Hi all just orderd my gbs zero kit,
GBS want £320 to powder coat it? i have looked at the hammerite metal master to do it my self, has any one do used the hammerite gun or shoud i get them to do it.

Just because you think they are charging a lot doesn't mean that you have to find alternatives to powder coat! You could get it powdercoated yourself!

personally I wouldnt get it powder coated before you have had it a week or too, as i guarantee you will need to weld a bracket or two to it...

Russ has a electro static paint kit he offered to lend me to do my chassis.. give him a shout.

cheers Gavin

Ive just got mine back from powder coating this morning, he said it was a bit more work than normal as it had already been coated badly once, and it came out at £200. Id mock the car up as you want it, do all the trimming and fettling and any welding then send it off for blasting and powder/paint yourself.

not a lover of powdercoating. It looks good when first applied however once the damp gets beneath it, it can be a real pain. Personally a good coating od cecent etch primer then zinc based followed by chasis paint or hamerrite

Raw charged £200 to coat the chassius and arms on my striker.
Im glad I had it done as doing it retrospectively would be a pain (transporting chassis, and making sure the chassis hadnt corroded in the mean time, allthough I guess most coaters would clean/derust before coating, but may charge?)

I must admit the fact I cant make any tweaks to the chassis (id like to move the handbrake cable guide location) is a little annoying, but I guess I could patch repair any small changes with my Electrostatic magic kit.

I wouldnt want to coat it myself with any DIY process, I wouldnt doubt that oven baking a powdercoat is better than localised heating of areas with a heater or paint stripping/heat gun. Plus it takes a bloody long time to do. I did my A frames with my Electrostatic magic kit and it took ages with the heat gun, and allthough the finish is good, I dont think its as good as the professional job done on my chassis.

I would not be impressed if I had to weld things to this new Zero chassis

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=151368

I don't know about powder coat as I painted mine myself with Hammerite. My tip? Don't use Hammerite, load of rubbish. Mines bubbling and scratching off everywhere, really disappointing it is and I don't want to strip it all back I don't have the time or motivation any more.

I wouldn't bother having another chassis powder coated after a lot of mine peeled off in sheets. Can recommend POR15 and Hardnose paint from Frosts

I'd give it a light coat of a decent primer, then work out the build and any bracketry, then give it a coat of chassis paint. I wouldn't use hammerite because it's designed to be applied to rusty metal. That said it does tend to stick like sh1t to a blanket to anything!

quote:

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Originally posted by rusty nuts
I wouldn't bother having another chassis powder coated after a lot of mine peeled off in sheets. Can recommend POR15 and Hardnose paint from Frosts

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Bite the bullet and get it powder coated saves a lot of hassle in my opinion.
Sounds a bit pricey though I got my chassis, suspension arms and roll bar done for 200 quid by Aries.
As said before you shouldn't have to do any major mods (hopefully !!) to a zero.
Good luck with your build.

It could be your paying for a very good quality job, or their making their profit on this job.

Personally I've had a quote similar to this from a professional powder coater with a very good reputation. Although they probably thought they could charge top price as i explained i'd been making this chassis for 10 years and therefore had a lot emotionally invested in it.

I think the powder coaters reputation is worth a lot, mine offered zinc painting too but said its not a patch on modern powder coating done well, i was going to go down the chassis paint route for all the reasons above, but he convinced me otherwise, even though he could do both. Must be sand blasted though before powder coat or it will come off in sheets once rust gets in under a chip

Powdercoat is good, but good chassis preparation is essential for it to key and last long term, ensure they are sandblasting and dip cleaning the chassis first, then applying the powdercoat, £320 might sound a little expensive for just powdercoating a chassis, but if its being applied correctly then its not a bad price.

Check the quality of the powdercoating though, my friend's Zero was powdercoated by GBS and its crap, almost everywhere there is rust bubbling up underneath and it flaking off. Crap.

[Edited on 5/3/11 by GRRR]

the reason factory powder coating is crap is because they dont degrease and blast it first.

As it looks like bright steel thay just wack the paint on. Latter it then comes of, in a big way.

I painted mine by hand, didnt bother with powder coat, you wont or shouldn't have to weld anything on the Zero chassis. But you will scratch it up whilst building so my advise is paint. Save the £320 for other bits for the build.

And if you do scratch it, it is much easier to touch up paint than powder coat.

Andy

Thanks all for you input i think i will zinc coat it the put it together do whats needed to be done then strip it and then paint it