in the warehouse go way up as does the square footage of storage for each item. You either have to package it and stack it on shelves as it comes back from PC or you have to find a way to protect it in bulk storage. Everything about handling PC stuff before it ships sucks. Non PC items can be stored in bulk on a pallet, pulled and packed when needed and the customer doesn't care.

I like custom PC as the end user. I don't like it when I have to pay for it. Production PC generally sucks because when it is done cheap enough that you can afford it, it can't be done well.

 

[mrblaine]

Are you talking about the powder coating that comes on some of the mass-produced aftermarket equipment (bumpers, for example)? I've seen some garbage jobs on stuff like that. As far as using a local shop for powder coating, I agree with @Chris: it's possible (probable) that the prep work was less than stellar. I've had several sets of rims powder coated, and the stuff was tuff as nails, and looked great. In fact, I'll be having my new TJ rims done next week, most likely. My single biggest gripe is the cost. But it is what it is. I know some have said in the past (and most assuredly will say it again) that paint is cheaper, easier to touch up or redo, etc., but I really like the thickness and hardness of powder coating. Find a different shop, if yours isn't meeting your needs.

For the record, Powder Coat is paint. A lot of the industry refers to it as powder paint. When discussing the various coatings, we need to define them so we know what is being discussed.
Aerosol- rattle can. The good stuff is expensive and still won't be as good as an automotive grade catalyzed paint. The normal 7 dollar a can stuff will never be good because the mil thickness is low and the solids are low so it can be sprayed through that tiny nozzle.

Automotive grade is catalyzed with a hardener and doesn't dry due to evaporation of the carrier solvent, it cures due to the hardener.

PC- is typically a polyester or epoxy based powder that gets melted and bonded to the substrate via heating in an oven.

Utility paint is somewhere between aerosol and automotive and typically is used on machinery and tractors. It is not typically catalyzed.

 

[mrblaine]

So my experience has (as was stated above) been from parts from after market manufacturers. I agree that it is a very tough and durable covering, but one chip in it and it seems like all bets are null and void. moisture gets in behind and is trapped in there. You guys may be right, it was a bad prep job (s) and the powder just did not adhere well...... but the amount of damage it caused is very frustrating. Tomken is (or at least I thought) a very reputable company, but their powder coating is less than poor. Granted the part is 13 years old, I know it is old and should be expected to have some issues, but the amount of corrosion was incredible! We are talking 3/16" plate that has flakes of rust coming off that was under an intact area of powder coating. The powder coating came off in both large pieces as well as small ones, there were a few areas (very few) where the powder coating was bonded quite well and in those areas the steel is pristine. If it were just painted I think it would have faired better (and as stated above would be easier to keep up). I also think the piece would have faired better if it was just left uncoated all together, then the initial layer of rust would have been less damaging than the flaking rust the I found.......
Sorry for the vent, just very disappointed......

Cheap PC poorly done is exactly what you got. The part wasn't sand blasted to provide a rough surface as a key for the paint to bond to. There was a flash heated layer that melted and looked pretty but it was just laying on the surface waiting for the first nick to start collecting water and building a very efficient rust farm. It really isn't Tomken's fault. If you wanted it to be better, the cost of the skid would have gone up by at least 50 bucks just for the PC.

If you ever have to strip a blasted custom PC job, you will pretty much hate yourself when you are done because it is a tedious laborious process that is nothing but painful.

 

[ac_]

So far I have had more bad experiences with powder coat than good ones. When it adheres it works well, but I have yet to have any part have good adherence all over. Most times it does nothing more than promote rust and corrosion. It looks good for a short period of time, can not be easily touched up, and works like a diaper by keeping moisture in and rotting out whatever is behind the plastic coating........

I feel ya, I bought a warn stubby last thanksgiving and it was the most horrible powder coat ever. I honestly think it was more of the horrible prep for it, but I tried to send it back to the retailer and they gave me grief about it. So I ended up stripping it by hand and re-prepping it and primering it. I actually panted it with Rustoleum Hammered, and it looks sooo much better. I did the same with my rear Dirtworx bumper. Now I won't order anything powder coated at least through the mail. But since everything is "Hammered" now I want it to match, so I purposely order it with no finish or if I can't I move on.

That said, I am restoring a 1966 Honda 160 motorcycle, and I took it down to the local powder coating shop, and they did a tremendous job. It was expensive but worth it.

 

[FireJeep]

Cheap PC poorly done is exactly what you got. The part wasn't sand blasted to provide a rough surface as a key for the paint to bond to. There was a flash heated layer that melted and looked pretty but it was just laying on the surface waiting for the first nick to start collecting water and building a very efficient rust farm. It really isn't Tomken's fault. If you wanted it to be better, the cost of the skid would have gone up by at least 50 bucks just for the PC.

If you ever have to strip a blasted custom PC job, you will pretty much hate yourself when you are done because it is a tedious laborious process that is nothing but painful.

So, to me, the problem then lays in the fact that a consumer has no idea who the fabricator is using for their powder coating. If it is done in house they may have better QA over the process but if they send it out then there is no telling........ I agree that PC is pretty durable stuff but the lack of QA makes me very hesitant to purchase anything that comes PC..... I think I would rather just paint it myself (granted I suck at painting but at least it won't make a "rust farm")......

 

[FireJeep]

Venting is good. It keeps us from taking things to the extreme. With what you've described, I think I'd be venting, too! Having said that, the part is getting long in the tooth. Sounds like an opportunity for a new purchase, to me! T'sall a matter of perspective, my friend. Was this a bumper? Maybe you can get the next one "raw", and paint it. Might be a better option for ya.

So I do a fair bit of fabrication for my own stuff (I am in no way any where even if the same universe as mrblaine!! ) but when I build something I tend to over build due to my lack of engineering knowledge and it typically lasts for a very long time, my back bumper/tire carrier is a perfect example. It is way heavier than needed but the tire carrier swings on a re-purposed front spindle from my old CJ5. It has been on the back of my 05 LJ since new and still works like a champ. No rattles, opens and closes with the tailgate through two links that are heim jointed at each end. A total of 14 bolts hold it to the rear of the jeep and have frame tie-ins as well as a class III receiver hitch. Point being, I get frustrated when I spend good money (I am a simple fireman and do not have unlimited funds) on a part and it does not have the longevity that I think it should. After all, the front winch plate/small tubular guard on this part does nothing but sit there and occasionally takes a lateral load from the winch being used.......

 

[mrblaine]

So, to me, the problem then lays in the fact that a consumer has no idea who the fabricator is using for their powder coating. If it is done in house they may have better QA over the process but if they send it out then there is no telling........ I agree that PC is pretty durable stuff but the lack of QA makes me very hesitant to purchase anything that comes PC..... I think I would rather just paint it myself (granted I suck at painting but at least it won't make a "rust farm")......

How do you perform a QA assessment on a PC job?

I have clients who try to get me to paint stuff for them. I do my best to discourage them. I'm better than average with a rattle can. It takes a long time to do it correctly and when I'm done, it's still just a rattle can paint job. You are going to pay me a whole bunch more than it is worth and when I'm done, you spent a lot of money on a rattle can paint job. Makes no sense to me.