What is the best and most durable paint

[Dr Ron]

I just finished and painted two effects and used Krylon Fusion
(I choose it for the green color, which looked better than the others at Ace Hardware)
Of course, after I was done, I wondered if this was the best choice for painting aluminum stomp boxes.
(Krylon Fusion is for painting plastic, but it does metal too).

I've seen Hammerite mentioned a few times ... where do you get that?
Is Hammerite the spray paint of choice?

Is there a particular paint brand that really holds up well to stomping? Are there any that don't?
Do you also spray on clear? Or is that to protect the lettering?
(I thought it would be easier to leave the lettering out for this one)

Thanks!!

[chunks717]

I got an appliance epoxy spray from ace..............toxic as hell, but seems pretty tough.
If you can find someone who does powder coating, and you stock a lot of boxes at once,
I don't think you you do much better for durability..............
When I started sanding, priming,
painting, and clearcoating,9a few coats each) my finish got a LOT sturdier..............

[aron]

About 7 years ago, I was quoted about $70 for powder coating as many boxes as I could bring. Not bad.

[Peter Snowberg]

Nothing beats powder coating that I know of.

http://www.kustompowder.net/

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=36476.0

The next best thing is probably the 2 part epoxy auto paints that ZVex uses.

[brett]

If you can find someone who does powder coating

Absolutely. 10 x as tough as the next best thing.  Environmentally friendly, too.

[MetalUpYerEye]

I'm not sure how durable it is, but I painted my Tubescreamer with gloss white Rust-O-Leum and then after reading about www.paintyourownguitar.com in Guitar World magazine I decided to spray some lacquer over the white paint and sand it to a glossy finish (as depicted in the "paint your own guitar" books). Well I set the box out and sprayed some lacquer on and left. Came back about 20 minutes later to find that the lacquer had softened the paint and made about 500 creases and bubbles all over the box. I decided to leave it that way though, shrugging it off as one of those happy accidents that only occur every so often. The lesson here; unless you want veiny designs all over your stompbox, be careful with lacquer!

[bancika]

I found a company here that can do powder coating to just a few (or one) box. It costed ~70cent to paint box for tubescreamer, now I gave them 2 more to paint.

[Processaurus]

Hi, even though powder coat is probably the best pedal paint thats (somewhat) available to hobbyists, I've heard people get better results with spraypaint on aluminum if they use a self etching primer, to get the first coat to really stick.  In one of the hundreds of painting threads, I also remember Mark Hammer reccomending spray paint for tractors, if you don't mind  John Deere Green...

[pyrop]

Hi guys, I work in the paint industry so here is a list of the best to no so best for durability.
Note I wouldn't call the top 3 DIY unless you have access to the required application equipment. The rest a likely to be available in spray cans.
1: Powdercoating.
2: 2 part polyurethane.
3: 2 part epoxy.
4: 1 part polyurethane.
5: 1 part epoxy.
6: enamel. "slow drying"
7: enamel. "fast drying"
8: acrylic lacquer.

Posted by: Processaurus 
Insert Quote
Hi, even though powder coat is probably the best pedal paint thats (somewhat) available to hobbyists, I've heard people get better results with spraypaint on aluminum if they use a self etching primer, to get the first coat to really stick.  In one of the hundreds of painting threads, I also remember Mark Hammer reccomending spray paint for tractors, if you don't mind  John Deere Green...

You will definitely get better results if you use an etch primer on aluminium.
BTW I'd prefer to use Caterpillar yellow lol

pyrop

[Dave_B]

Added to the wiki.

Wiki > AllAboutEnclosures > Painting > Best types of paint

[delbowski]

hey

just to echo what everyone said about the powdercoating...

i do my own powdercoating here at home with a CHICAGO ELECTRIC powdercoating system.  the results are way better than anything i've tried before.  i used to do the primer, enamel, and topcoats, with baking for each coat of enamel, but that takes a long time and is still relatively easy to scratch.  powdercoating takes maybe 15-20 minutes from start to finish.  it cost me about $70 US for the coating system itself, about $40 US for a cheap air compressor from ebay, and about $15 US for 2lbs of powder (which will coat anywhere from 10-20 pedals depending on your reclaim and overspray).  you aren't supposed to cure the powder in your kitchen oven, so you gotta have some other oven or toaster oven dedicated to it, but that's not too expensive either (maybe a few bucks at Salvation Army).  the finish is as durable as anything that the pro companies are putting out, it takes screen printing well for me, and looks awesome.  in my opinion it's worth the small investment to have great looking, durable enclosures in a fraction of the time spray painting takes; not to mention that there's no odor and it's environmentally friendly.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42802


del

[hairyandy]

I vote powdercoating as well.  I bought the Craftsman powdercoat system and it works pretty good.  It takes a little getting used to but I can now get a good finish that's hard as nails in about 20-30 minutes...

[JimRayden]

What's the best to use for ZVex-ish hand-painted finish?

---------
Jimbo

[Connoisseur of Distortion]

if you are powder coating and silk screening, do you need to put a layer of clearcoat over the silkscreen, once applied? or should you do this at all?

and is it wiser to purchase a small powdercoating kit or get a local shop to do it?

[Dave_B]

Hey CoD, check out jjucius' comments on it:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=36392.msg303835#msg303835

He uses 2 coats of clear powder on top of the silkscreening.

[Mark Hammer]

I suspect that powder coating may well be the optimum.  For those of us who don't have ready access to it, or for whom it simply isn't cost effective, engine paint works nicely.  Dries quickly.  Bakes VERY nicely (intended to weather the kinds of temps an engine would reach), and appears to be quite strong and chip resistant in my limited experience.  Comes is a decent range of regular and metallic colours....including John Deere Green.  A little pricier than the usual Krylon or other hardware store paint, but not by much.  The stink is much "sweeter" for whatever reason, but seems to dissipate more quickly.  Also doesn't get all wrinkly when you spray clear lacquer over decals or rub-on lettering.