Bare metal suspension parts - THIS THREAD IS OFFICALLY OVER

[anlauto]

Here's an example of what I was referring to.
The purple car has a nice metallic silver powder coat, while the green car has rattle can Seymore paint with a satin clear. Neither one have that pitted bare metal look that some people may prefer, but both are a nice representation of the "bare metal" look that give it the OE appearance, while retaining durability.

To each there own. 

I know which "look" I prefer and certain most of my customers would agree.

[Rich G.]

I have a funny feeling these 2 guys don't like each other! Yikes

[HEMICUDA]

Here's an example of what I was referring to.
The purple car has a nice metallic silver powder coat, while the green car has rattle can Seymore paint with a satin clear. Neither one have that pitted bare metal look that some people may prefer, but both are a nice representation of the "bare metal" look that give it the OE appearance, while retaining durability.

To each there own. 

I know which "look" I prefer and certain most of my customers would agree.

Just curious, why would you leave the pits in the bare metal?  Oh never mind, I'll give you a pass on that one since you probably don't have any of the tools required to do that type of work.  Anyway, you like to paint all the suspension parts?  Fine, that's cool.  But why, as a "professional" self promoting restorer, would you use the cheapest, thinnest, non-catalyzed paint?  You think that's a better coating than a superior catalyzed paint?  Do you think a jingle can is the best way to go?  I'm always willing to learn.  Do you own a paint gun?  Does your neighborhood allow you to spray real paint in your two car garage?  One of the issue's I have with you Anal, you somehow have an opinion on everything, much of it you have never done or have the ability to do.  Your always defending your way, yet, the monies you charge for it could pay for something way better from a professional MOPAR shop. 

I'm very intimate with Eric's purple Cuda you did, https://forum.e-bodies.org/your-restoration-project-roseville-moparts/10/seo/12815/ extremely unimpressed for a 100K+ job, the body & paint work among many other issues are absolutely awful.  Ross's 71 340 shaker will make your cars look like the high school shop class did the body/paint and assembly work, he's just an "average" guy doing he's own car and you're a "professional".  I've seen his work on all his parts and assemblies, I would hire him for sure, you're not at the same dinner table as him. 

You defend your process's because you have no idea or no other options, the rear convertible panels were only 10 shades off from the door panels for god's sake.  The jingle can you used was as close as you could find?  Is that the excuse?  Do you have the ability to swing colors around so they match?  Can you do that?  The better shops certainly can.  I believe you honestly think it is "nice".

I have no problem with what you do or how you farm out most all the work.  Sending the body out to the average body shop puzzles me though.  You defended the work they did, said it looked nice after seeing all the issues before it shipped.  Don't come at me when you aren't close to that type of work.  I know it's hard for you, try not to comment on things you have no clue about.  Don't take this the wrong way, you really don't know what you don't know, that's dangerous when your charging the type of money you do for the type of restorations you do.  When I sent you that PM, I was very serious about doing the bodies for you so you won't your tit in a ringer again, never heard a word from you.

Powder coating is far and away more durable than any sprayed epoxies or jingle can period.  With the number of cars going thru a shop, It makes sense to have that type of equipment, it's less expensive to powder coat than spraying "quality" paint out of a gun.  A shop could get set up for less than $500 depending what the oven is.  With the multitude of available colors now available, why not powder coat?  It may not make sense for the enthusiast to purchase the equipment, it sure does for a shop though.  I don't know one single quality MOPAR restoration shop the ever sprays a part out of a jingle can.  You must know something we don't.

As Confucius once said,  "some people talk tall and deliver small, others can do it all.

Ok, your turn.

[anlauto]

I'm uncertain HEMICUDA why you chose to make this personal ? 
I joined this thread to show other options to get a nice clean appearance of parts on a car that should be "bare steel" .

Your strut rod pictures obviously look the closest to bare steel, yet have the durability of powder coating. No ones is arguing that point.
You mentioned that's what you customers prefer and it's great you can provide that look for them.

