Powdercoating Suggestions

[schubee]

I’m replacing my front and rear sway bars on my P. Would you guys recommend powder coating them? I know some of you might respond on it being a little pricey for something under the car, but I have a friend that can do it practically for nothing. What other parts would you powder coat, speaking of the undercarriage or suspension parts? He mentioned the more the better, or cheaper! So any of you here in So Cal that needs anything powder coated, let me know. It’ll be in a couple months though. I’m either doing the sway bars in red or just plain black. Or, do you think it’s even worth the effort and time?

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John
'81SC Targa

[Evans, Marv]

John:
I'm not sure about powder coating sway bars. I've had several things powder coated. My understanding is that it is kind of like a baked on porcelain coating. I would imagine the twisting motion of the sway bars would cause it to crack &/or delaminate from the surface of the bar. I would think something like a good chassis coat or POR 15 would be better.

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Marv Evans
'72 911E

[Jim T]

My swaybars are powdercoated black, no problem at all.
I'd highly recommend the powdercoating (although they are in my opinion certainly not pretty enough to be done in red, I think they are best left in the inconspicuous black).

[juan ruiz]

My fan,brake rotor hubs,etc they all holding fine

[911pcars]

If you can powder coat cheaply, go ahead and paint everything you can remove (control arms, spring plates, sway bar links and plates, torsion bars, front crossmember, tie rod links, motor mount, steering column, etc.). The only caveat is to clean parts thoroughly and mask (not paint) through-hole clearances, threads, splines and mounting surfaces that need to maintain critical dimensions. Sounds like you can get carried away and treat this like a show car though.

As there are a some areas on a sway bar that don't need additional material build-up (chassis mount areas and bar ends), I'd suggest yellow zinc-plating the bar. This would provide a nice contrast to the powder-painted parts and offer some measure of corrosion-protection.

Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars