Aluminum panel prep - Page 3

**patbarry** · 09-18-03, 09:44 PM

Hey Ron, both products are ones we sell. They are used predominantly in the industrial and water/wastewater environements. Pretty much if you drink tap water, your drinking water from a water tank that was lined with our material. Material costs are in the low $30's per gallon for the epoxy (need two gallons as it is a 1:1 mix) and about $45 for the topcoat. Remember though, the topcoat I used is an aluminum pigmented topcoat which is dandy for abrasion and chemical resistance, but NO color choice (at least for what we offer). For colors (again, for our materials) I would be using a polyester polyurethane, the same type of finish coat we use on aircraft hanger floors and the like. Incedently, this is what I will be using to do the wheels once I pick a car color (thanks Hershal!).

You really do need to roughen the aluminum, otherwise it can peel in nasty strips off that smooth aluminum surface. I just shot mine through a cup gun and it looks nice. Bear in mind there is a good odor, but then for me it smells like money!

Does that help? If you want more details, send me a PM as I don't want to get into advertising here on the forum.

rbrunckhorst · 09-26-03, 08:08 AM

Pat
Do you spray paint the polyurethane color after applying the bottom coat then cover with the top coat? I'm still in the panel fitting stage but am trying to decide how to treat the panels. I tried acid etching and alonizing one panel then using a zinc chromate primer which I sprayed on. My spray painting skills are pretty bad and the panel didn't look anything like the panels that were powdercoated and displayed in this forum.

**patbarry** · 09-29-03, 08:21 PM

Spraying paint is not hard, you just need practice. You also need good equipment. Alodine makes a good anodizing product, I think it is Alodine 1201, or thereabouts. I did not use this procedure, as it was easier for me to sand them using a 7" sander with 50 grit aluminum oxide pads. They then got a coat of epoxy followed by the urethane, and that was that. Don't confuse what I did with painting an actual body. Although my process would work, it would not give you the finish we would want. Mark's car looks really cool, but I wanted a more racy, industrial look for mine, and I wanted the panels to match the chassis. You also have to check the paint on the chassis and make sure what you are painting with will not harm the chassis paint. For instance, MEK softened the paint on my chassis, so I applied a barrier coat before spraying the car as a whole.

Does that help? Send me an email if you want and perhaps we could cross paths this coming weekend.

rbrunckhorst · 10-05-03, 07:09 PM

Well I finally decided to go with powder coating. Went ahead and ordered the stuff form Caswell. Spayed the powder on the panel. I had ordered yellow and it looks like burnt orange. I Figured it would change with the curing process- wrong!! Has anybody had a similar experience? Oh well, this gives me an excuse to quit for the day and call Caswell in the AM. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

clive carling · 10-06-03, 05:17 AM

I have mentioned previously that I am in the sign game. My business is mainly engraving, and over the years have come up with a very succesful method of getting paint to adhere to aluminium. This is essential when you need to paint a piece of mill finish and then plunge a cutter into it and engrave without chipping the edges. The most important bit is washing or bathing the material in an aluminium cleaning acid (not sure of the name but it appears to be the same one as used for cleaning concrete). The metal is kept wet for 5-10 minutes and then washed off with water and dried. Use etch prime as soon as possible and then continue as if painting any metal. I have had no problems when this process is followed.

CC