The Process

The following section explains how best to prepare your parts and what happens to them when they are received at our facility.  Although this is how we refinished our patio set for the showroom. Every project has it's own unique circumstances and should be dealt with as your needs require. 

Before	After

Prior to sending us your parts, please be sure they are in good mechanical condition.  All parts need to be completely grease free with no rubber, plastic, gaskets, grease fittings or any thing that may be heat sensitive  If "body work" is needed DO NOT USE BONDO!  Use a metal based filler that can stand the 400 degrees Fahrenheit oven such as Lab Metal or All Metal.  If you wish, we can blast your parts prior to you fixing the areas.

In order to get the best quality job possible, we decided to disassemble the patio set.  This is not necessary, but to remove all the rust and paint in between the pieces, we ground and cold chiseled the nuts and bolts off.  When disassembling anything, be sure to take pictures as you go along, marking the parts with tags may help, and keep track of any hardware you need to replace.  we kept the chairs, table and loveseat all separate due to different size legs. 

When dropping off your parts, be sure to bring everything including all the hardware you wish to coat.  If you wish to bring parts in stages or find a straggler there is no problem doing them later.

Now is the perfect time to "dry fit" your parts.  Whether it is a custom build motorcycle or a patio chair you want to make sure everything lines up and bolts together.  If any adjustments need to be made it is easier and less expensive to rework now than after they have been powder coated.

To remove previous coatings such as paint or powder coat, the parts are media blasted in our plastic bead booth.  If they were aluminum or any other "soft" metal this would be the only blasting required.  Steel parts and any "hard" metal is then media blasted in our aluminum oxide cabinet.  This will remove any rust and "profile" the metal for better adhesion.  The parts are inspected before sending on.

Once media blasted, parts are brought into the powder coat set-up room.  This is where they are checked over for best place to hang from a hook and whether it needs masking or plugging.  Any area that needs to hold a crucial tolerance or cannot be powder coated for any reason will be masked and plugged with high temperature resistant tape and plugs.

The parts are then brought into the powder room.  Smaller parts are hung in the booth while larger and heavier parts are powder coated on racks outside of the booth.

Once all the parts are powder coated, they are hung on the rack inside the oven.  Depending on the powder used they are then baked at an average of 400 degrees (surface temperature after pre-heating) for up to 20 minutes.

After the full baking time is reached, all parts are taken out of the oven and hung on cooling racks.  They are moved to the inspection/packing area and when the parts reach room temperature they are now completely cured and ready to go.  We give them a final inspection and wrap them for pick-up.  The paperwork is signed off and given to the office to record and call the customer for pick-up.

At this time your assembly (if you disassembled your project) should go along nicely and leave you with a top quality job to be proud of.  Although powder coat is quite durable, care should be taken in the reassembly stage.  Assembling on rubber mats, carpeting, or cardboard is recommended.  When sliding parts together, to avoid possible banging of parts which may result in scratching the finish or chipping, try using masking tape to tape off the parts.  This is a tip used when putting a motorcycle engine back into its frame.  Should you need to touch-up for any reason (i.e. hook placement, reaming or drilling new holes) use a top of the line oil base paint in the closest color you can find or have it mixed, such as rustoleum or automotive paint touch-up kits.