Question about lab metal filler

[norurb]

My goal is to powder coat my car with super mirror black. The question is how to fill in little dings in the metal. Do I use Lab Metal like it was bondo? Or is there another high-temp filler I can use? I can follow-up with thinned-out Lab Metal, no?

[bzer1]

Coating an entire car is a pretty tall order. How do you intend to cure it? Lab metal will fill you dings quite well, but it's not as easy to properly sand out as bondo would be. Make sure you're prepared for that.

[norurb]

[quote=bzer1]Coating an entire car is a pretty tall order. How do you intend to cure it?QUOTE]

Oops, sorry, didn't mean to ignore you. I'm just now getting back to my hobbies.

So how would I go about setting up an oven? Can I "simply" wire together a series of oven coils?

Or, use a series of propane heaters like this?:


Whatever setup I go with it needs to be considered on a budget under $3000.

[autobonifica]

ok...it'll need to be an oven big enough to fit your car into....$3k is out of the question....try about $7k if you build it yourself

[autobonifica]

oh and that propane heater won't really work...because it would take ~20-25 minutes of curing for each spot on the car....seeing as it won't heat an entire car at once. and that is of course if you can somehow maintain 400* in the spot where you are heating.

[chromo]

That heater also won't work likely to being fan forced air also. If like the one I had it really blows a hard stream of air out. You'll just blow the powder right off the car I think.

Also, how far down is this car going to be stripped when you bake it? Might be allot of parts in those doors and trunk area and under the hood, the dash etc.. that is not going to like 400F or more for 20-30 minutes. I expect your stripping the car, no vinyl dash, no vinyl door panels?? I don't think such parts would like the oven much.

Caswell does sell curing lamps. If you can do the car in sections perhaps that would be an option? I never used the lamps. Actaully I only recently did some parts using some-one elses system. They had trouble figuring out how to use it, so I did them some parts to show them how.

Anyway, perhaps you could try to section off areas of the car various ways to hold in the heat where needed and use some lamps instead of a full oven.
Be carefull not to warp the panels with excessive heat though.

If you could powder say a quarter panel, bake it with lamp to cure, then do other side, then trunk lid, then rear of car, etc... you might be able to get by with the lamps. Try to build some type of box to help hold the heat to the panel so it don't just drift into open air. I am thinking some welding blankets MIGHT work to help hold in some heat and could be help to the car body away from the areas being baked with strong magnets.
Not a best idea, but something I thought about trying if I try to do a truck frame for a 50's GMC.

[CarWiz]

Originally Posted by chromo

...Try to build some type of box to help hold the heat to the panel so it don't just drift into open air. I am thinking some welding blankets MIGHT work to help hold in some heat and could be help to the car body away from the areas being baked with strong magnets.

"Heat" lamps don't work that way. They use infrared light to heat the surface of an object, not the air. As long as you keep the light(s) aimed at the coated panel, the panel will continue to heat. The problem is controlling the heat and the power required to run the lamp(s). The better units use a remote thermostat but mine only goes to 250*. (Used for painting) You'd have to have a way to monitor the temp and control the lights with some accuracy. The lamps (bulbs) are very expensive to replace and they don't like being turned on and off. The thermostat needs to lower power not turn it off. Some just use a timer and the temp is controlled by distance from the panel. Still others use dual power/timers but the temp is still set by how far away you place the lamp.

And as already stated, you'd have to remove most vinyl, plastic and rubber parts in the area. The powder cure temps will destroy them otherwise.

[Banditperformance]

I finally broke down and ordered some Lab metal. Have a range hood here a customer wants coated, built out of sheet metal. Will try the Lab Metal to smooth the welds out. Any advice for smoothing welds? The hood has been sandblasted allready. Will I have to blast the Lab Metal to acheave a uniform surface? Or will it be undetectable? I am coating in Wrinkle Black, and I know it sometimes shows up sanding marks if I sand a piece with a flapper wheel on a grinder after blasting...

[chromo]

"They use infrared light to heat the surface of an object, not the air. "

Hi Carwiz, sorry if this reply is a bit late here.

I am thinking the point of containing the area is to prevent the heated part from losing it's heat and cooling off.

Yes the surface of a part is heated by the infrared light, but what happens when the 400F heated part is surrounded by say 70F air? The cooler air is trying to absorb the heat from the part for 30 minutes or so and the part is loosing heat to that cooler air. Sort of like a heat sink in an electronic board, just a large aluminum chunk keeps a part cool without any fan forced air stream.
To a lesser degree I think the same happens to a heated steel part like a frame rail, but inclose that rail in a box and the air heats up eventaully and stops stealing heat from the part.

[norurb]

Originally Posted by autobonifica

ok...it'll need to be an oven big enough to fit your car into....$3k is out of the question....try about $7k if you build it yourself

Ok, sounds like then I'll save a little more. I'm researching into how many oven coils it would take to heat an enclosed area, and how much power to it will all need. They just need to be wired in series? I know I'll need vents for exhaust gases. And yes, my car(s) will be stripped down to nothing.

I wonder if I could weld together a couple of these:


These things could "possibly" be had for cheap as I see them everywhere here in the NW, just sitting around unused. I can use a plasma cutter to open them, then a mig welder to join the pieces I need. I'm handy with both tools, well handy enough anyways.