paint vs powder?

69.5CUDA

69.5CUDA

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ok..im finnaly ready to pull the trigger on a powder gun...but..i got wondering....at the end of the day..week..year..whats better on "parts" powder or paint?...i mean i assume powder is going to hold out to the rock chips etc a whole lot better..but what about UV?, shine retention? or anything else im not thinking of...and isnt it going to be suseptable to water getting under it like mirical cure rust proofers and bed liners?..perhaps im just being paranoid

my plan right now is to just do suspension parts and motorcycle parts..and probably whole bike frames and car wheels...i just want to be sure im going down the "right" path and not just shooting myself in the foot
 
My experience with powder coating vs: paint...

As a painter, paint is easy. :)
Done properly, paint can last forever, with excellent colour holdout, shine retention and chip resistance. I'm talking real paint here, not spray bombs.
Chips in paint can be touched up fairly easy.
Paint is cheaper, if done properly and with some thinking beforehand.
Paint can be re-done if required, without the huge effort required to remove something like baked-on powder.
Paint is available in any colour.
You can use fillers and leveling primers under paint. Surfaces can be made mirror smooth.

Basic surface prep is the same for both - as clean as possible.
If prepared and maintained properly, water getting under the surface of paint or powder is not an issue.

Powder coat can be nearly indestructible, if done right.
Colour holdout, shine retention and chip resistance are equal to, if not better than, powder coat. Chip resistance is far better... no question.
Colour selection with powder is good, but not as wide-ranging as paint.
Re-doing powder coat can be a MAJOR hassle. Sandblasting is usually required.
You cannot use fillers or leveling primers under powder. If whatever you're baking isn't smooth to start, the end product won't be either, unless you do some significant metal work.
Powder chips need to be touched up with paint, and the chips can be pretty deep in some cases (but as mentioned, it doesn't chip easily).
You need to protect threaded holes before powder coating. running a tap or die through something after it's been baked can chip the coating.

If I were doing something that was going to take a fair amount of abuse - like a frame or suspension part - and still look just as good as it always did, I'd go with powder coat.
Being able to do it yourself just makes that decision that much easier. :)
 
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After my fiasco with my bed liner, I was already not a fan of these "Sealed coatings", now I would never use them PERIOD!

All the pro's for powder coating...Don't care....paint is easy and cheap to work with. My sandblasting guy just HATES powder coated parts. And he says he gets a lot of work from these coatings...frames, wheels etc...that are now starting to lift from water getting in under it. Most people who have to go through this expense of stripping off the powder coating, he says go back to good old fashion paint.
 
The only right way to do powder coating is with an electrostatically-charged gun and part. If you lose the "circuit" you won't know until the coating starts to lift. The symptoms Cow describes are very typical of "home" powder coating and much less likely when done by a professional with the proper equipment including both the spray apparatus and the oven. Professionally done, powder coating is nigh-on indestructible. Home powder coating is not nearly as tough. Good powder coating equipment is quite expensive. The home kits aren't; you get results proportional to what you invest. The baking isn't the key, it's the electrostatic application that makes the difference.

Depending on the part coating can look fantastic or like complete crap. In the baking process the powder melts, which gives a smoothed-over, plastic look to the item--rough-cast parts look like they were made by Playskool. The effect is really bad if the powder was applied heavily.

For the added expense of the equipment and the mediocre at-home results I've seen, I'll stick with baked-on paint... even rattle-can stuff. I've had fantastic luck with it so far, and a couple of board members have had my work on their cars for many years.
 
ok let me pose this question on top of everything...if you had to buy a powder gun/set(not the oven) what would you go after?...i was initialy looking at the higher end stuff eastwood sells but im starting to second guess that idea
 
No idea what to even look for... everything I've had experience with came from the local pros.
 
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