powder coating your bumpers and grill?

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hardcore5657 said:
Has anyone done this, if so how did it come out? I am thinking a about doing it to my duster.
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Steel bumpers - no problem - get them sandblasted first.

Grille - plastic? - definitely not!!! the lowest temp powder coat is 325 F for around 30 minutes dwell time. Your grille will turn into a big puddle of plastic. You would need a liquid air dry or low bake coating (30 @180 F)

I hope this helps.
 
Here's some aluminum Duster headlight bezels and rings powder coated in a factory style finish. The customer and I think they turned out fabulous. The powder colors are Super Chrome and Ultra Silver Texture.

Before / on arrival ...

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And now ...

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This photo was taken from about 2 inches away. You can see there's some texture and sparkle to it like the factory anodizing.

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I expect to be getting in a couple grilles and more bezels shortly. As soon as I can get some pictures up, I'll share them.
 
My barracuda grill was powder coated 30 years ago when powder coating was the original formula and looks new today and nothing sticks to it. When the EPA got involved in the industry 20 years ago, the formula was changed to Polyester for everyone except the military..
 
I would love to see some powder coated bumpers I am seriously considering this as well. I do have a question about the prep though. I spoke with a chrome shop and they said they would remove the chrome for about 15 bucks a piece. Would that be enough prep for powder coat?
 
I am going to powder coat mine and my 65 Barracuda grille is done already but I am going to weld the bumber bolts holes up first then weld the bolts on the back side that way they will be real clean looking
 
jhdeval said:
I would love to see some powder coated bumpers I am seriously considering this as well. I do have a question about the prep though. I spoke with a chrome shop and they said they would remove the chrome for about 15 bucks a piece. Would that be enough prep for powder coat?
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That in itself won't be enough, no. Your powder coater will handle the rest of the prep.

But dipping it will be the best possible start to your relationship because it's a lot cheaper to pay the chrome shop to dip it in their remover than to pay your coater to blast it down to bare metal. New, cheap chrome comes off in a few passes but decent old chrome jobs are a lot tougher.
 
What color could you powder coat a bumper to make look the closest to chrome is there one?
 
mopardrt said:
What color could you powder coat a bumper to make look the closest to chrome is there one?
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jhdeval said:
I realize I am no expert but I have browsed around powderbuythepound.com. I found this and it looks pretty good. I have talked to a few people and done some research. I have found that it will never look like bright chrome.

http://www.powderbuythepound.com/PATENTED_ULTIMATE_CHROME.html
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There are a few manufacturers who make a chrome-looking powder -- I've tried most of them, including Patented Ultimate Chrome by PBTP -- but IMO none of them look like "real" chrome. They're nice and shiny and look all right ... but they don't have that mirror-like quality you get with real chrome.

I recommend over and over that it's all right on its own, but you wouldn't want it visually close to real chrome on your car -- you can tell at a glance that it's not the same stuff. For example, you would not want to use chrome powder coating on your bumperettes if you've got a real chrome bumper. This question comes up so often in fact that I've got my "Standard Chick Answer": You can see yourself in it but you couldn't tell if you've got a blackhead or not. :D

This is the best possible example I can give you guys, and this actually classifies as work product. I don't often take "during" pictures when I'm working something up but it's a good illustration.

This is a beat up, scratched up 1976 Chevy Vega hood emblem on arrival. It's supposed to be red, white, blue and black ... and the owner wanted the red and blue areas at the top to be translucent "candy" colors.

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The Polar White and Ink Black are done in the next photo. Keep in mind these pictures were taken about 2 inches away so there's NO forgiveness.

Since candy powders need a good shiny base to look their best and that emblem was so dang scratched up to start with, I used Super Chrome on the top areas instead of the bare factory chrome. Look closely and you can see the difference ........

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See what I mean??? It looks all right ... but there's no way it's going to fool anybody that it's real chrome.

Here's how the little matchbook-sized beastie turned out.

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Don't worry! I ran it across the buffer a few times before he got it back. It's the showpiece of his hood now. :D
 
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