Today I was feeling well enough and had enough time to paint my suspension with Por15 products.

The por15 applied nicely as usual. It flowed out beautifully and when it became tacky, which was my cue to use Sterling Silver topcoat.
GARBAGE. I could not stir it enough to mix the globs at the bottom of the can. Since I was running out of time(drying) I went ahead and brushed it on. Although it seemed pretty well mixed, except for the bottom of the can, it did not flow out at all and I was left with ugly lumpy brush marks. I'm very unhappy.

I should have left everything black, as it looked really good.

I originally wanted everything silver, now I'm pretty much stuck with black. Since they look like crap, I'm going to have to try to sandblast the control arms again.

There's your product warning. Just pay for powdercoating.

[This message has been edited by Joe Torma (edited 01-31-2006).]

quote Originally posted by Joe Torma: Just pay for powdercoating.

or not. i have quoted powdercoating. its expensive! you possibly got a bad can. i would look at the expiration date and possbily contact the company. i believe others have used this product without these issues.

Try to POR15 your cradle, and then see what happens to it when you get brake fluid / oils on it.

Long short of it, I now have a cradle that has been professionally stripped as large chunks of a "protective coating" were missing, chipping, and falling off of that to which it has been applied.

I'll never use it again.

quote Originally posted by Flyguyeddy: i have quoted powdercoating. its expensive!

I'll do it cheap, and I do great work. The majority of difficulty in powdercoating is sandblasting everything spotlessly clean.

I POR15d my cradle and Chassis-Coated it black. Been 3 years or so, and it's still good.. I have a tranny leak, and had tranny fluid all over the place.. The POR-15 has held still.. Looks good, still on.

I blasted all the parts, applied their "metal ready" and let it flash rust. I believe it's supposed to hold up to most solvents and such...mcaanda, how did you prep the cradle?

I sure hope I can blast this all off. Maybe the trick is to spray the silver on.

If the air was very damp the day you did this , paint may have started to set up already. I did some POR 15 work on a damp day and the dang stuff started to stiffen up in my paint bucket in about 10 minutes.

Well, humidity could have been a problem, but the Por15 flowed out fine, so why not this stuff. The guy at the company said that there have been no bad batches and got all pissed at me.

I have seen people with your problem with the pors15 and I have seen people without the problem. The only bad powder coating I have seen was a guy that did it himself at home. For me powder coating is the only way to go. I just got my suspension back from the coaters and it is perfect! Check out page 3 of my thread (ABT: The Steel LAdy) for pix.

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The Steel Lady: Pix to follow........

Super Bowl XL!!!

quote Originally posted by mcaanda: Try to POR15 your cradle, and then see what happens to it when you get brake fluid / oils on it. Long short of it, I now have a cradle that has been professionally stripped as large chunks of a "protective coating" were missing, chipping, and falling off of that to which it has been applied. I'll never use it again.

I've never tried brake fluid, but I can tell you POR15 is safe with tranny fluid and oil. My cradle now has a good coating of both, and the only places the POR15 is flaking, is where I've used a jack on it.

quote Originally posted by Joe Torma: I blasted all the parts, applied their "metal ready" and let it flash rust. I believe it's supposed to hold up to most solvents and such...mcaanda, how did you prep the cradle? I sure hope I can blast this all off. Maybe the trick is to spray the silver on.

Joe, I used their whole "kit" system. Metal ready, prep...did each step by step as directed.

I will tell you, it cost me 2o.oo to get my cradle blasted, and when I talked to the guy that did it, he was not happy about it at all. Where the stuff was that was not touched by grease and oil, I guess he had a hell of a time getting it off. I did notice that it is VERY brittle as well in the areas where you'd put jacks and what not as stated above as well.

--Allen

I've gotten excellent results with the regular POR15 Black, but didn't care for the silver. Like Joe found, it was impossible to stir it enough to get it mixed uniformly.

Surprisingly, the finished project looked better than I feared it would, but still haven't found the best way to stir the silver. Maybe its supposed to be this way?

Paint shaker?

They recommend you DON'T shake thier stuff! Puts too many air bubbles in the mix. I'm not sure how to win with what I want(ed) to do.
I wanted a "flashy" looking undercarriage, but looks like I'm going to have to settle for black. The POR black is nice and glossy

FYI: Aircraft stripper will eat away at the stuff. Home Cheapo didn't have any, but I got some strong spray can stuff that eats through polyurethane, and it's working too. I'm sick of sandblasting...I'll just use blasting to touch up.

Here's some pics of the mess. Black looks awesome...there has to be a trick to using the silver.
Since I have so much of it, I may try to figure it out on some scrap metal.

[This message has been edited by Joe Torma (edited 01-31-2006).]

Here's the final truth of POR15 that I've learned by experience...

All that metal prep stuff they sell is for treating hopeless rust. If you sand blast your parts to the clean metal, you should not use that stuff. I know they say to do it but it will screw up the grip the POR15 has on the metal pores. If you paint 2 or 3 coats directly onto clean blasted surface, it will stick forever. I've used prybars on my A-arms(painted) to get a spring (also painted) to seat on the front suspension. The paint amazed my mechanic as it held up to hammering and beating and pry-bar twisting and levering. I was just under there and it looks as good as new.

Warning to those who would use POR15 in places where the sun would see it. It turns flat black. I dont know if it turns to crap or not but it is best left for underbody and areas that wont be assaulted by UV light.