I prefer the "new" steel look achieved with either silver paint or powder coat  over the pitted bare metal look and that's why I included those two pictures. Sorry, I don't have pictures of "just a strut rod"

My intention was never to compared my restoration work to yours, or anyone else's for that matter. I don't really care what your shop turns out, it really makes no difference to me.

I've done complete restorations on almost 50 cars now, with 38 of them being E-Bodies. I'm very happy and proud of every single car that has left my little two car garage, and I have a long list of happy customers with more coming in all the time. I'm busier then I want to be most days.

In my opinion you should really concentrate more on what you're doing and not worry so much what others are doing.

[headejm]

 

[750-h2]

On my car I powder coated the metal parts that were free of any rust pitting. On the parts that have heavy pitting I do body work to fill in the pits and then paint them. To experiment I took some pitted parts to the powder coater and despite them saying they could fill in the pits most pits were still visible after they were done?  Those parts were then stripped and painted. I my opinion nothing looks worse than rust pits under paint or powder coat.  

[Spikedog08]

Alright guys seriously  . . Let's play nice here.     There are multiple ways to accomplish most things and who's to say which is right .  . .  especially with Mother Mopar. 

[ErikR]

Alan you have no clue what your customers really want or expect in a restoration, and your arrogance in this respect is obvious for all to see in this thread. You certainly don't speak for me when you kid yourself that you know what your customers want.
To prove my point, you lost your next two deposit-paying customers for 2020 based on your ignorance of the resto process (i.e. not knowing what customers want and expect) and also because of your arrogance which again is readily apparent. This was directly from my feedback to them based on my experience with you.
It's disappointing to guys like me to see you stepping all over Mike's thread when he's showing what he can bring to the table skills wise. If you are so busy these days then why are you in your basement and online here 24/7? Too bad you have to interject yourself into every single thread, I am not the only one getting tired of the Alan clown show on every post when all I want to do is hop on this site and see what folks are doing with their cars.

[ErikR]

Back on topic, parts look great Mike.

What other parts are you experimenting with?

I guess the oven size is the rate limiting step here?

I'd be curious if and engine block could be powder coated?
That would hold up really nice if it's doable.

[Slotts]

Alright guys seriously  . . Let's play nice here.     There are multiple ways to accomplish most things and who's to say which is right .  . .  especially with Mother Mopar.

You are right Dave. There are lots of AI (artificial intelligence) posts, too!

Jim

[750-h2]

Alan you have no clue what your customers really want or expect in a restoration, and your arrogance in this respect is obvious for all to see in this thread. You certainly don't speak for me when you kid yourself that you know what your customers want.
To prove my point, you lost your next two deposit-paying customers for 2020 based on your ignorance of the resto process (i.e. not knowing what customers want and expect) and also because of your arrogance which again is readily apparent. This was directly from my feedback to them based on my experience with you.
It's disappointing to guys like me to see you stepping all over Mike's thread when he's showing what he can bring to the table skills wise. If you are so busy these days then why are you in your basement and online here 24/7? Too bad you have to interject yourself into every single thread, I am not the only one getting tired of the Alan clown show on every post when all I want to do is hop on this site and see what folks are doing with their cars.

"Too bad you have to interject yourself into every single thread"

To this comment I totally disagree. I have never met Alan in person and never even spoke to him on the phone. That being said, in my opinion Alan is the most helpful individual on this site. Whenever I have a question, Alan is usually the first to answer and is pretty well always correct. Lets face the facts who else on this site has restored over 30 E-bodies? 

[cuda hunter]

Back on topic, parts look great Mike.
What other parts are you experimenting with?
I guess the oven size is the rate limiting step here?
I'd be curious if and engine block could be powder coated?
That would hold up really nice if it's doable.

engine block is exactly what I was thinking. 
at 500 bucks the set up is cheap enough I could powder coat everything but the K frame underneath.  in my moms oven. 
I hate painted blocks.  They always have chips and look cruddy. 

[HEMICUDA]

On my car I powder coated the metal parts that were free of any rust pitting. On the parts that have heavy pitting I do body work to fill in the pits and then paint them. To experiment I took some pitted parts to the powder coater and despite them saying they could fill in the pits most pits were still visible after they were done?  Those parts were then stripped and painted. I my opinion nothing looks worse than rust pits under paint or powder coat.

