hi guys ive spent stupid hours getting gay and polishing my spare set of rear suspension arms and installing all new bushing(they look super sexy mirror finish) buttttttttttt........ i cant just throw them on the car or they gonna get chipped and fade, so im wanting to know if i can just clear coat them?
Will i need to prep the metal in anyway,, maybe wipe them down with paint thinners to remove grease ect,,,, will the clear coat stick ok im worried about how smooth the finish is,, and also will the alluminium still look good with clear coat on it?

 

There are sprays that you can buy which promote adhesion so that you can paint polished parts. Could also get them clear powdercoated....

 

Summit racing has what you need. It protects polished surfaces for something like three years. Check their site

tom

 

ZOOPS

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...164+115+400003

 

i have powder coated some polished aluminum pieces before and it does not look that good it looks dull and even with the final buff & a loose cotton wheel and white rouge compound it will show the direction of the buffing wheel, i can post a pic if you would like.

 

sooo if powder coating doesnt work,,,,then what about clearcoat what does this look like (because thats what im afraid of,,, painting the parts and them looking dull). Anyone on here had any experience with that zoop sealer because it aint cheap?

 

+1, I'm interested in this as well. Anyone have any experience with this product?

 

Painting or powdercoating will make them look dull... you could possibly chome them... I used zoop, it doesn't take away from the shine thats for sure, kinda time consuming to apply. But, so far, my parts haven't seen an open road, so I couldn't tell you how it holds up.

 

7-sins,,, what do you mean by time consuming ive read the site instrustions and it dont look like it should take that much time??

 

Thats all I have to say about that.

 

As far as i can remember...

You have to make sure the parts are just how you want them to look, I was always getting parts back from places & tried to polish them up a little more. Remember your sealing it the way you want it to look from then on (doesn't sound like an issue for you).

Then you have to clean the parts with their water based cleaner and rinse with only distilled water, this then takes time to dry. -almost forgot... I dont think your suppose to touch the parts with your bare hands after this step, until they are sealed.

Once completely dry you have to mix the sealer part A & B together, it only keeps for a little bit once mixed so I used a syringe, or something with small measurements (cc's) so I could get the parts correct. You have to mix for a little & let sit, until the mixture isn't cloudy or something.

You then take the mixture and apply to lint free cloths, they are in the kit. It is kinda tough because you only have so much liquid to work with. You want to make sure the cloth is saturated evenly but but not dripping. It seems to work best if you really fold the cloth up and squeeze the liquid though out. I used a cut straw and held my finger over one end so I could get controlled drops of the liquid on the cloth.

You wipe the sealer over the parts lightly but evenly, then let dry. Once dry the parts will have a hazy/rainbow look to them.

At this point you have a final stage polish you need to apply. It works like waxing a car; apply, let dry, buff off.

I want to say I repeated this procedure (minus the cleaning) a couple times to my parts. Since once the sealer is mixed it goes bad in a few days, there is no reason to waste the sealer. I also wanted to make sure I didn't miss any crevices.

It's not something hard to do, maybe I was just kinda **** about it. But it seems a little more in depth then laying the part outside & hitting it with clear in a rattle can.

 

There are servel types of clears you can use when powdercoating.

Heres some that i use....

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...emType=PRODUCT

I think using this Single Stage Reflective Chrome powder and then putting some Full Gloss Clear would turn out looking damn good.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/p...roductID=14712


http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/p...&iProductID=67



Heres some pics of how it turns out

 

Yeah, powdercoating provide a wet look, but the polished part won't look as shiny as it woulf if it were bare metal.

 

Think i might give this zoop stuff a dable,,,, ill report back on my results,,, thanks alot guys