33 Hot Rod Chassis Powder Coat

[Roger Pugh]

Good evening FFR brothers!

Ignorant question for you: I have noticed many of you have chosen to paint the chassis of your hot rod the color of the body of the car. I love it and plan on doing it as well. I guess my question is, in what order did you paint it? Did you do it first thing at the start of the build, or did you get most of the metal lined up and drilled before taking it apart and painting it then? I know powder coat can be pretty durable, just thought I would see your thoughts.

I took advantage of the Blueprint sale and bought the Chevy 400 c.i. FI with the auto 700R4 tranny. I feel like such a big boy right now! Now all I need is the kit, lol. I will be getting that done after they re-open. Also scheduled for the June build class. I hope they are able to keep it on schedule.

It's getting real!!! Be safe out there and thanks for the input.

Roger

[NAZ]

After I completed the chassis fab I test mounted everything before painting the chassis. This required doing all the rough bodywork and fitting before I could mount the body and test fit all body parts. Once everything fit properly, I blew it all apart and painted the chassis. I then assembled the chassis substantially complete and mounted the body without lights and delivered it to my painter to finish the fine detail body work. We then pulled the body and my painter painted it and cut & buffed to completion before we reinstalled the body.

[Roger Pugh]

Great to know, thanks NAZ

[Svtfreak]

I’m doing similar to naz, but I’m going farther pre paint. All body work will be done, all metal work done, everything. Then I’ll blow it up and paint it all in stages. Chassis and motor and suspension stuff, reassemble all that. Then I’ll paint and cut/buff the body and put it on, and go in stages like that. I thought I was close then problems arose and now I have a bunch of changes I want to make so I’m glad I went that route.

[Roger Pugh]

I’m doing similar to naz, but I’m going farther pre paint. All body work will be done, all metal work done, everything. Then I’ll blow it up and paint it all in stages. Chassis and motor and suspension stuff, reassemble all that. Then I’ll paint and cut/buff the body and put it on, and go in stages like that. I thought I was close then problems arose and now I have a bunch of changes I want to make so I’m glad I went that route.

Nice!It sure sounds like a lot of work but in the end I'm sure it's going to be a sweet ride!!

[MonstaS4]

I powder coated right at the start before assembly. As I'm in Australia, I ended up with a lot of surface rust on the chassis due to the 8 week boat ride, so I needed to sandblast the chassis first. The advise given to me was to blast & coat prior to assembly otherwise EVERY opening in the chassis tubes would need to be sealed prior to blasting. You don't want blasting media inside the chassis as it could potentially rust the chassis from the inside.
I'm not sure how FFR prep the chassis if they coat it, but my understanding is you need some form of mechanical keying on the surface to promote good adhesion. You could wire wheel it but that's a lot of work....

[Svtfreak]

Nice!It sure sounds like a lot of work but in the end I'm sure it's going to be a sweet ride!!

Yeah but I’m not in any hurry. This is probably the last really in depth detailed build I do so I’m not in a hurry.

Monsta, I’ve never heard of blasting media contributing to rust. I’ll have to look into that. But you def have to prep the chassis right. I will be bringing mine to a sand blast yard. They’ll blast and put a epoxy primer on it. Then I’ll wet sand that smooth and begin my painting steps. I did that with a 23 T I built a few years back and it’s still going.