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Thread: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

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    turbo addict Turbo Mopar Contributor iTurbo's Avatar
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    Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    So I'm about to attempt something kind of crazy. I would really like to powder coat the air box and 'snorkel' on an '85 Turbo I engine that I have built. I would like to do it so that it matches the valve cover that I have already coated.

    Question is, can those parts take the heat of curing in the oven without melting down? I have already powder coated the factory plastic valve cover on my Caliber SRT-4 and it turned out great. It is a bit tricky powder coating plastic but it can be done.

    What I'm really wondering is if thermoplastic from '85 can withstand the heat. The '08 valve cover I did held up great at 400'F, but back in '85 I'm not sure if thermoplastics had advanced to the point of holding up to that...Anybody out there ever heard of somebody doing this? The color I want to do is only available in a powder and I REALLY want it to match the valve cover so I think I'm going to try. Worst case is I have to buy a new TI snorkel and air box.

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    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff contraption22's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    I'd find a broken and/or spare identical part to try it out on first.
    Mike Marra
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    I can throw that in the box as well if you want the rest of the stuff lol

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    turbo addict Turbo Mopar Contributor iTurbo's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Quote Originally Posted by turismolover22 View Post
    I can throw that in the box as well if you want the rest of the stuff lol
    That would be great! I was going to let you know that I also need the rubber coupler that sits between the snorkel and air box. Can't seem to find that either.

    I'll post pics if it works out.

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    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor zin's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    If that doesn't work, you might look into "vacuum metalizing", might be too "chromey" for your taste though.

    Mike
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Worst you can do is take your spare parts, or the ones i send ya, and throw them in the oven at the required temp for powdercoating. If it doesnt melt, good to go haha.I know they designed that plastic to withstand most heat, they dont burn well thats for sure.

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    turbo addict Turbo Mopar Contributor iTurbo's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Yeah, so far I think it will work OK. I may set the oven at something more like 350'F and extend the cure time a bit.

    When I coated the plastic valve cover on my CSRT, I actually coated it three times! First I did a base coat of Blasted Aluminum, then a coat of Metallic Bronze, and finished it with a gloss clear coat (all Eastwood powders). I had to take it out of the oven and let the temp drop a bit between each coat, but it never warped at all. Hasn't leaked any oil at all since installing it many thousands of miles ago.

    I found the trick to powder coating plastic is to "hot flock" it, which basically means you have to coat it warm/hot to get the powder to attract to the object since you can't rely on static adhesion much.

    I have a feeling most won't like the color I picked for my recent TI build. Engine is going into a black/tan Omni GLH....I think it looks really cool. It is a wrinkle powder.

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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Looks awesome.....

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    turbo addict Turbo Mopar Contributor iTurbo's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Tonight I tried to powder coat the TI air box lid. It didn't go so well....

    First of all the air box itself held up pretty well. First I tried preheating it to ~200'F. I pulled it out of the oven and attempted to coat it, but it wasn't hot enough for the powder to stick much. So I put it back in the oven and turned it up to 300'F. I waited 10 minutes and pulled it out again and tried to coat it again. This time it worked really well! It was just hot enough for the powder to melt on contact. I did try hooking up the ground clip and strangely, that actually seemed to help with powder adhesion even though it's plastic (?).

    I put it back in the oven and turned it to 350'F to cure. Waited 15 minutes and the wrinkle texture seemed to develop nicely looking at it through the oven window. I pulled it back out and noticed there was a couple spots I didn't get the powder onto....namely right where I had the ground clip at. So I decided to put a bit more powder on that area to cover it. I put it back in the oven and turned it up to 400'F this time. Waited another 10 minutes and things started going bad. The powder started blistering all over!

    I'm thinking that I either had the temp too high, applied too much powder, or over-cured it by attempting to do the 'touch-up'. Bummer because it looked great the first time I took it out of the oven...I should have left well enough alone at that point. After the air box lid cooled a bit, I tried to install it onto the lower half of the air box. It still fit, but it was tighter than before. I think it deformed just a tiny bit; not enough that you can see, but with it fitting tighter onto the lower half of the box it's pretty obvious.

    If I try this again, I will likely use less powder and lower the temp probably to 350'F max. The tricky thing about powder coating plastic is that you have to rely on heat to get the powder to stick. With metal parts, you can rely on static adhesion to get an even coat. When using heat to get the powder to stick, you have to be really careful of the powder buildup on areas that are level. I may try to coat the part hanging upside-down in order to circumvent this next time.

