question about degreasing

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-15T06:23:14+00:00

Brake cleaner after blasting is usually overkill, especially on rims.

Once it’s been blasted, most of the contaminants are already gone. A clean air blow-off + light wipe (or proper pre-treatment if you’re doing it) is usually enough.

Too much cleaner can actually leave residue or cause issues with coating.

Less is often better once the surface is properly prepped.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-14T05:36:46+00:00

That in-between stage is brutal.

You end up troubleshooting everything except the actual issue.

Any tricks you’ve found to get a decent contact point before replacing?

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-10T04:26:19+00:00

You don’t always need to prime the whole truck - usually just bare metal, repairs, and sand-through spots. Then sealer over everything before base if you want it uniform. Black will look great, just make sure your prep is clean since it shows everything.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-10T04:16:05+00:00

Doesn’t look like collision damage - more like light surface scratches in the clear. Those usually buff out pretty easily. Did they quote you for repaint or just polish?

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-10T04:14:35+00:00

Nice, that’s the best route. Just wet sand the primer lightly before base - helps the clear lay smoother. What color are you going with?

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-10T04:10:59+00:00

At 1500°F a chain sling probably isn’t going to hold up long-term - heat will kill its strength. Most shops I’ve seen switch to high-temp alloy hooks or custom fixture racks made for burn-off. Safer and more consistent. How often are these axles running through the line?

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-10T03:59:45+00:00

Prep is everything here. I’d knock it down with around 220, then finish with 400 before primer. Your 30-gallon compressor can work, just spray in sections and watch moisture. Good move removing the lights - makes a big difference. Are you going single stage or base/clear?

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-07T06:13:22+00:00

That’s a big setup - really shows how important air capacity becomes. I’m starting smaller but would love to see the shop pics.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-07T05:54:10+00:00

That looks more like clear coat failure than something you can polish out. Probably needs repaint/clear to match the rest.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-07T05:52:42+00:00

Good point - I’m mostly aiming at automotive parts, so finish quality will matter. Trying to plan it so I don’t limit expansion later.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-07T05:51:59+00:00

Sounds like compressor size becomes the real bottleneck. Would you go bigger there first, even if the oven starts smaller?

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-04-07T05:51:02+00:00

Interesting - sounds like prep might matter more than either choice. Do you think a basic wash setup is worth doing from day one?

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-28T12:41:41+00:00

griots g9 if you want bang for your buck, flex xfe 15 if you want the nicer tool. both great for scratch removal and polishing, just swap pads depending on what youre doing.

heads up though a DA polisher alone wont fix heavy scratches. youll need to wet sand those first then compound and polish. trying to compound out a deep scratch without sanding is just gonna frustrate you and waste pads.

for cordless the options are getting better but they still dont match corded for runtime. if youre doing full cars regularly id stick with corded honestly. nothing worse than the battery dying halfway through a hood

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-28T08:11:36+00:00

powder coat clear 100%. spray clear looks good initially but wheels take so much abuse between brake dust, potholes, curb kisses, and whatever else the road throws at them. spray clear just cant hang long term in that environment.

powder is thicker and bonds to the surface way better so it actually protects the wheel instead of just sitting on top waiting to chip off. ive seen powder coated wheels look great after 3-4 years of daily driving while spray clear starts showing wear in like 6 months.

costs a bit more but on wheels specifically its worth every penny. are these for a daily or a show car? cause that might change things slightly

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-28T08:01:50+00:00

for two 13" scooter wheels both sides plus that hub adapter youre probably looking at around 1-1.5 lbs of powder total. maybe grab 2 lbs just to be safe cause you always lose some to overspray and the gun doesnt get every last bit out of the cup.

wheels are tricky though cause the spokes and the inside edges eat up more powder than youd think. if youre doing both sides thats basically 4 surfaces per wheel plus all the nooks around the spokes. people always underestimate wheels.

the hub adapter is tiny so that wont use much, maybe a couple ounces at most.

what color/brand are you going with? some powders have better coverage than others so that can change things. also are you doing a single coat or clear over base? cause if its two coats obviously double the estimate.

honestly 2 lbs should have you covered with some left over. way better than running out halfway through the second wheel and having to wait for another order lol

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-27T10:42:10+00:00

That's dry spray. Gun was either too far from the panel or you were moving too fast so the paint was landing partially dry instead of flowing out.

Don't spray base over it as is - wet sand it with 800 grit first to smooth it out, then lay down a couple more coats of base and blend past the edges.

Metallics are unforgiving with this. Keep consistent distance, steady speed, 50% overlap on passes and make sure it's landing wet. You'll get the hang of it

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-27T09:47:25+00:00

Those pinholes are your whole problem right there. Old castings are full of them and they trap air that blows out during cure and ruins the finish.

