MyE28.com

Duke,

I'm going to have some pieces on my "new" M30B35 powdercoated, and while there's a shop very close to me (Evans Performance in Cumming, GA) that I have a shop services certificate for, I was not overly impressed with their results on the heads & block of a Caddy engine that my Dad is building for one of his customers. In particular, they mis-taped around many of the gasket surfaces and left an irregular 1/2" uncoated space around the freeze plug areas on the heads (quite visible, unfortunately, as they're on the front of the engine). Thus, I'm a bit leery of using them. They're very nice folks and I'll probably have them do my ceramic coating, but I don't want any frustration with the powder coating.

You've spoken very highly of Savannah Powdercoat Services and its owner, Harry Normington. Knowing your mentality when it comes to the details and seeing the pics speaks highly of his service. Now, to the questions:

1) How clean did you have to get the parts before he'd take them?

2) Did you mask the parts yourself or need to give him detailed instructions?

3) Did you need to clean up the results or have surfaces planed (were the gasket surfaces ready to use when you got the parts back)?

4) What other cleanup, if any, did you need to do before using the parts?

TIA,
Shawn

[QUOTE="Shawn D."]1) How clean did you have to get the parts before he'd take them?

2) Did you mask the parts yourself or need to give him detailed instructions?

3) Did you need to clean up the results or have surfaces planed (were the gasket surfaces ready to use when you got the parts back)?

4) What other cleanup, if any, did you need to do before using the parts?[/QUOTE]

1. If you have grease (I did not) just remove it and throw it in a box.

2. No masking was done by me. Harry just took instructions over the phone. I sent him a color sample for the pulley and semi-gloss black is universal.

3. All gasket areas are masked off by SPC and no other work was needed. The parts came out of the box and on the engine.

4. No other cleanup is needed. Now saying that, I am going to pull the fuel rail to blast it out with air, I forgot to before install. SPC uses a bead blasting process to prep the parts and I am afraid that there may be some residual in the fuel rail that would instantly clog my injectors. I have never seen any blasting media residual on the part from SPC but I can't risk the fuel rail.

HTH's
Duke

BTW - BNC will be using SPC too because if the shoddy work near him too.

Shawn,

Contact:

New England Powder Coaters
Rick
413-786-5324

He did Duke's intercooler and all of our powder coating. Awesome no nonsense guy. Reasonable pricing too. Tell him I sent you.

Todd

Duke and Todd,

Thanks for the references and tips -- that's exactly what I needed to know!

-Shawn