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    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor zin's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Sounds like 400 makes the plastic start to out-gas, causing the blistering. I'm impressed that it did as well as it did, and am anxious to see what comes now that it's known what the limits are.

    Mike

    - - - Updated - - -

    Sounds like 400 makes the plastic start to out-gas, causing the blistering. I'm impressed that it did as well as it did, and am anxious to see what comes now that it's known what the limits are.

    Mike
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Yeah, I may even try again at 325'F and curing a little longer at a lower temp. I think that will help a lot. It definitely seemed to out-gas once the part got up to 400'F. I'm not sure how else to explain all the blistering.

    The air box lid I tried had been previously cracked and repaired with what looked like JBWeld on the inside to seal the crack. The JBWeld was not affected at all by the heat and the repaired crack didn't change. I did manage to remove most of the coating with "Zip Strip" which worked great and didn't seem to affect the air box plastic at all. I'll probably try to recoat it once I get all the old coating off for the sake of more practice. Once I get it down I'll coat the snorkel piece that sits atop the throttle body too. I'm also trying to figure out a way to get the "FUEL INJECTION" letters silver. Not sure if I should just block sand them out and carefully hand paint them with some Testors enamel or what.

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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    I tried again to powder coat the air box lid and snorkel today. I had to strip all the old PC off the air box lid from my first attempt which was a pain. I preheated the parts for about 10 minutes at 325'F and after coating left the cure temp at 325'F as well. Both parts came out great with no blistering this time. It seems that if the temp starts to go about about 350'F they will start to out-gas. I didn't think plastic parts would do that, but with all the blistering and peeling it seems obvious.

    The valve cover, air box lid, and snorkel all have matching chestnut wrinkle brown powder coating now and I think it looks good. I coated the intake manifold, throttle body adapters, and turbo compressor housing in blasted aluminum. Fuel rail is argent silver (almost chrome) Going into my black/tan Omni GLH Turbo so I think it will work well. Will post a pic soon.

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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Pics?

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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

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    I know it's probably not for everybody, but I like it.

    Valve cover, air box lid, snorkel are Chestnut Wrinkle Brown.
    A/C bracket, thermostat outlet, intake manifold, compressor housing, and throttle body adapters are Blasted Aluminum
    Fuel rail is Argent Silver

    Just about everything that is black is NAPA engine enamel, semi-gloss black (block, brackets, pullies, tubes etc).

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    Supporting Member II Turbo Mopar Contributor DOHCRT's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    Looks pretty sharp Jeremy...Good job!!


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    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor zin's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    I concur! Very nice!

    Mike

    - - - Updated - - -

    I concur! Very nice!

    Mike
    "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry

    Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    You sure you can't use the static charge to attract the powder to the plastic? May not work with the ground clip like it does on metal, but I know you can build up a static charge on plastic. Just might be the wrong polarity to attract the powder coming out of the gun.

    You may also consider trying a different brand of powder if you continue to do plastics. I've used some with recommended bake temps as low as 300 degrees. I've bought all my media through Ebay.

    Everything blue under the hood of my truck I did myself in my garage as well as three sets of rims. The blue is a two stage powder with metallic silver base coat and a candy blue top coat. Matches the factory Intense Blue paint almost exactly.

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    turbo addict Turbo Mopar Contributor iTurbo's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    I have a couple ideas on getting the powder to stick better onto plastic parts. I actually do see a little bit of static adhesion, but it isn't much. It's a little better when the parts are warm, but with these parts (lid and snorkel), I had to warm them up pretty good so that the plastic melted a bit on contact.

    The gun I'm using is the cheap Eastwood gun. I have a feeling if I had a better gun, like their dual voltage unit, it would improve the static adhesion even more. I'm also going to try and improve the grounding in our shop. There is a ground rod buried pretty deep out back. Sometimes I coat parts lying on the oven rack, so I don't have to touch them to get them in the oven...just slide the rack back in the oven when I'm done. I think that if I attach a copper wire from the ground rod to the oven rack while coating it may help.

    Coating plastic gets pretty tricky though, especially trying to build an even consistent coat. Relying more on heat and gravity than static adhesion really makes it tricky. Thanks for the positive comments though; I was afraid a few people would balk at the color choice. I really like wrinkle powders and was going for a very low-key/humble look.

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    Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff Turbo224's Avatar
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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    That looks awesome! Nice to see someone actually put together a clean, stock, T1 motor.

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    Re: Powder coating 'Turbo I' airbox and snorkel

    I use a cheap self contained Craftsman gun to do all mine. Only problem I really run into is the capacity of the cup for the media, and bad media that doesn't flow as well as it should, usually from being too humid.

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