Powder Coating technique question

Metal Shop
#1

I’ve now successfully powder coated a number of parts for the 1953 Chevy pickup that I’m restoring and they all look amazing. I have a hood emblem that I want to powder coat small sections of and I’m unsure of how to go about it with the least amount of work but with the best results. The chrome emblem is about 15 inches long and three or four inches high - see photo below.

Screenshot 2024-04-19 at 10.51.52 AM
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The truck body is Jungle Green with black accents on the running boards and front and rear roll pans (no bumpers). The hood has a black accent running down the center of the hood. Here is a partial photo of the hood.

Screenshot 2024-04-19 at 11.06.30 AM
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What I would like to do with the emblem is to change all of the red sections, including the word Chevrolet, and the bow tie logo at the top to black, leaving the rest of the emblem chrome. It appears that the logo, lettering and three stripes on each side are already powder coated. For those of you more skilled and/or more experienced with powder coating, 1) Can what I want to do be done?, 2) How would you suggest I go about doing it?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

PS. When I was in on Wednesday powder coating I was unable to find any spools of wire to hang my parts from. It was a bit of a scavenger hunt to find enough wire to accomplish my task.

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#2

My two cents, although I haven’t experimented much with masking so this isn’t particularly experienced advice: Kapton tape the whole thing, cut out the spots you want to coat, go right over the top of the paint or powdercoat that’s already there. I’d also probably avoid acetone for cleaning as I worry it would partially strip the old stuff and mess with the finish.

P.S. There should be safety wire and pliers in the little cart on the right you can use for hangers.

#3

Thanks for the advice. I’ll get some various widths of Kapton tape to minimize the cutting.

As for the safety wire and pliers. The pliers were exactly where they always are, the spools of wire were invisible on the table, in the drawers, and the cabinet. I made do, but thought it should be mentioned that the wire is AWOL.

#4

The other way besides masking is to spray the powder over the whole piece and then before baking brush it off all of the high spots (whatever you want to leave chrome

#5

Or maybe a combination of both methods. Mask the larger areas, then spray the whole thing and use an artist brush to wipe away the detail areas.

#6

Can you laser cut Kapton tape?

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#7

While I’m not checked out on any of the laser equip, I did have a thought of fashioning some kind of temporary mask to place over the emblem while spraying, then removing the mask when its time for the oven.

The trick would be capturing the size and spacing of all the areas to be powder coated. Its an idea that I’m not skilled enough to pull off.

#8

Last time I masked something with high temp tape for powdercoating I cut it on the vinyl cuttter. I put the tape on some 4 mil Mylar (I have extra if you want some) and cut the pattern and transferred it to the work. Peeling and placing was the hardest part. The adhesive wasn’t as aggressive as transfer tape making that impractical.

I think if I was to do it again I’d use lo-tack vinyl and peel it after coating but before the oven. There is build up at the tape edge and a sharp step after you peel it. Stuff I’ve masked and pulled the masking off before the oven has a smoother more pleasing edge.

And I’d strip the paint before powder coating as that insulating layer makes getting an coating a lot harder.

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#9

You might be able to do it with a soft carpenter’s pencil the way that people make gravestone rubbings … then Illustrator or possibly even the vinyl cutter might be able to trace the outline of your “rubbing”.

#10

You can laser the tape afaik I just don’t know how you would cut and transfer it

#11

The other issue I see is the three dimensional nature of the object of your affection. That’s an additional challenge. Thinking about it, I think I’d try pinstripe masking tape (narrow flexible tape - real pinstripers don’t use it) to define the edge of the area and fill in plain old masking tape. Coat and remove mask before baking.

Maybe you can find a practice piece at the Pate Swap next week

Be even cooler if you could clean up an old rusty one and do a two tone powdercoat job instead of chrome. Maybe black with green inset.

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