Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have posted anything...
I recently ordered a metal cloak lift with front upper and lower control arms, track bars, sway bars, etc etc. Anyways, I was going to have the arms, bars, etc powder coated red. I took them to my local powder coat shop to get done. He said he might bead blast it to get the zinc coating off. He also told me that he thinks the BUSHINGS WILL BE FINE when the powder bakes in the oven.
IS this guy wrong? What do you guys do when powder coating things like this? Is it hard to remove all the bushings in the sway bars, control arms etc? And can I reinstall the bushings when its done being powder coated? Should I have them remove it, coat it, and re install them if they can? I don't know what to do. Will it be fine if they are properly protected from the powder?
I took the parts there today so I assume they will start working on them tomorrow. I need to know if I should call them and tell them to remove the bushings if possible, or take my parts back or what. Im very worried I just spent 2 grand on the lift and did not really do my research until after I dropped the parts off. I am 16 years old and worked all summer to buy the metal cloak lift. I am just worried something bad is going to happen and I am going to have to pay to replace everyyy single bushing.
Call MC and ask the question. If it were me I would have my machine shop press them out before and then back in after powder coating. Don't expect a powder coating shop to be able to get them back in correctly.
I called MC and they said that I shouldn't powder coat them and pretty much said I shouldn't do anything but paint them... I don know if that is just because they do not want to be liable or what. I just don't know if they will be fine in the oven as long as they are protected from the powder. Is removing the bushings not something I can do?
Subjecting your bushings to 400+ degrees is not a good thing. I agree will Lee on this, have a machine shop press them out and back in after powder coating.
Alright I should probably call them then and take my parts back before they ruin anything. If I get a machine shop to press out the bushings, I will not have to buy new ones correct? They can just press the same (unused) ones back in?
Okay. Are they like general things I can find at an auto store or some oddly size bushings that MC makes in house. The ones in the sway bars felt like just a small piece of plastic I could find anywhere. I know the duroflex joints are their product and I would have to get those from MC... I assume the machine shop can take those out too right?
If it was me I would ask if MC could ship a lift kit w/o the bushings installed and also w/o the zinc coating.
Or preferably If totally set on powder coating I would ask if MC could do the powder coating, possibly whoever does the zinc plating can do powder coating.
I would assume either way if MC or someone local does the powder coating, any warranty will be non existent.
I did ask MC if they could ship the kit without the zinc coating.. They said that all of their parts come from the factory with the coating already on. I assume they would not have been able to send the kit without bushings installed considering that would just make more trouble for them. Also, Im sure it comes from the factory with all of that preinstalled just like the zinc coating.
And yes I know the warranty will be voided. I do not really wheel that much it's 99% a daily driver I am just going for the looks. Either way, it would have to be painted or something because I personally hate the gold look on a tank green wrangler. I am getting a hammer red powder coat done.
The zinc coating is by far the best at controlling rust of about any coating out there. Powder coating is great on a street rod but on a off road rig it can chip and fail on you. IMO your best bet would be to paint them yourself. But your money and you should do what you want.
I mean my rig is 99% on road... I have never rock crawled and don't plan on doing it. Also, the powder coat company is giving me a great deal on a textured hammer red coating for $200 to do everything- arms, bars, brackets. They gave me a student discount. I don't think anything can beat that. I also wanted a textured look.
$200 is a good deal for all those parts. I payed $200 to have my TNT Adventure Sliders/Steps and Smittybilt hitch idiot spear Line-X'd with the UV coating. Just be sure they don't coat the threads, hehee.
Yep that is a great deal. I spent like $700 for my bumpers and sliders. Of course that was an industrial powder coating company who primes all there work before powder coating.
The zinc coating does not seem like something that would hold up long term... I took a piece of sandpaper and literally took 100% of the coating off with a few swipes. It did not seem thick at all... Also, on some parts there were spots with no zinc at all.
Lastly, the powder coating company said that they contacted 4 wheel parts and they said the bushings would be fine in the pressurized oven. Honestly, since this is pretty much a mall crawler besides "muddin" and trail riding with my friends, I don't think its going to be a big deal for me, and if the bushings wear out at some point I will just buy new ones when the time comes... But there isn't going to be a lot of stress on anything really.
Here is the deal with MC arms, you are going to need to disassemble them about once a year to lube the bushings. If the powder coating gets on the snap rings you can forget about getting them apart. Best make sure you powder coater knows this.
So if you powdercoat the threads on those adjustable control arms they will certainly be locked in place unless you mask off the threaded areas and leave them zink. The powder coating will fill in the threads and render them useless.
It sounds like between the heat and the powder coat you are about to ruin a good set of adjustable control arms.
There is no way I would un-wrought what Metal cloak hath wrought. But that's just me. As an engineer, I'm not second guessing the real engineers at Metalcloak. They done told you once not to mess with it.
I have a metal cloak lift and had it powder coated a year ago. I'm not a heavy offroader and all components have held up great. You can search my posts for pics. I also did red. My powdercoater was the one that had concerns with the bushings in the oven. We called metal cloak while we were there and they said no to leaving them in and instructed us to have them removed first. So we had them removed and pressed back in afterwards. Like I said, it's been a year with no issues. There were a couple pieces that we couldn't powdercoat due to not being able to remove heat sensitive part......I can't recall what they were. I'm sure it's in my original post. Anyway, I had spray paint color matched to the powdercoating and shot those pieces myself, along with my ome shocks which came yellow. So my experience with MC, they did not advise against powdercoating and did confirm to remove the bushings.
Yeah thats sweet. I am doing everything but springs just because I didn't want to pay to sand blast. I mean I ended up getting them coated with the bushings in. Like I said, I do not offload much at all. I called a few powder coating companies and they told me that they have done plenty of jeeps with the bushings left in. He said they hold up fine and have customers that have lasted years with them... Some have to replace after a few years.
Also, I have had a date to install the lift with a technician from work for over a month and I did not want to cancel on him and wait who knows how long to get the bushings removed, powder coated, put back in, and then make an appointment to install the lift again.
The controls arms do not seem real hard to remove so if in the future a time comes where I would need to rebuild or buy new bushings I will do that. But as of now, I am just going to get it done and hope for the best.
If I was planning on taking this off-road frequently, I would have removed them and done it properly but this is 99% DD. I really do not even need the front control arms. The only reason I have them is because I bought the gold standard lift kit which came with them and the rock sports. I spend about $1300 on gold and for what I got out of it I could not beat that price plus free shipping.
I will reply to this thread after I install the kit this Saturday and let everyone know what happened and if they help up.
Thanks for everyone's responses.
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