Ceramic coatings (and DIY powder / ceramic coat)

[Wayne Cox]

At 04:29 PM 3/10/2003 -0600, you wrote:
> >I don't think white lightening is the best header coating though as it
> tends to flake off under hard use.

FWIW, tomorrow I should have functional DIY powder coating capabilities in
my garage :)

For anyone not aware, powder coating is an alternative to paint, that uses
baked on colored powdered plastic (kinda like laser printer
toner).  Compared to paint, it's extremely chip, impact, heat, and chemical
resistant.  It used to be an exotic industrial coating.  But with the many
environmental reg's governing volatile organics (like solvent based paint)
it has become much more common.  Enough so that cheap Do It Yourself kits
are available.

The Eastwood Co. http://eastwoodco.com/ was the first to offer a "hobbyist"
P.C. system ($150).  But some 'net research suggested the Chicago Electric
$100 system from Harbor Freight was better [
http://www.buckeyetriumphs.org/technical/PowderCoating/powder_coating_equipment.htm
]  More research found the same system at Columbia Coatings
http://www.columbiacoatings.com/ [see on-line store] for $70.

So I just got a set of OEM NX wheels sandblasted clean, should have the
Columbia "deluxe" kit tomorrow (with 2 pounds of Metallic Wheel Silver
powder), and bought a used kitchen over for $40 last weekend.  Numerous
other applications have come to mind, esp since I may be doing an extensive
NX restoration soon, but I won't list them now.

To get back to the original subject, Columbia Coatings also has high-temp
ceramic coatings available.  These are probably more similar with the
cosmetic coatings we get from Hot-Shot, etc, but they do make so
interesting heat insulating claims for some of them [insulating and up to
2000dF] , esp the Black Satin [see Online-store -> Ceramic Paint -> Black
Satin (sorry, the URL doesn't copy)]  Also plain powders at Online-store ->
Powders -> High-Temp.

I'll let ya'all know how it works on the wheels.

    -Wayne    '91 NX2k - '93 NK2k - '92 SE-R parts car