Well, my painter left about an hour ago. Had the chassis, links, couple panels, etc all electrostatically painted. Amazing process, blew me away actually. Chassis charged negative, paint charged positive, just like powder coating, but no oven and it's done on-site, with no overspray at all. It's a perfectly clean and mess free process. Should be easier to paint match as well, powercoating is a ***** to paint match in a rattle can or spray. Painter left me about a quart of extra paint as well, ready to use for touch up.
Was primed first in a standard epoxy primer. The prep work to paint took me freakin' forever. Wiped it all twice with denatured alcohol after wirebrushing the entire thing. I wanted the paint to stick well and look good.
Here are some shots of it in prime. The primer isn't that different than the actual color. Went a little darker on the paint, close to a battleship gray. This paint mfr. called it "platform gray".
The paint application is bizarre. I was expecting a fog of paint, like an hvlp gun throws, but it was more like fine paint spatter drops coming out from an odd slinging ring. It wraps right around the tube covering almost the entire tube while painting from one side.
Some shots of it painted... I was amazed at the thickness of the paint and the high gloss that it dried with.
All that is required is that the part being painted can be grounded. he did this by tying into the ground of my shop through an outlet. I also had my links, supports, crossmember, bump cans, etc painted. I rigged up a piece of hanging metal, then hung each part from it by wired. This way he only had to attach to one part and the entire rack of parts was grounded. I did the two rear inner panels the same color as the chassis as well to make the outer panel pop more. they are aluminum, so we will cross or fingers to see how well the paint holds up on them.
One more money shot of the finished paintjob. Damn I'm happy. Now for the rebuild.
