How do you paint a stainless body?

[factoid]

I've looked around and can't find a good post outlining the process for painting a stainless mainbody.

I assume one needs to sand it first, but I don't know if there are any other steps like primer, treatments for the metal, etc...

Any special paint or sealant to use? I'd like to maintain a matte finish if possible, but I know you can't really paint metal and expect it not to flake if you don't coat it with something, I'm just not sure what.

I'd consider powder coating if it's not terribly expensive and there was somewhere I could take it locally.

[BigEvil]

Talk to Luke, he does powder coating at reasonable prices.

[TwilightG]

Powder coating is definitely more resilient and less likely to flake off (yes, you can still chip it )

I've had work done by VooDoo_Coatings (now Ion Coatings, but that's his screen name)
Excellent work @ reasonable prices.

[MoeMag]

Sand it (I would say 400 grit or higher) or hit it with steel wool if its scratch and dent. Wipe it down with some MEK, find some primer for the first coat then paint. Your paint is only as good as your prep.

You can get satin paint just as easily as gloss. Or just bead blast it before Prime/paint if you want more texture than a satin paint.
But yeah powder coat for the win.

...wait, why paint stainless?

[Ando]

Wipe it down with some MEK

...And don't have kids. They'll come out

Regular old alcohol will work just fine.

[factoid]

Sand it (I would say 400 grit or higher) or hit it with steel wool if its scratch and dent. Wipe it down with some MEK, find some primer for the first coat then paint. Your paint is only as good as your prep.

You can get satin paint just as easily as gloss. Or just bead blast it before Prime/paint if you want more texture than a satin paint.
But yeah powder coat for the win.

...wait, why paint stainless?

Because I've got a crappy body laying around and want to do something to fix it up cheap. I don't really want to pay to ship it two ways just for a powder coat job. It's not a part I care that much about, I just don't want it to look completely like crap on the field.

Googling around it seems like a powder coating job for a similar sized motorcycle parts or something is between 10 and 20 bucks, so it's not as expensive as I thought. maybe I'll just go with that since I'll probably spend just as much for the MEK, primer and paint.

If not this body is not sticking around long before I replace it with a ULE, so paint will be fine, I just didn't know if there was a particular trick to it. I used to see a lot of painted mag bodies back in the day, but I never thought to ask how they did it.

[Hobbez]

I went through this just recently. Prep your surface and use an automotive self-etching primer and good automotive or equipment paint. Get it from an autoparts store or an autobody shop. If you dont have (or know someone who has) the spray equipment to work with automotive paint, then I really wouldnt bother. Any other kind of primer and paint will just flake or rub off. And use a clear top coat too. Dont paint the bottom of the body where it meets the rail though.

[athomas]

Yes, mask off the areas that make contact with the rail. A coating of paint will change the tolerances and will affect the operation of the valve.

[factoid]

Yes, mask off the areas that make contact with the rail. A coating of paint will change the tolerances and will affect the operation of the valve.

Is that true even of a powder coating job? If I'm sanding off the original grey finish on the body shouldn't the new powder coat return it to its original thickness?

I found a guy locally who says he'll powder coat it for 10-15 dollars, which seems like an OK deal to me. I'd probably spend at least 10 on paint, sand paper and primer.

What is the correct way to mask off a piece before having it powder coated? Will ordinary masking tape withstand the process or do you need something special?

[OPBN]

The original gray finish is just raw SS, there is no coating. Try your hand at polishing it. Start with 200 grit sanpaper and keep working your way up to 1500. It'll take you hours to do it, but you can get it to a near mirror finishi if done correctly.

[leloup]

Is that true even of a powder coating job? If I'm sanding off the original grey finish on the body shouldn't the new powder coat return it to its original thickness?

I found a guy locally who says he'll powder coat it for 10-15 dollars, which seems like an OK deal to me. I'd probably spend at least 10 on paint, sand paper and primer.

What is the correct way to mask off a piece before having it powder coated? Will ordinary masking tape withstand the process or do you need something special?

Yes, you need to mask it off before powdercoating. I know ken at kpcs does a good job (he did mine). He can probably do it for cheap if you send it to him. I got one and a half markers done with a two color fade (which he said he would never do again because of the difficulty) for $60.

[athomas]

Is that true even of a powder coating job? If I'm sanding off the original grey finish on the body shouldn't the new powder coat return it to its original thickness?

Any coating that has a thickness of more than a few thousandths needs to be masked off. That would be any paint or coating. As mentioned, the original body is stainless steel. All you are doing with it when sanding with a fine paper, is polishing it. They look really nice when polished.

For masking, place good quality tape on the body where it sits on the rail. Then fasten the body to the rail and cut the excess tape off (the tape that sticks out from the rail). When you remove the body, the rail area should be masked off.

Another way to do it is to mask the rail and paint the body with the rail attached. Remove the rail when the paint is almost dry.

[factoid]

Any coating that has a thickness of more than a few thousandths needs to be masked off. That would be any paint or coating. As mentioned, the original body is stainless steel. All you are doing with it when sanding with a fine paper, is polishing it. They look really nice when polished.

For masking, place good quality tape on the body where it sits on the rail. Then fasten the body to the rail and cut the excess tape off (the tape that sticks out from the rail). When you remove the body, the rail area should be masked off.

Another way to do it is to mask the rail and paint the body with the rail attached. Remove the rail when the paint is almost dry.

Would that same process be used for powder coating? One of my buddies told me where he gets his motorcycle parts powder coated and they'll do it pretty cheap.

I'm just wondering whether masking tape would survive that process or whether I need to use something else.

I might just have the rail done too, though I'm sure I still need to mask off the area where it attaches to the trigger frame for the same reasons.

EDIT: After a bit of googling I discovered the type of high-temp tape I need to mask for powder coating jobs. Now to find somewhere that sells this stuff. I think I can plug both ends of the body with stoppers. Not sure how to plug up the powerfeed....maybe I'll just find something that goes snug all the way through.

[athomas]

I might just have the rail done too, though I'm sure I still need to mask off the area where it attaches to the trigger frame for the same reasons.

The bottom of the rail where the trigger frame attaches doesn't need to be masked off. The trigger frame to rail surface doesn't affect the timing. The body and rail need to be masked where they attach to prevent any additional thickness which would change the on-off and sear timing.

[SockMonkey]

I had a stainless body that was pray painted black by previous owner. I just too it to the wire wheel on the bench grinder. The mat stainless finish looks a hell of a lot better then the sh***y paint job. and if you paint it, its just gonna get scratched/chipped again.