Any Powdercoating Tips?

[jthod]

While I have the intake off for my top 60k, I going to have the intake and valve covers powdercoated. I have already bead blasted most of the parts, but I will not be taking them in until next week. I will have the tanks silver, and the runners and valve covers black. I already decided not to mess with the butterflies, just a good cleaning and maybe a little polish with the dremel. It just seems like to much to take apart and worry about f-ing up. Same with the throttle, it's going to have the cover on it anyway (which I'm going to pait myself).
I just need a few clarifications.
-What, if anything should I mask off or cover?
-I'm guessing that the gasket area should not be coated, right?

 

[hawkeye18]

mask off all studs and anything with threads on them. Mask off the opening for the throttle body. You don't need to worry about powdercoating the inside of the surge tanks and runners; the smoothness the PCing will create can only help! You can go ahead and PC the gasket area; you will just have to make sure to use a gasket adhesive (that copper-colored permatex stuff) so it won't leak.

 

[Power Surge]

Honestly, I would not put too much time into the prepwork, the coater is most likely going to redo it all.

As for masking, what are you masking with? You need hi-temp film tape to mask for powdercoating, so you might as well let them do that too. They have special silicone plugs and caps for the studs and threaded holes and special tape for the ****** areas.

 

[jthod]

Good to know guys, I think I'll just leave it up to them.
The reason I'm going through all the prep work is the guy at the shop told me he would knock a few bucks off if i had it mostly preped, and since I have a sandblaster, I might as well.

 

[SHObill]

Good choice Joe!

 

[DDakRT]

Just make sure the entire thing is really clean and free od oil/grease before you start masking. You don't want to have to take off all the high temp tape after finding out some parts of the intake is still oily.

I'd mask off all the mating surfaces, holes, and especially the DIS area on the crossover tube.

 

[jthod]

Hey Bill, I haven't seen it yet. Did you send USPS? if so, they have already been by.