I decided to bite the bullet today and started shopping around for a starter powder coating kit. I found the eastwood kit for sale on eBay, by Eastwood. It' was a pretty good stinkin' deal.
I have one on the way. If you get it from eBay you can't choose the colors that come in the kit like you can if you order it from Eastwood directly. But the colors they chose make sense to me.
That is a great deal...
Seriously, no ute comments on this one
well...
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DrBoost wrote: I decided to bite the bullet today and started shopping around for a starter powder coating kit. I found the eastwood kit for sale on eBay, by Eastwood. It' was a pretty good stinkin' deal. I have one on the way. If you get it from eBay you can't choose the colors that come in the kit like you can if you order it from Eastwood directly. But the colors they chose make sense to me.
I had that setup for a while, but then I also had a E36 M3ty blast cabinet, an okay compressor and a oven.
For what its worth, the time it took to blast clean/prep everything, and the cost of electricity used by the compressor and oven plus the cost of materials it was just as expensive or cheaper to drop it off at a professional powdercoat business and it saved me a lot of time.
I like that eastwood gun quite a lot. I warn you though, It feels totally cheesy and crappy. When mine died I bought the HF unit. The HF gun is better built but the eastwood leaves a much better finish.
Have the eastwood as well. It's been working great for about 2-years now (light usage).
HF gun is on sale for $60...or $48 with 20% coupon. 
bgkast wrote: HF gun is on sale for $60...or $48 with 20% coupon.
That was my original plan. Then I read some info on this board and elsewhere. I figured for $45 more than the regular HF price I'm getting more (and better) powder, the tape, hanging wire, plugs, and a better gun.
Yeah the catch is needing a non-gas oven that'll fit the parts...
What others said is what I found as well. Once it's all said and done, it's easier (and cheaper) to put those parts in with the larger ones which are already headed to the powdercoating shop. Yeah I know I'm raining on your parade... but you didn't ask before you bought!
No, I knew it's the same or maybe cheaper to have it done. But I'll do more of it myself than if I have to take it somewhere. If I make a motor mount bracket or a simple bracket I might not take that one piece down. But if i can do it myself, no biggie. I have a large toaster oven for small parts, and I'm going to get a used IR heater for the big stuff. Lots of shops are using IR heaters on a stand instead of a big oven.
Is it really cheaper to have it done at a shop? I was looking at having my valve cover done and was quoted $60-$80 if it was already prepped. I could buy the HF machine and some powder for that....now I just need to figure out an oven.
What should it really "cost" per wheel? Nobody seems to advertise price. I know someone that had a set of 16" steelies done for $250 and someone else that had 15" at the same place but it cost him more at $375. Really makes it seem like that They are pulling numbers out of thin air. My quote was $500 for a set 15" Virgo rims which made me question the whole thing.
I pretty much prep and paint/powder every part before it goes back on my car.
IF you have a sandblaster then it requires no more prep than you would already do before spray painting. Blast the part to bare metal, spritz with your degreaser of choice (I just use brakeleen) and fog with the powder and toss in the oven.
No solvents, overspray is simply swept up. It is usually faster than spray paint. If the powder is 15 minutes at 375 then another 10 to cool and you can bolt it on. Paint would still be tacky then.
A CL castoff oven is $0-50 and powder runs around $15/lb for standard colors and goes up for chromes and wrinkles. It can go WAY up for special colors and effects. A pound will cover ~50 square feet. When I was doing wheels for folks I would buy a pound of whatever color they wanted and usually had over half left over.
Once you invest in the gun and oven it is just time and powder. go to powderbuythepound.com to get an idea of what is avaliable and for how much.
Ok, from what bgkast and sine said, it's waaaay cheaper to do it yourself. And like ditchdigger said, I can coat everything. I typically paint most things I pull off and put back on, so this is just moar better!
Can anybody think of a type of oven that would be available used (read cheap) that is 110v and could fit a 4 cyl valve cover (say 20"x10" range)? My CL search is coming up empty and I don't have room or hookups for a kitchen range in the garage.
My suggestion would be to take a tape measure to some thrift stores. They always have toaster ovens and some are pretty big.
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