Tiger rear sus tubes powder coat

[locost220]

So fellow club member Colin is in the middle of an axle swap/ brakes upgrade and asked if I could have a go at re powder coating his suspension arms that connect the axle to the car.
Colin had already removed the bushes and crush tubes that apparently put up quite a fight before passing them into me.
So I hit them first with a compound drill attachment that removes the paint but not the metal to remove 90 percent of the existing coating that seemed to be a mixture of powder coating or paint. Then after that it left all the bits in the welds so resorted to good old fashioned screwdriver and the loose fibre attachment to get rid of the rest. Checked the powder I had in stock and decided that satin black that Colin wanted was good to go having been in the cold garage for a few years.
First I tied the soft wire strips round one end of each and suspended them from the well used fixings on the workshop roof, gave them all a good soaking in acetate, wipe down with fluff less tissue and then a spray with air blow gun.
Left them for a while for any vapour’s to disperse whilst the DIY powder coating over started to heat up, suspended the arms in the oven and turned the second set of elements on to get the temperature well above the flow out temp of the powder that would later be used (180) up to over 200 degree this is caused out gassing to burn off any impurities that might still be present rather than them come out once the power is applied.
Once over 200 degrees I then leave the oven on lower heat but take the arms out and hang back on the workshop straps to let them cool. Once cool I apply the heat tape to the areas I do not want to coat and prep the diy powder coating kit including sivving the powder and turning the air pressure down and testing the powder gun.
Once all was well I applied the powder to each in turn and transfer each arm to the oven in turn and turn the heat back up to make sure I get the 180 required to make the powder flow out.
Checked when up to temp and adjust temp to stay in range, leave to bake for 20 mins then turn off the oven and open the doors to allow the temp to fall till i can handle the arms to remove the high temp tape and wire strips. One of the big advantages is once it has cooled it is cured unlike paint and much harder than paint.
Pics to follow

[DJ.]

Great work, they look better than new

[Wingco]

That's quite a process Richard you have to go through. The polly bushes were well and truly stuck in and took me ages to get them out.
The arms did look a right state when they came of the car but the process you went through has certainly made them like new.
So many thanks Richard, great write up and pictures, will be in touch to organise collection.