Coating anything requires good prep to assure a flawless finish. This is true for painting with an HVLP Gun, spray paint, or powder coating. Powder Coating adds an extra layer of finish contamination that other coatings do not. That’s the need to heat the part and the powder up to allow it to flow out and cure. Funky stuff can start to happen causing issues with the final product. We decided to put together or top five ways to prepare your parts for powder coating. These tips could be the difference between a show-worthy finish and a hack job!
Tag: eastwoodco
Making a Custom Spoon Gas Pedal for a Channeled Hot Rod
I’ve heavily modified a set of Ford F1 pedals to work in my channeled car that involved shortening, heating and bending, and reshaping the curves to fit into the car. Now I needed to fit the “GO” pedal in between the transmission tunnel, the pedals, and the steering column tube. I’ve seen some guys put a step in their tunnel and rest their heel on the tunnel but it just doesn’t “flow” like I’d like. Don’t get me wrong that method is very function-able, but I wanted a pedal that was correct looking and flowed into the provided space without having to cut up my nice tunnel I made a few months ago.
How to Fabricate a Cowl Panel From Scratch
I somehow ended up with this ’29 Model A Roadster carcass I want to build a little replica-racer out of. It was cheap, the bones were there and I figured I could build it up when I found some non-existent free time. I’m a little stubborn and although I could buy an entire new steel replica body, or all of the panels new to make this car all solid again, I’d rather build the panels I need from scratch and bring a close to 90-year old car back from the dead for very little money out of my pocket. I decided I wanted to start in the front of the body and work my way back. The side cowl panels are almost ALWAYS rotted out on the bottom of these cars and after I looked at the remains of the originals I decided I could easily tackle making new panels for only a few bucks in sheet metal.
Top 5 Reasons You Need a Heat Gun
A heat gun is one of those items that many garages are missing. Once you have one around the shop you’d be surprised how often they come in handy! We decided to put together a short list of our favorite uses
Fitting a bench Seat into a Channeled Hot Rod
Channeling an early 30’s car looks the cat’s meow but it creates ALL sorts of problems with actually making the car drivable inside. Every step of this project I’ve had to take a step back and figure out how to fit everything into the car with the decreased room inside. Because the transmission and driveshaft tunnel protrude up above the floor now I couldn’t just put the seat up on top of the tunnel or I’d have my head up out of the roof. I needed to get the driver and passengers butts as close to the floor as possible.
Which Seam Sealer and When to use
Just like when priming and painting your car there are a lot of choices when it comes to picking a seam sealer when refinishing or repairing your project. Seam sealer is made to cover and seal areas where panels may have been welded or overlapped. It will keep the seam from getting moisture in between panels and rusting out. As long as you use the correct seam sealer and prepared the panel correctly it will last the lifetime of the vehicle. We decided to cover the seam sealers that we offer and their best applications.
The Wrong Tools for the Job
The wrong tools for the job can cause more damage than help if you aren’t careful. When working on sheet metal a wrong swing of a hammer, the wrong hammer and dolly can cause damage to your panel that will take 3-4 times as long to fix. You ALWAYS want to match your hammer face and dolly to the shape of the panel your working on. If you’re working on a flat panel this isn’t ever a panel, but as soon as you get into a corner, a curve, or a hard-to-reach area you may need to go outside your simple starter kit of hammers and dollies.
Custom Paint Doesn’t come from a Can! Eastwood Intermix System
Truly restoring a car means that you have to follow the factory specs of what your car should have looked like when new. There isn’t much room for creativity when building up your car in that manner. On the other hand custom cars leave the doors wide open for what you can do. Whether its a mild custom with just some things done to clean up the appearance of your vehicle or if it involves creating an entire new persona of your stocker. When it comes to painting a custom car you don’t want to just go with a stock color that everyone else at the next show will have on their car. Custom Paint mixing can be a scary task and many factors can change the color or “formula” along the way. We decided to take away some of the complexity of picking and mixing a custom color for your ride.
Off-Roading Crash Course For Dummies: What you Need to Know Before you go Wheeling
With Off-Roading becoming more and more popular and parts suppliers being readily available “Wheeling” has become a weekend warrior type hobby that you can do with your daily driver. Whether you plan to just go out on the trail to camp for the night or an intensive rock climbing weekend out into the great beyond there’s some things you should do to prepare yourself. We decided to put together a small list of things a beginner should consider before hopping the white lines of the road into the rocks and dirt. Check it out below and feel free to comment below if you have some advice for beginners as well!