The silver POR15 turns quite non-silver with time. I painted my rear hub-thing and it is now a nice...pale green metalic. I hear this from other people too. And no, it doesnt go as smooth and flat and shiny as the black.

I've used the flat-black overcoat. I suggest you do not try to brush it on. It works great if you spray it on, but you have to thin it down quite a bit first.

Here's the most holy secret of using POR15: Never open the can. Take a screwdriver, pop a hole in the top, and drip it out onto the lid or onto a bowl or something. Once you're done using it, take a piece of plastic wrapper of some kind and use the POR15 dripped around the edges of the hole to glue the plastic back over the hole. This works over and over and oxygen never gets in! It makes the paint last till you are done with the can... no hardened black crust when you go to use it, amen.

quote Originally posted by Automoda: Blah, blah, blah...

Just for that, you get a '+' from me, I'll tell you that much.

quote Originally posted by Automoda: ...All that metal prep stuff they sell is for treating hopeless rust.... The silver POR15 turns quite non-silver with time. I painted my rear hub-thing and it is now a nice...pale green metalic. I hear this from other people too. And no, it doesnt go as smooth and flat and shiny as the black. .

Thanks alot for the info! +
The metal prep is supposed to make it "flash" rust, which is what apparently allows it to bite better. Seemed to be ok since I had trouble even sandblasting it off....but your comment about the silver turning green has me concerned! Screw it. Black suspension is good enough for me.

[This message has been edited by Joe Torma (edited 02-01-2006).]

Just to chime in again. Rust bullet makes a silver product.. It is aweful. Dries really grainy, and the rust comes right through, like it was painted with latex.

-- just in case you decided to try that. --

I have bought from this guy, he knows a lot about the POR15 line.
Custon Product Sales
541-345-8092

his site is: paint4rust.com

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[This message has been edited by 30+mpg (edited 02-01-2006).]

Why not POR15 it black, and spray paint over the black with a couple coats of the "chrome in a bottle" aka brushed aluminum stuff? You'll have the protection of the coating with the look of aluminum...

quote Originally posted by ryan.hess: Why not POR15 it black, and spray paint over the black with a couple coats of the "chrome in a bottle" aka brushed aluminum stuff? You'll have the protection of the coating with the look of aluminum...

As Ryan says you can let the POR-15 dry then scuff the surface and paint it with regular enamel paint.

Taken from POR-15's FAQ:CAN I PAINT OVER POR-15 WITH OTHER PAINTS?

Absolutely. POR-15 will accept all paints, including lacquer-based paints. POR-15 Tie-Coat Primer is the best prime coat to use before topcoating POR-15. Be sure to read thoroughly our directions and tip sheets regarding topcoating before using POR-15.

That sucks man I hope that you get this issue resolved and you get it together soon. I still dont have mine on the ground so you might still win

As for powdercoat, I spent $400 to get the stuff blasted, silver powder, then top coated with clear powder. That did everything front and rear as well as a few other underside things. I did powder because It holds up great and I could not paint it for what he charged me. I always consider my time is money when figuring which route to do things.

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88GT 3.4SC
88GT T-TOP
87GT VERT (build in progress)
www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/053203.html

I was quoted $200-400, just for the control arms. Your silver powdercoated parts look so much better, but I just can't afford it.
I would regular-paint my stuff silver, but I don't want to see any chipping from rocks. If the stripper did it's job(pretty messy) I'll be able to blast the parts tomorrow and paint.

I don't know were you got your POR15 but they have a web page www.por15.com. theres paints for chassis with po 15 attributes you can use instead their silver,black or gloss back just like the por15.You can use them over the por15 or by them selves.

quote Originally posted by Joe Torma: I was quoted $200-400, just for the control arms. Your silver powdercoated parts look so much better, but I just can't afford it. I would regular-paint my stuff silver, but I don't want to see any chipping from rocks. If the stripper did it's job(pretty messy) I'll be able to blast the parts tomorrow and paint.

If you do the sandblast I will do your parts for $80, you pay all shipping. I did my neighbors control arms in chrome smoke, they looked sharp.

quote Originally posted by Joe Torma: I was quoted $200-400, just for the control arms. Your silver powdercoated parts look so much better, but I just can't afford it. I would regular-paint my stuff silver, but I don't want to see any chipping from rocks. If the stripper did it's job(pretty messy) I'll be able to blast the parts tomorrow and paint.

Ouch that is alot of $$$,
Thanks,
I have the same problem thats why there is no progress on the vert,
Yea I think paint would not hold up well,
and keep us posted

Electrathon, that's a great deal! Do you have any pics of the chrome smoke, that sounds nice...or pics of anything else you've done? How long it will take for you to do the parts?

There are numerous posts in the mall of parts that I have coated. Do a search under my user name and you will find them. For me to do them that cheap you need to blast them first. I am in Oregon, so shipping might be more than the cost of coating.

15 years ago I wire brushed the seat on my ford tractor (which had never since new been inside) treated it with mild acid and painted it with black Por 15. Now it is sunfaded to a flat grayish black BUT THERE IS NO RUST and in all that time the tractor has never been under cover. My 2 cents on Por 15.

On an 86' gt i sold I used the black por-15 and sanded the surface then painted witg regular enamel.. looked great.. Has 36K more miles now and the new owener dropped it off for some koni's and the cradle/control arms look really nice still.