Finishing over an unwanted powdercoat color

[oldschoolanalog]

I got a great deal on a bunch of 1590BB enclosures. Powdercoat, no choice of colors.
Now I have a bunch of red enclosures.
I "intensely dislike" red enclosures.
No problem at the price paid. Luck of the draw and all that...
Anyway, can somebody please suggest a good way to repaint them. Without having to remove the existing powdercoating?
I understand that the majority of topcoats are not going to be as durable as the powdercoat. No problem.
I just want to stop seeing red.
Thanks!

[Ice-9]

Easy, just give them a quick rub down with some wet and dry or even a sink/dish sponge. This with take off the shine and give your new coating something to adhere to. Give it a quick coat of primer (maybe not needed if your intended colour is darker than the red)then paint with whatever colour you want.

[tiges_ tendres]

You can powder coat over the top of the red.

Otherwise you can heat the enclosures in your toaster oven and 'attempt' to remove the coating by scraping.  The longer and hotter you heat it, the more the plastic will break down.

It will sand off also, it just takes a ton of effort.

There are chemical strippers that will work, but they are expensive and hazardous.  It might be worth it if you have a lot of enclosures, but certainly not if you have less than or so.

[tiges_ tendres]

Duh, I didnt read the original query.  Sorry!

[MikeH]

I got a great deal on a bunch of 1590BB enclosures. Powdercoat, no choice of colors.
Now I have a bunch of red enclosures.
I hate red enclosures.
No problem at the price paid. Luck of the draw and all that...
Anyway, can somebody please suggest a good way to repaint them. Without having to remove the existing powdercoating?
I understand that the majority of topcoats are not going to be as durable as the powdercoat. No problem.
I just want to stop seeing red.
Thanks!

I got the same deal, and I too have all red enclosures.  But I'm hand painting over them, so I don't totally mind.

I'd say a light sand and a coat of primer should do it.

[theehman]

I got 2 plain ones, a blue, a green, 3 whites, and a cream.  Anyone want to trade?

[PRR]

Powdercoat is the same stuff as plastic car/airplane models. Plastic-model paints have the solvent to bite this plastic.

Testors had a wide selection of "custom" color paints for model cars.

[John Lyons]

Powdercoat is the same stuff as plastic car/airplane models.

(Respectfully) I don't think so. Powder coating doesn't use solvents as far as I know.
It's a dry powder that liquifies in the oven and solidifies when cooled. VERY few fumes
or out-gassing. It sands back to powder and doesn't pill up like model paints/enamels.

EDIT: Oh, wait...You're saying that they powder coating is the same as the plastic
parts, not the paints. Sorry. 

[oldschoolanalog]

Thanks for the replies! Now that I know the powdercoat is a plastic it should be fairly easy to refinish the boxes. I'll do tests on the inside of some of the covers to see what works best for me. Actually with powdercoat as an undercoat, I think paint would adhere better than it would to primed metal. Talk about a durable basecoat . Tests will tell...
Thanks again to all!

[caress]

eh.  just spraypaint over and be done with it- i've done it plenty of times and all my enclosures have held up.

[good air]

+1 with caress

[John Lyons]

Yep. Just sand 'em to scuff them up in order to help the pain bite
and you'll be fine. Done it with no problems.

[Strategy]

+1 on using powdercoating as a base coat. I've been nervous to get into hand painting and decalling starting from raw aluminum enclosures. I thought about getting cheep powdercoated ones and then repainting over that so there is a base coat.

Alternately, i've thought about taking my enclosures to the powdercoat shop I use in my city (actually a motorcycle/bicycle body paint shop kind of place) and asking if they will do a dip into the pre-treatment stuff they do before they powdercoat the color. I can't remember what it's called but they use some kind of primer base coat that is really really strong on the aluminum and helps the color coat to stick. Might be a better base for spray paint or other coating.

- Strategy

[The Tone God]

There is no general answer. There are different solvents and different base plastics used in powder coats and paint. We don't which ones are being used in this case and how they interact with each other. Because of this we are at best guessing. I have had both good and bad experiences with mixing paint and powder. The safest thing to do is test on a inconspicuous area like under the lid and see what happens.

Andrew

[amptramp]

+1 on using powdercoating as a base coat. I've been nervous to get into hand painting and decalling starting from raw aluminum enclosures. I thought about getting cheep powdercoated ones and then repainting over that so there is a base coat.

Alternately, i've thought about taking my enclosures to the powdercoat shop I use in my city (actually a motorcycle/bicycle body paint shop kind of place) and asking if they will do a dip into the pre-treatment stuff they do before they powdercoat the color. I can't remember what it's called but they use some kind of primer base coat that is really really strong on the aluminum and helps the color coat to stick. Might be a better base for spray paint or other coating.

- Strategy

You may be referring to Alodyne or Irridite which are both brand names of chromate conversion coatings.  They are excellent paint bases and can be had in clear and yellow finishes.  Chromate conversion is usable with aluminum casting alloys (whereas anodizing would leave the surface blotchy) and they are used extensively on the aircraft and spacecraft that I have worked on.  We always used the yellow finish so we could determine where anything was scratched and use a touch-up treatment of chromic acid on a spherical fabric applicator in the cap of the chromic acid bottle.  You can get coatings per MIL-C-5541 Class 1A and Class 3 with Class 3 being more electrically conductive.

The latest revision of the spec is here:

http://www.engineersedge.com/Download/Mil-C-5541F.pdf

Select Type II as this is not a military or medical application where hexavalent chromium is permitted.

[deadastronaut]

i dont paint at all now...i dont like scratches, chips etc...and i dont like being careful with something you stamp on...

looks nice for a while with any coating....for a while though!...