DIY Powdercoating. Professional results with surprising control.

Knowing that we would be tackling the restoration, we chose to buy the Eastwood home powdercoating kit with the dual-voltage gun. After a little practice, the results were fantastic. By varying the static charge and the amount of powder applied, we have managed to yield results that have the high detail of spray coatings with the strength of powder coat.

Professional shops give little care to the amount of material they apply so doing it yourself not only saves a lot of money, but also the results are much more accurate when replicating factory finishes. Another cool thing is the ability to blend custom finishes. In the photos below you will see us mixing various sheens of black to achieve a finish that has a gloss consistent with what left Ferrari.

More treasures found under grime

This one took a good amount of cleaning, restoration, and investigatory work to determine the exact correct finishes but the result was well worth the effort. Here are before and after images of the valve that regulates pressure to the rear calipers.

Crazy task #1: Polising away the most obscure of marks.

A new segment to the blog will be the 'Crazy task' where we chronicle some obscure job we decided to take on for no reason other than being totally crazy. Today was the tiny pin that the shift lever contacts to activate the reverse lights. In our car the pin had developed a tiny shiny spot from years of use and I just HAD to polish it even.

1 + 1 = 1

The old heater valve was not usable so we had to get another. Luckily near perfect replacements are available and because they are for Alfa Romeo's the price was not bad either. Comparing the old parts to the new ones revealed that all the differences were easily fixed with a little parts swapping and plating. In the end 2 valves gave up parts to make up one really accurate replacement.

Polishing , Plating, & a Special Pin

Today the lever to open the front hood (or bonnet for our colonial friends) was completed. As you will see from the photos it was in a sorry state. It was dis-assembled and then all the parts were polished or re-plated to exact as new condition. Even the tiny spring was plated and the whole assembly pivots on an exact replica stainless steel pin that Dad made on the lathe for us.