black trim

[romko007]

Hi,

any idea how to make all the trim in black? Like this Superformance Cobra https://www.google.com/search?q=SP03...w=1280&bih=584 Even the rivets, bolts... are black. Special paint??

[xb-60]

You can give virtually any material the 'black' treatment.

I assume you're talking steel or aluminium alloy items, so the two common coatings for larger items are powder coating and the normal wet spray (paint). If the surface becomes damaged, repair of small sections of powder coating is difficult, so my preference would be a wet spray because it can be touched up or resprayed in small areas. You can wet spray at home as well, but powder coating is a specialised process, and it's not particularly cheap either. It involves spraying the powder onto the items, and then baking them in an oven....and no you can't do this at home.

Metal items can also be black anodised, but this is becoming less popular.

For screws/nuts/washers, the options are black oxide treatment for alloy steel fasteners, phosphate based coatings for carbon steel and alloy-steel.....and paint. You would have to be very careful installing screws/washers/nuts that have been blackened with any of these processes because the coating is very easy to damage if you're torquing up a bolt or screw.

Unless the all-black look is what you really crave, or it's for a show car, going the all-black fasteners route isn't very practical.

As an aside comment, for my own car the under-hood area of the chassis is wet sprayed black to make it look more period correct, but the rest of the chassis/monocoque is bare aluminium alloy. Thinking back to the 'challenges' in installing the differential assembly, the chassis would have suffered very obvious damage to its coating if it had been coated. If you have coated metal parts - whether fasteners or larger metal parts - you have to be very careful not to damage the coating.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Glen

[Karl Bebout]

An contraur, you can powder coat at home. There are several systems you can buy on line and even Harbour Freight. A toaster oven or an old oven would do the trick. Don't recommend using Momma's oven. You'd be in deep doodoo

[kgkeys]

Originally Posted by Karl Bebout

Don't recommend using Momma's oven. You'd be in deep doodoo

My wife caught me pre-heating bearing races for assembly, in her oven. She wasn't happy, but took it pretty well. I thought about baking a set of shorty headers to cure the paint, but decided against it.

Kyle

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by Karl Bebout

.....you can powder coat at home....

Hey Karl, OK, there are a lot of things you can "do" at home (and yes some of us are very resourceful), but applying a coating of powder electrostatically and curing it at the correct temperature.... and achieving an acceptable quality and finish that will last is something I would only trust to a professional.

Cheers!
Glen

[romko007]

Thank you for the answers...
I think the best option is to paint the small parts. It looks nice but the question is... is it worth the work

[Karl Bebout]

Eye of the beholder...
Yadda
Yadda
Yadda

[Trubble]

Romko,
Good luck with whatever method you choose. Have fun with your car, and don't be afraid to report back on your experience. Plenty of folks here ready to offer friendly advice.

[CHANMADD]

Use Plastidip....sprays on and peels off and comes in many colors....

[Snake2998]

I would also go with Plastidip.