From what I have read, powdercoating a piece of metal, if done properly, will result in an almost permanent paint job. I don’t know if the claim is true, but the process is supposed to bond paint and metal at the molecular metal. If that’s true, I’m guessing this would be the strongest, longest lasting paint job that could be applied to any metal.
I’ve seen it done to smaller tools and appliances, but I’m wondering if it would be possible to do this to an automobile. It would seem to me to be possible, but the facilities to do it would have to be very large, and probably not easily retrofitted into a standing auto paint/detailing shop. At least, I haven’t been able to find one.
Is this being done? Is it even possible? Would it be more or less expensive than the standard spray method?
The complicated aspect of powder coating (and e-coating) isn’t so much the deposition process as the necessity of completely cleaning the object to be coated. It is imperative for a good bond that the surface of the object be completely free of contaminants like oils or other compounds that will interfere with a good bond. In an industrial paint line that uses powder coat or e-coat the object in question goes through a number of solvent baths and often a shot or sand blasting operation before going through the powder booth; this would be very difficult to replicate with an assembled vehicle, although I have seen some portable e-coat systems that could possibly work if you stripped the chassis bare and cleaned it thoroughly.
Although the durability of powder coat and e-coat is a selling point, the main advantage to most manufacturers who implement these systems is the almost 100% use of pigment carriers and the almost complete lack of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the painting process. Although the cost of implementing such a system is a large upfront cost, the operational and remediation costs are typically lower than a paint booth for large scale production. However, the types of pigmentation than can be used is somewhat limited, requiring the use of liquid solvent based paints in some applications. And for small operations, a paint booth is more economical in terms of setup costs.
Well, that and the high-temp baking process required to set the powdercoat is a little harsh for most nonmetallic car parts. That said, yes, there are places which do large-scale coating of automotive bodies and frames.
Any idea how the cost of this method compares to the spray method? Let’s say my car can be sprayed professionally for $5 K. What would that same car cost to powdercoat?
I don’t think the quality of a powdercoated finish would be acceptable to most car owners. Powdercoating is often used on smaller parts, where the roughness of the surface isn’t as noticeable. On large areas, like a car hood, I suspect that the finish would be unacceptably rough. Car owners are used to a mirror-smooth paint job, and I don’t think powercoating can achieve that.
Absolutely, it can. There are a wide variety of powder coat finishes ranging from matte to satin to semigloss to high gloss. Plus, you can always do what they do for conventional automotive paint anyway and apply a topcoat of high gloss clearcoat. And, of course, the whole is going to be waxed to protect the finish and give that mirrorlike finish car owners are used to.
What they said was that the car would have to be completely disassembled in order to be powder coated. In other words, completely undo the entire assembly line process until you had a bare metal body shell & some loose doors with no subassemblies installed. No glass, no interior, no wiring, no moving parts, no engine, no nothing. Then the body & doors could be powder coated. Then the car could be reassembled from scratch.
My wag for a modern car (speaking as a long-ago custom car shop owner): $75K in direct costs, plus a couple million to buy & install the equipment I’ll never use again for any other customer.
Well, just from personal experience, I’ve never seen a powdercoated finish that didn’t have significant surface defects in it - especially dust “bumps.” Maybe the technology has changed since I’ve had parts coated.
You are correct. I asked the question not knowing that a car currently put together would have to be completely disassembled to powdercoat it.
However,
what about during the painting phase at the factory? Would it be more or less cost effective to powdercoat the car’s color on the body before the car’s assembly (assuming the powdercoating infrastructure was there?) If, as Q.E.D. suggests, a high gloss finish is possible, wouldn’t this be a preferred method of applying paint to a vehicle? If it bonds at the molecular level, would this create an almost indestructable and permanent paint job, and stop rusting permanently?
I’m on some mail lists for cars with some very creative/low budget types. At least one of them does his own powder coating. He strips the elements out of junk yard ovens and uses them to make his baking chamber.
If I recall correctly, this is more or less what the auto manufacturers do. Solvent based systems were phased out decades ago due to EPA requirements. The painting systems now used “paint” in a water carrier that is cured by radiant heating. The paint isn’t applied through electrostatic attraction, but the curing is done through heating the material until it flows.
Sort of off topic but something I have seen offroaders do is spray the entire vehicle with a bed liner like Like-X. It’s rough, but pretty much indestructible and fairly cheap.
How flexible is cured powder coat? I’ve seen the finish used a lot on completely rigid things like cast and/or machined parts, but can the stuff withstand the flexing that’s going to happen on something like a car’s hood or doors?
And how would you fix the inevitable damage to it?
The link Q.E.D. posted shows an old article on powder topcoats for automobiles. It’s used on the entire painted auto body, including the car hood and doors. It’s as flexible as traditional top coats, but significantly more resistant to scratches and stone chips.
I’m in the wrong department to tell you about damage repair, although I assume a traditionally applied top coat would be used for repairs.