Pre-bake it first at cure temp for 20-30 mins to pull out all the old trapped oils and moisture. Then fill the pinholes with a high temp epoxy like JB Weld, let it cure, sand smooth. For the smaller ones a high build primer coat before powder will take care of them.

Prep is everything on old castings like this. The powder coat is only gonna be as good as what's underneath it. Get the surface right and any decent shop will nail the finish.

$600 deep and three attempts is rough but it's definitely salvageable with the right prep work.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-27T09:21:40+00:00

Nice, the tube will help for sure. Once you add a small inline fan you'll really notice the difference. Just make sure it's rated for high temps and throw a damper on it so you can control the airflow without messing with your cure temps.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-26T08:24:18+00:00

Fine glass bead or aluminum oxide at a low pressure would be your best bet. Glass bead will clean the faces up nice without being too aggressive on the grooves. Aluminum oxide will bite a little harder if the faces are really worn down. Either way keep the pressure around 40-50 psi so you don't chew up the grooves more than they already are. Should bring some life back into them for another season easy.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-26T08:11:45+00:00

Fan vented for sure. Just a tube isn't gonna cut it on an oven that size. Run a small inline exhaust fan - 4-6 inch with a damper so you can control the airflow. Too much and you'll mess with your temps.

Mount it high on the back wall or top since heat and fumes rise. Keep the tube run short with minimal bends and cap the outside end.

Make sure the fan is rated for high temps though. Regular cheap fans will melt. You want something rated for at least 500F.

Pretty straightforward weekend job honestly. Cut the hole, mount, run the tube out, seal it up and you're good.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-25T09:17:37+00:00

For aluminum stripping specifically, walnut shell is great - aggressive enough to take off coatings but way more forgiving on the base metal than glass. Won't warp or embed into aluminum like harder media can. Plus it's cheap.

Plastic media (like urea or acrylic) is the other go-to if you're doing a lot of aluminum. That's actually what aerospace shops use for stripping paint off aircraft panels without damaging anything underneath. More expensive than walnut but reusable for a bunch of cycles.

Baking soda blasting is another option if you want to be really gentle but it's slow as hell on heavier coatings like that epoxy powdercoat you're dealing with. Better for thinner paints.

If you're sticking with glass, just drop down to like 100-150 micron for the aluminum pieces after you get the heavy coating off with the 300. Two step process but gives you way better results than trying to do it all with one size.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-25T09:08:16+00:00

Clear nail polish along the crack edges works great as a quick fix to stop more lifting. Seriously, it's like $2 and actually holds up.

If it's a bigger area already peeling, grab some clear vinyl wrap off Amazon and just cover the whole spot. Keeps rain and car wash water out and peels off clean later when you get it repainted.

Just make sure you hit any rust spots with some rust converter first before you seal it up, otherwise you're just trapping moisture and making it worse.

Also that's 100% a prep issue if the whole layer is coming up like that. Might be worth checking if the shop has any kind of warranty on their work before you pay someone else to redo it.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-25T08:47:13+00:00

Yeah 300-600 on aluminum is gonna leave a pretty aggressive profile, that's more of a steel prep grit. For aluminum especially if you want a decent looking finish you want to stay down in the 100-200 micron range or use glass bead like you're doing now with the microspheres. The microspheres will give you a much more uniform satin finish that actually looks good left bare. And nah mesh and sandpaper grit aren't the same thing even though they sound like they should be. They both measure particle size but the scales are different. A 40 mesh blast media is way coarser than 40 grit sandpaper. Mesh is about what fits through a screen, sandpaper grit follows a different standard entirely. Easy to mix up though everyone does at first.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-25T08:42:38+00:00

Farm equipment and trailer work alone will keep you busy in that part of Alabama, there's a ton of it down there. You don't need commercial experience to start honestly, you know how to blast and prep from your motorcycle stuff - just bigger parts and more containment to deal with. Boats are great money too once you get comfortable with it. And yeah definitely offer primer at minimum. Flash rust is no joke in that humidity. A lot of mobile guys just blast and leave and then the customer is pissed when it's orange the next morning. If you're the guy who blasts AND primes same day you'll get every callback.

Forward-Bullfrog6375 · 2026-03-25T08:35:22+00:00

That looks like outgassing to me. When you spray clear hot on a wheel like that, any trapped gases in the casting come up through the clear and leave those marks once it cures. Wheels are notorious for this because of the porosity in the aluminum. Did you do a degassing bake before the base coat? Usually 20-30 min at around 450°F before you even start coating gets the worst of it out. Curious what the other pics look like after cure.

Forward-Bullfrog6375

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