[ZeGermanHam]

This question isn't regarding my GTO, but rather an old flathead Ford my brother is restoring. He took it to a shop who sand blasted the body, then powder coated it before any of the repairs were made where rust has eaten through the sheet metal. The shop ended up being a disaster to work with, so my brother had to rescue the car from them after endless months of inactivity, unreturned phone calls, and charging him an insane amount of money for very little actual work.

So my question is... With the body now fully powder coated but still full of dents, holes, and areas that need to be cut out and replaced with new metal, how does he proceed with making those repairs? When new metal is grafted in, he can't just shoot primer over the repair, and he can't powder coat in patches (to my knowledge). Will the body have to be blasted again?

[NeighborsComplaint]

In my own limited experience, powder coated does not sand to a feather edge. Once disturbed, it peels or flakes off. Every attempt I’ve made to repair it (sanding, polyester fillers, glazing compound, filler primer) was short-lived and and never stayed blended. I think you’re sol. Same experience with the old “Imron” catalyzed urethane.

[dataway]

Yep, it's going to have to all come off to do it right. Powder coat is basically a plastic coating, there is no fixing it. However, the times I've done it ... not easy to blast, behaves like something somewhere between a rubber coating and paint. Maybe you will get lucky and they did a bad job on the powder and it will blast off easy. If it was done well it could be a nightmare to remove.

They must have used a flame spray gun as I doubt they have an oven large enough to bake a whole body. It's possible a similar process could be used to repair areas, but as Neighbor mentioned, the prep work would probably be impossible to do right.

[Stuart]

It does seem weird that they would powder coat the whole body. Epoxy coat yes, but powder coat?

[dhutton]

I am guessing it’s epoxy not powder coat. Sand a section an edge and post a pic.

For reference SPI epoxy will adhere well to powder coat sanded to 180.

Don

[JSchmitz]

Originally Posted by dhutton

I am guessing it’s epoxy not powder coat. Sand a section an edge and post a pic.

For reference SPI epoxy will adhere well to powder coat sanded to 180.

Don

My initial thought also. Would be VERY surprised if they powder coated any body. Surely not an unfinished body. Maybe a rock crawler lol

[dataway]

The body man probably did it in epoxy and told him "It's as good as powder coating"

Actually the epoxy is way better in my opinion.

[ZeGermanHam]

I can only hope that it's actually epoxy and not powder coat. When my brother told me the body had been powder coated, I got spooked knowing that it would make an already terrible experience with his body shop immeasurably worse.

[dataway]

Jeez, has to be epoxy. Powder coating a body would require an industrial type flame gun which is pretty exotic equipment usually only used in an industrial setting. Since epoxy would be the RIGHT thing to use ... I'm guessing that's what it is.

[NeighborsComplaint]

Yeah, I would seriously doubt it’s powder coats. If the metal isn’t perfect, it can come off in sheets. I bought a new lawn and garden tractor that years back that was powder coated. I opened the hood when I got it home and the coating split at a hemmed edge on the underside of the hood. I thought I would just pull the loose coating off and touch up paint. The whole underside of the hood came off like a giant sheet of film.

[dataway]

Yep, the only farm equipment I have that looks like poo is the stuff that was powder coated, one it's compromised, and it will be compromised, it's done, starts bubbling, water gets beneath it and before long it's a rusty mess. Can't be fixed except blasting and repainting the whole thing.
Whereas good old oil based enamel ... sand down the rusty area, and touch it up. Good for another ten years.

[b-man]

Saw this on Instagram, a few well-known VW restoration shops powder coat the entire body with primer after blasting so I guess it’s become one method that works.

Last May I was having the floor pans replaced on my ‘57 VW bug project and the guy doing the work for me also mentioned having the body of my car powder coated with primer. The body shell is pretty pristine (no rust, dents or body filler) so I didn’t see the need, I hadn’t ever heard of anyone doing that before.

[ZeGermanHam]

Yeah, I know someone who did a money no object restoration on a '67 Camaro and his painter had the whole body powder coated.

[dataway]

After looking around I see products they are calling "powder paint", still appear to need an oven for curing. It's an electro-static process just like the powder coating we are all used to seeing, but evidently doesn't use a thermoset/thermocure plastic, but uses some kind of sandable paint powder that is heat cured.

Looks like a lot of new products are available since I stopped powder coating things. There are also electro-static applied paints (been around for a while).

I'm even seeing "powder epoxy primer". So evidently there is a new process these days, an electro-statically applied, heat cured "paint" in powder form. I'm guessing as long as the necessary chemicals are dispersed in a heat curing carrier it can be done. Would be an excellent process if the coating is actually "paint" ... since the electro-static process creates tremendous coverage and is not "line of sight" like a spray gun, but will get into every nook and cranny.

I would hope it's not a "plastic" ... since that would be a nightmare down the road.

[hobbygto65]

I think somebody miss understood and they ment soda blasting. There's noway you would poder coat a whole car.

[Formulabruce]

There is no " REAL" powdered epoxy, unless its post chemical reaction ground up paint, which is just filler..
The Main purpose of epoxy, like glue epoxy, is the crosslink of 3 parts.
2 chemicals And the substrate it is put on, in Non cured form ( liquid) making it all one product once cured.
There are some places doing factory style e- dip WITH a bake. Can epoxy be used for this? Yeah, but if its in the US, its probably water based.
E-dip with any good primer on a super clean surface, is a great place to base work from.
Have seen a few whole body blasting and epoxy where the body still had a ton of deep black rust in pits that was not removed. This happens in powder coating too. Best to see what your part looks like Before its powder coated.