Which way to finish suspension parts - Powder coar or POR-15?

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Rocket

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I was wondering what experiences or recommendations you have for finishing off suspension and chassis parts. I plan to sand blast and coat my K frame, sway bar, cross member, steering linkage, upper and lower control arms, ... and was considering POR 15 or powder coating. Which will last longer, prevent moisture damage and be better at the abuse of use on the street? Hopefully I will never have to do this again for a long time.

Thanks
 
Rocket, POR-15 is great stuff applied with a sprayer or brush that encapsulates the existing rust and basically turns it back into clean metal. As far as I know, it only comes in black. Summit Racing, Jeg's, and some local car parts stores sell it in a variety of sizes.
Powder coating is durable, rust-resistant, won't be affected by most chemicals or sunlight, is long-lasting, attractive and comes in a huge variety of colors and textures. The part is blasted bare, the powder is sprayed onto the part with a special gun that attaches the powder statically, and then the part is cured at a specified temperature for a specific amount of time. Your parts can be back in service as soon as they have cooled off. Powder coating encapsulates the entire part and keeps it looking new for many years, sealing out moisture and airborne environmentals. Coated parts clean up easily too (no more polishing!).
Despite popular belief, powder coating is NOT expensive. A half pound of powder is equivalent in price and coverage to three rattle cans of spray paint.
Please let me know if you have other questions or if I can be of service.
 
Your MMV, but I have POR-15 coated my floor-boards to prevent rust, and ended up having to redo them after they still rusted . I did all of the prep steps they say to use (marine clean,then metal ready, then POR-15). I have lots of parts coated with POR-15, and am now afraid I am going to have to redo them. I ended up using a product called "Rust Bullet" to coat floorboards. This stuff appears to even make them stronger/stiffer then they were. And you dont have to protect it from UV light with paint like POR-15 requires. Good Stuff.
 
por-15 all the way you can get it in many colors and once it cures it looks as good as powder coating evin if you brush it and it will last a really long time.
 
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, I don't know.....I POR-15ed my front suspention and while most of it is still good, it did peal back on a couple of spots and chipped in others. The front suspension parts see alot of brutal road hazzards.
In less than 2 years, the wear has shown on my everyday driver.
The K-frame looks great, but most other parts need help.

I have not had any suspention parts power coated before. But the idea of electricly put on and baked to a finish has me looking at the next time I do something.
 
If you have the money I would suggest powder-coating. I was really lucky when I did my suspension - I had it all sandblasted and went down to a local place that doesn't really do anything for the public. Since everything was clean and all they needed to do was put it in with another large batch - I think they charged me $100 for everything. I was limited on my color choice, but I kinda like the light-gray look. People can tell it is clean, but it's not white.

Check some picture on my website (at the bottom of the page):
http://www.cloudfactory.org/~josh/barracuda/chassis.html
 
DuuuuuDE! Thats cool. Nice site.
Oh, the bands picture looks like New York on a regular day. He he he.
 
I went with POR-15 on my car. It works great on parts that have rusted up pretty good and have a very rough surface. Smooth surfaces don't work as well, even if you've prepped with the marine clean, metal ready, etc etc.... In my experience it will still peel. Once it's cured for a while, it is pretty tough it seems. And again it's real good on rough surface parts. My car however is far from a daily driver so it doesn't get the road beating as much. My friend has a Jeep that his dad painted the entire chassis (including the sunlight exposed bumpers) back in the 80's with POR-15 and it's still holding up to this day. Bumpers turned cloudy a bit though, but not too bad looking.

I mainly went with it because of it's ease of use for me and that meant cheaper than powder-coating. I have heard it's not as expensive as you might expect but I never checked into it, just went with what I knew I could afford being on a very tight budget at the time. (I'm still on a budget, just not quite as tight as when I did the suspension. LOL.)
 
also if you are looking for a very durable paint por-15 also make a paint called hard nose it s a 2 part paint (has a catalist) I have not tried it yet but deffiatly looks like good stuff (they have a display whare I buy my por-15 of this stuff and they give you a hammer and let you hit this peice of sheet metal that has been painted with it and the paint does not chip or get marred at all) again I have not used this stuff before so I dont know how hard it is to work with


http://www.por15.com/prodinfo.asp?grp=HN&dept=5


hope this helps:headbang:
 
You may want to check this product out http://www.zerorust.com/, it also comes in a ton of colors including Mopar Primer. I have an aerosol can and a quart I am going to test. I read a few comparisons between Zero Rust and POR-15 and, I think they put them both in a salt spray cabinet and Zero Rust came out on top.

Ill let you know how it turns out.
 
that zero rust stuff looks pritty good I think I will give it a try (the only thing I dont like about por-15 is the mess, and you need disposable brushes, and gloves but if you can spray the zero rust out of a can that is awsome):tongue10:
 
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