In Preparation for Ceramic Coating ?

[Churchy]

Just to show I have no idea about ceramic coating what-so-ever. I am going to ask the most basic questions and work my way down from there.

I may not know much, but I can lift heavy things .

I have just about finished fabricating the sidepipes and collectors and we are going to get them ceramic coated that dirty off white colour. The colour may not be to everyone's preference, but I'm using a chev engine, so I just have to keep being different.

So to the questions. How much prep work is required on the metal prior to dropping it off at the coaters. Seeing as we are not going shiny chrome or the like, do I need to polish the welds or the actual pipe itself, or does this type of finish "fill in" any smal imperfections. I have no issue doing it, but if it is not needed I won't do it. I intend to linsh the accesable welds back and have them smooth, and I have had the ones where I can't flap disk or linish, welded by somebody who actually has some skill.

Also how much material is laid down once coated ? If I was working with very fine tolerances and need to allow clearance for bolts holes or lining up of holes. How much should I allow ? As mentioned I have no idea about this. I do have a little experience with powder coating and know that you really do not need to allow for the deposited material (nothing a file won't fix anyway) when working with bolting things back together after coating.

Thanks

[cameron02]

You might have more luck getting an answer to your question if you email someone at HPC
www.hpcoatings.com.au

[WASP]

Do as I did, just make sure that there are no leakes in the pipes, extrators etc and send them to HPC and let them do the worrying

[slow 427]

Churchy I just dropped mine off to competition coatings in Granville and they did the rest .
For the side pipes and collectors cost $500 for the pair.
Matt black is the colour i got but which for some reason is dearer that shinny silver ?
Go figure.

[pneall]

Churchy,

Its all in the preparation , every dent ,scratch or weld will still be noticeable , so make sure you buff out what you dont want to see.

The Coating guys will do all the degreasing etc.

Regards,

Phil

[Churchy]

Thanks Phil,

Thats what I wanted to know. I will need to linish and polish prior to send to the coating guys. Looks like I'm about to brush up on my polishing skills..

Phhil, expect some PM's I know your good at the polishing thing

[Plums]

I wouldn't spend too much time polishing them, here is the process that mine undertook:
Firstly they "pre-bake" them to burn out any impurities, then they bead blast them to remove minor imperfections, then they are coated.

Phil is right though, any little dings or weld spatter will show up in the finished product.

[Aussie Mike]

I've got mine at HPC for coating. They hot tank or chemically strip them to clean any rust and oil off the inside and out. Then they media blast them to clean them further and key the surface so the coating gets a good grip.

The coating flows all over them and will hide a lot of smaller marks but it won't fill pinholes in welds and dents and gouges.

Cheers

[Don]

Swain Technology, a ceramic coating company in the US. Their web site might answer some of your questions, based upon their version of ceramic coating. Seems that a number of companies are using the term ceramic, even with a smooth paint like surface.

Swain's coating is white and has the surface texture of medium rough sand paper. I sprayed mine with a high temp black, easy to touch up.

http://www.swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=10296

http://www.swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=10323

[Rob. Smith]

This sounds like Aluminium ,Aluminum Spraying. I had that done on a set of extractors on my sand buggy. It stained when you looked at it ! Never again !~