You are absolutely correct, I would never power coat or paint over pits either, I used an old strut rod, that happened to be pitted, for the test, I was seeing if I could powder coat it without seeing the coating, it worked extremely well.  As I said earlier, this is NOT for an OE judged car with thousands of dollars of NOS parts on it, those cars will have to deal with maintaining true bare metal.  I refuse to restore a car and have it judged as a true "OE", I have the processes, however, I have no interest looking for all the NOS parts it takes.  That's a Mike Mancini or Frank Battleson game.

I have found that commercial powder coaters tend to apply way to much powder which makes the part look "thick".  I wanted to see if I could control the amount of powder to correct that look.  If your parts are pitted, you can still powder coat for material build up and sand the pits out and re-powder coat.  Obviously you can't do the with a bare metal part, the pits need to be removed from the base metal itself before the chemical treatment and powder coating.

No matter what you put on the part, all pits must be removed.  If you're not going the bare metal route and you had identical parts sitting side by side, one painted and the other powder coated, which one would you want?  Jingle can paint shouldn't even be in this thread discussion, we are talking about an "original" look with "superior" longevity and durability.  Jingle paint is way down on the durability scale, catalyzed epoxies are head and shoulders above jingle and powder coating kills them both.

I actually do know what every single one of my customers want, suspension parts that will look sweet with an original appearance and minimal maintenance that will last for many many years.

[anlauto]

Wow...you guys are really good taking this thread in a different direction and making it a personal attack against me and my business.

If you read it from the beginning, we were talking about methods for restoring strut rods for a "bare metal" appearance. HEMICUDA started showing how he blasts them and clear powder coats, etc... This raised questions/comments from KAWAHONDA, BOSSGOLD, Rich G, Brads70 etc... about other methods including rattle can painting.

After I read and viewed the pictures in this thread I decided to comment sharing my knowledge of the subject and show the readers other options on the same subject. That's pretty much how a public forum works.

I gave Cody a 100% commitment to come on here as often, and as much as I can, 24/7 to offer my experiences, comment on the threads, answer the questions I can, and offer positive support to those members restoring their own cars.

I will continue to do so, everyday that I'm able. 

[HEMICUDA]

Alan you have no clue what your customers really want or expect in a restoration, and your arrogance in this respect is obvious for all to see in this thread. You certainly don't speak for me when you kid yourself that you know what your customers want.
To prove my point, you lost your next two deposit-paying customers for 2020 based on your ignorance of the resto process (i.e. not knowing what customers want and expect) and also because of your arrogance which again is readily apparent. This was directly from my feedback to them based on my experience with you.
It's disappointing to guys like me to see you stepping all over Mike's thread when he's showing what he can bring to the table skills wise. If you are so busy these days then why are you in your basement and online here 24/7? Too bad you have to interject yourself into every single thread, I am not the only one getting tired of the Alan clown show on every post when all I want to do is hop on this site and see what folks are doing with their cars.

"Too bad you have to interject yourself into every single thread"

To this comment I totally disagree. I have never met Alan in person and never even spoke to him on the phone. That being said, in my opinion Alan is the most helpful individual on this site. Whenever I have a question, Alan is usually the first to answer and is pretty well always correct. Lets face the facts who else on this site has restored over 30 E-bodies? 

Interesting comment about 30 ebodies restored.  Reminds me of the conversation I had with the owner of the pink AAR we're currently restoring.  We chatted for a while in my office, then walked to the assembly side where I had my finished AAR up on the lift, he almost fell over when he walked under it.  I asked him what he thought and all he said was, "holy sh1t, that's exactly what I want!".  Then I said, "unfortunately, that's not what your car will look like".  He didn't say anything, just looked at me with a puzzled look on his face, then I said, "it'll be better".  I explained to him, "every car we do gets just a little better than the last".  New processes, materials, techniques.  I've seen the 30th you're talking about that we did a bunch of work on it just to make it presentable, I would hate to be that first customer.