I am very close to being able to paint my chassis and want to know your thoughts on Por15 Vs powdercoat. Now this is a locost build, but I am happy to pay extra for a better product if it warrants it.

I have my own PC gun so will be able to powder all of the smaller parts (bones, uprights etc) when I pick up a 2nd hand oven but what for the chassis? I plan to panel out the inside so only the Engine bay will be visable really when painted. Plus all the prep time (or can the p15 go straight onto rust)

Can you let me know what I would be looking at cost wise for the 2 options?

Powder coating is only as good as the preparation like most finishes. I ended up stripping my car to the bare chassis and hand stripping all of the powder coating that the chassis came with before applying POR15 followed by top coating with Hardnose paint. This has lasted far longer than the powdercoating and can be touched up if needed. I suspect my chassis was never shot blasted before being powdercoated, others may have had better results but I know several Luego chassis that have the powder coating falling off

my chassis is painted with hammerite thinned down 50/50 with thinners then sprayed through a gun, WORKED A TREAT!!!

i dont see the point in powder coating your chassis as what if you want to modify a little bit of it and have to grind the poweder coating away to do a little welding

perhaps you could galvanize it then spray it with hammerite that would be the way i would do it if i was to do it again.

Better off popping down to your agricultural suppliers and buying some teamac plant paint, it can withstand knocks unlike hammerite which is brittle.

Regards Mark

With P15 or similar do you have to remove all rust or is it true it is best left to eat into the rust? Is it self leveling/smoothing or are you left with brush marks?

I did my chassis using disposable brushes in a not to warm lock up, very few brush marks and I'm well pleased with the result. I did follow the instructions on Frost's website and my chassis was fresh from the sand blasters but I suspect the results would have been almost as good just cleaning the chassis

Just had a quote through from the local spray shop sand it looks like the guts of £400 fro a blast and powder coat!!

Whilst i dont mind spending a few quid for a better finish this is just a rediculous price. I think i could get approx 50% off that price if i went through a contractor that my firm use but that would mean travelling 80 miles on a trailer each way so would be just as well taking it round the corner - But i am not going to at this price.

I just got a compresor for my brithday. so i am now thinking and need your thoughts on this. Would i be just as well to blast it myself using a softer media so as not to damage the frame and then spray using POR15 or hammerite etc.

Will this give a suitable finish? Will i get much overspray using a comprssor to paint it? last thing i want is a bill to clean spray from neigbours cars. This will now be a job for teh summer after i have built as much as possible to trial fit then dissmantled.

I've had a very rough quote from a local bodyshop for £250 to paint my Haynes chassis (etch primer and a suitable top coat). Not sure if this is massively over priced or not considering Frost/POR15 etc doesn't look like the cheapest of stuff and I don't have a compressor/paint gun setup etc?

[Edited on 16/4/13 by jps]