Powder Coating Flames

Q. Does anyone know the process on how to powder coat a fender with flames? Do I shoot a base to the fender then coat the flames, would I use high temp masking or use regular masking, shoot it and pull masking off and bake? Then bake it a third time with a clear? Will the coats over the base stick since the powder is not sticking to bare metal? I am new to coating and I am trying different methods of applications. N. Y.

 

A. Our industry normally does not like to use the words “powder coating” and “flames” in the same sentence. It conjure up a thoughts of safety issues with powder coating, that are really minimal, when compared to alternative technologies.
Now for your answer: If you want to use powder coating to create flames, you should only use it for the basecoat and the clear topcoat. Forget about using it for the actual flames, because you will have to use high-temperature masking materials and the powder coating method is not conducive for this artistic design. Especially since you will most likely want to tint the flames for better depth of image. However, if you stick to using powder for the base color and clear, you should have no problems. Be careful to only gel the basecoat (about 50% of full cure) so that your liquid paint flame design will etch into the basecoat. It will fully cure when you full cure the clear coat. Make sure to fully dry the flame design to drive out all the solvent, otherwise you will get “solvent pops” (pinholes) in the clear coat.