Need suggestions for powder coating
 

Hey guys and possibly womenz. I live in a highly salty place and have been enjoying my car a lot this summer. Sounds good, right? NO. Parts on my car turn into crap, even under the hood. What? You say I should polish my aluminum parts so they are shiny and look baller? NO. I hate polishing and hate the look of polished parts. I need help on color ideas.

List of parts are: 1) Hotside intercooler pipes 2) Intake manifold 3)Valve cover 4)Radiator cover panel(maybe)

The turbo outlet pipe is just temporarily painted. The coat I have on it is just a sloppy wrinkle black and it's already been taken off. I did not like the finish of the can stuff(possibly just because it's a tight radius circular piece)
Attachment 7119

So the intake manifold will be coated no matter what. Big question is the color....what should it be? I am open to all ideas.

also, I've been working on a new valve cover.

Started as this:
Attachment 7120

It's done, but this is the latest pic I have. It's completely shaved now and flat as a white boy's ass.
Attachment 7121

I know it sounds stupid to some, but I really take color things seriously(<--gay??) and I would like some input on what you think would look good on the intake manifold and valve cover. Possible the intercooler pipes and the radiator cover.

I <3 U

the mani looks too good as is. I'd consider clear. Red wrinkle for the VC, and black wrinkle for the pipes. Red gloss on the radiator shroud

I know it's what you have now. But it's a good combination

That is not what I wanted to hear :mad:

I can't stand the way it looks now.

Black wrinkle valve cover. red Manifold. and black radiator cover.

High temp engine paint.

Black and red is always a good combo. I did a motor with a wrinkle red valve cover black cam gears wrinkle black intake mani. black block with wrinkle red brackets and mounts and it looked great.

Hey I'm a NB to the site...but have always loved an engine bay with a different color scheme than the car. Though, complementary, how about something blue?? And with a red car, I think it would look nice. Just my 2 cents.

The only downside I could see to a black wrinkle VC is that it's harder to catch oil leaks around it.

There's a local guy that does a lot of powder coating for miatas(Ride Rage Powder Coating) and the most popular is the red wrinkle with black letters.

What intake manifold is that O.O

I made it. It's a stock 1.6L flange cut about 6" out welded to that plenum.

I say go for a satin finish metallic look on the IM, anything else will look silly.

Black on everything!!!

Red manifold would look kinda silly.

It says powder coating in thread title! :magna:

I had thought about blue for the valve cover and front engine covers. The rest being black, might be a good look.

Yes, I've thought about that as well. I think too much black might be a bad thing(<--racist?!?!) Unfortunately, the only powder coating shop here knows they are the only powder coating shop here. So they like to give me super awesome price quotes like 150-200 for just the intake manifold :jerkit: WITH all the prep work done by me before hand.

If it pleases the Brain, I will have him know that I will be getting the car on a dyno sometime this year, lol!

Satin finish is a big possibility, however, I think black would look great too.

Inspiration:
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1312257098
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1312257098

Affirmative action up in my car, yo ;)

That engine bay looks awesome. Would you use the purple too? Reminds me of some parts that FM had for a while (flywheel, cam gears, etc.), so that would be fitting in a Miata bay. Might not work with your red exterior though.

Oh no, I was not thinking of doing his color scheme. I just like how his car is clean and uniform with the coloring. No purple stuff for me.

Dude, those prices are crazy.:bang: You can buy a Powdercoating gun for <$200 and get an oven for free on Craigslist. Powder is cheap and plentiful. I set up my own in my garage and have been powdercoating the $#!* out of stuff. It easier to use than spraypaint IMO.

I have my car slightly torn down right now for some changes.

I'm really considering sending stuff out to get done because nothing local is going to be of use to me.

Post some pics of the stuff you've done.

Just degrease the hell out of everything before you try to powdercoat it. Powdercoating doesn't like oil.

I'll post some up as soon as I get home.

Some stuff...

Nice pics
 

Nice color...actually I like that blue...what color is that exactly?? Sorry if you've mentioned this before, but what color is your car...just to get an idea of the overall color scheme. But definitely a nice color...it really makes the engine bay stand out.

The car itself is white with blue stripes. I just posted pics in the "post a pic of your NA thread" if you want to see the whole thing. The powder I used was a transparent blue.

FWIW, the equipment prices I listed are what mid-upper grade equipment costs. I paid $50.00 for my gun new, converted a $20.00 walmart crap furniture shelf/cabinet into a powder booth, and the oven was free.

It's a really cheap DIY hobby.

I'm not a big fan of the wrinkle-coat stuff. I'd go with a flat black on both the valve cover and manifold.

Wrinkle is too sexy to not love. Flat is for white women.

I guess I should clarify. I love the OEM coating on my s2k's valve cover. I just haven't seen any good aftermarket results yet in person.

My valve cover came out wonderful and that was a spray can and NO oven time. I will not spray my intake manifold because doing tight radius circles is a pain in the ass and usually comes out like doo-doo. I tested on a intercooler pipe and it came out like school bus fire.


I see what you're talking about here. That is a nice clean coat. Probably baked.
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1313613447

Nice
 

Is this from a spray can?? It looks really cool.

My car is viper blue with silver stripes. When I redid the suspension (FM 2.5 w/ poly bushings), I painted the A-arms orange. I'm currently in the middle of swapping a 99 head onto my 97, I painted the head Chevrolet orange (engine paint) and had the intake powdercoated the same color. I'm using the same valve cover as you, in stock satin black, which doesn't cover the cam pulleys, so I had them powdercoated orange, also. I did the Begi coolant reroute and removed the stock thermostat housing , installed a freeze plug in the hole. Did away with EGR valve and tube, made 1/4" thick stainless block-off plates. It's looking great!