painting aluminum

[IRONCOBRA]

are u able to paint aluminum sheets any color u want i wanna do a florence green but i dont want it to chip if i hem it or get in a wreck so any ideas would be cool thanks

[jrkracing54]

powder coat it

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

My father used to paint sheets for his body back in the late 80s and early 90s. I know he wet-sanded the sheets real good first. I am not sure if he did anything special with the paint? It stayed on thru bending, impacts, etc.

[Graff Spee]

If the sheet is already painted all you have to do is scuff the panel down and spray as you would normaly do in a refinishing situation. If it is bare aluminum you have to use a self etching primer or you will not have adequate adhesion and the paint will peel. A florescent paint is a three stage process consisting of the base color a semitranslucent color and finally a clear top coat. The clear coat has UV screeners in it to help with color hold out. The problem you will have is that any florescent color you use has a UV tolerance of about 30 days. Even if you cover the car all the time its not racing ,it will still fade and look terrible! Nascar used to repaint the Tide car every race just because of the color holdout issue regardless of incurred damage. A better idea for you would to go the vinyl route. You can get florescent colors (look at road signs) but you will pay proportionately. If you do try painting the panels make sure that they are prebent!!!! If you want more info on the paint you can look it up. Just go to "House of Kolor" web site. I hope I was able to help. Good Luck.

[RW57]

Somtimes it is just better to bite the bullet and make new decking/body if you can do it yourself or some of it. When you consider the cost of good paint supplies/your time etc. My sons new car we are building the decking was ok we looked at painting it but looking at the big picture we are going to make new decking our time is free lol decking is around 65 dollars a sheet we can do it with 3 sheets 195. 00 vs probably at least 100.00 for paint and you know the new will look better. Just one man's opinion

[zeroracing]

We use HOK often on our cars with great results.

In response to rw57, I agree if you want a shelf color, though a single stage can be cheap and easy, but if you want a wild color you will have to paint or wrap, wraps just don't "pop" to me.

[RW57]

I will point out on our old car we painted the decking orange with some single stage paint like you are talking about prepped it with a little sanding it looked pretty good and held up for 2 seasons and this was the 3rd or 4th paint job on it . another factor for us on new car is decking was not hemmed and is flimsy.