What did you do today to your 3/S?

[J-Groove]

I sat inside of it and made vroom vroom noises with my new helmet on.

[DrGonzo]

What I have been working on here and there during the time I have between jobs and waiting for paint to dry or powder coat to cure...

Adjustable Cam gears installed
Swapped my cams back to 1st gen cams
New plugs
New OEM Coil Pack
New AC/Alt Pulley
Powder coated pre turbo pipes - Possibly have to redo the front one as I don't think I got the clear coat thick enough
Powder coated miscellaneous brackets and such
Installed Oohnoo FPR bracket and rerouted fuel lines for the time being till I can redo the fuel lines later on down the road
Powder coated the top of the FuelLab FPR as it wa red and looked out of place.
Cleaned, Cleaning, And More Cleaning

[sergechronos]

What I have been working on here and there during the time I have between jobs and waiting for paint to dry or powder coat to cure...

Adjustable Cam gears installed
Swapped my cams back to 1st gen cams
New plugs
New OEM Coil Pack
New AC/Alt Pulley
Powder coated pre turbo pipes - Possibly have to redo the front one as I don't think I got the clear coat thick enough
Powder coated miscellaneous brackets and such
Installed Oohnoo FPR bracket and rerouted fuel lines for the time being till I can redo the fuel lines later on down the road
Powder coated the top of the FuelLab FPR as it wa red and looked out of place.
Cleaned, Cleaning, And More Cleaning

Greg, what size oven do you use? Do you do a lot of these at once, or just a couple small pieces at a time?

[DrGonzo]

I use an old GE Frigidaire wall oven from the 1960's that I rewired and cleaned up. The inside is coated in almost a ceramic type of stuff which really helps to control the heat. It was given to me for free from my in laws and works great. I'll probably upgrade it to a Digital PID at some point. I use an infrared thermometer to check part temps and make adjustments as needed. I usually do small parts and stuff like that. It is large enough to do TT plenums and valve covers which is as big as I need. I built a couple jigs to use for valve covers and plenums to make it easy to load/unload them when I coat them and also built a hanging rack inside it.





I got three valve covers done this past week or so, Pissed as two of the covers ended up being bad cores. The one has a crack in where the valve cover gasket goes, and the other one looks like someone tried to polish it and took the edged of the lettering down to far so I can't sand the coating off of the lettering..... I had an order to fill with one of those Mitsubishi covers that I can't fill now due to both being bad cores. So I'm just going to use them as display pieces.

[sergechronos]

I use an old GE Frigidaire wall oven from the 1960's that I rewired and cleaned up. The inside is coated in almost a ceramic type of stuff which really helps to control the heat. It was given to me for free from my in laws and works great. I'll probably upgrade it to a Digital PID at some point. I use an infrared thermometer to check part temps and make adjustments as needed. I usually do small parts and stuff like that. It is large enough to do TT plenums and valve covers which is as big as I need. I built a couple jigs to use for valve covers and plenums to make it easy to load/unload them when I coat them and also built a hanging rack inside it.





I got three valve covers done this past week or so, Pissed as two of the covers ended up being bad cores. The one has a crack in where the valve cover gasket goes, and the other one looks like someone tried to polish it and took the edged of the lettering down to far so I can't sand the coating off of the lettering..... I had an order to fill with one of those Mitsubishi covers that I can't fill now due to both being bad cores. So I'm just going to use them as display pieces.

Shitty stuff, hate to hear that about the cores. I've got a pair of old ovens that I'd like to weld together to make one very large oven once I move, be much easier to do big stuff like IC pipes and wheels with. Your results always turned out real nice, I just assumed you were using a professional powder coating oven.

[DrGonzo]

An Oven is an oven, It's all about controlling the temp and using a good powder. My temps fluctuate +/- 20-25 degrees, But I use a good powder that has great overcure properties. I do want to add an aluminum panel heat deflector right above the bottom element as I have seen some parts when they hang the bottom will cure more than the top. So the panel will help direct and radiate the heat better.

I temp to cure on the highside for a lot of things to ensure a full cure and good adhesion. It's also about timing, if you have a powder that cures at 400/10min and you see that part temp only hit 360-370, then add a couple mins to the cure time. I have to do that when doing chrome/clear. the chrome cures at 350/15 min and the clear cures at 400/10 min. So I cure at 375 for about 13min. I hit the part with the Chrome and pop it in the oven, while it is heating up I do a powder swap and clean on the gun and switch it over to the clear, when the chrome powder flows I pull it out and let it cool down to about 200 degrees, then hit it with the clear powder, with the part still hot I get a good interlace between the polymers. I then pop it back in the over and due a full cure.

[green-lantern]

I sat inside of it and made vroom vroom noises with my new helmet on.

J-stig

[99ishVR-4]

Send it out to be chromed

That would be ideal.

If will hold up just fine in the heat. I did one a Mirror black which is a 350/15 bake and recently a Chrome powder at 400/10. The goo is like JB Weld. Holds up fine under the heat but the powder will not coat it. I outgass my parts at 450 for 25-30 min and that stuff still held up fine. Getting ready to do another one in chrome here this week....

Any forget polishing, I picked up a great Chrome powder I'm using from now on. Granted it is not that polished look, but it is pretty damn close. My only complaint, and there is nothing that can be done about it, is that it has to be cleared after as the chrome powder has ground up metal in it that will oxidize and the clear coat takes some of the shine away. due to how light refraction works....

Here is a plenum I did recently in the Chrome. This is after the clear.

Yeah my outgassing procedure is the same. The plenum looks great. I wonder how many coats of primer it would take to smooth out the casting. I have seriously considered the chrome powder, but I have already polished all of my intercooler pipes so I'd like the plenum to also be polished to match. All of your powder coating and hydrodipping really looks awesome. After I get my engine bay all together, I may decide on a black theme instead and send my plenum to you for the carobn fiber dip.

Q tip in a drill works really well.

Thanks, however I guess I should have mentioned I am in still in the sanding stage.

I bought a set of rubber burs for a dremel on ebay or amazon that were 80, 320, and 600 grit. They work pretty well for tight areas.

I have seen these before but couldn't find any reviews on them. Good to know they work. Do they last for awhile or do you go through them quickly. Wondering how many I should get.

[fastfalcon94]

Not a 3s, but new shoes for my DD volvo.

[DrGonzo]

Yeah my outgassing procedure is the same. The plenum looks great. I wonder how many coats of primer it would take to smooth out the casting. I have seriously considered the chrome powder, but I have already polished all of my intercooler pipes so I'd like the plenum to also be polished to match. All of your powder coating and hydrodipping really looks awesome. After I get my engine bay all together, I may decide on a black theme instead and send my plenum to you for the carobn fiber dip.

I think a light sanding down to a 220 would be enough to smooth things out on the plenum before coating. Then through the blast cabinet should be enough. I have another plenum here I will be working on doing the chrome and ill probably do some sanding on it. Even when Hydro dipping the parts the casting still shows through so I may need to start doing some sanding on them.