What should it take to chip/damage powder coating?

I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable with PowderCoating could help provide me with guidance and answer a few questions.

What sort of abuse should powder coating on 1/8 aluminum or 3/16 steel be able to take before chipping?

My anecdotal experience growing up with things powder coated is that they'll usually take a good beating, such as you can drop a tumbler on concrete and at most it'll have a bit of rash on it or you can accidentally drop a tonka truck from a play structure onto concrete below, in which case it'd likely just sent and scrape the metal (unless it was already badly weathered and exposed to lots of UV) but none of these items were excessively heavy.

Should for example, dropping a steel ~20/b powder coated object 8" onto hard, dried up dirt cause that corner to chip, exposing ~ 6mm or so of bar metal.

Should accidentally slapping the edge of a powder coated 3/16 steel plate with a ratcheting 10mm box wrench chip that?

My (non expert) assumption is that those should have at most scraped the PC but not caused it to chip entirely as the PC should be somewhat bonded to the metal; and that it should take something like a sharp or a abrasive impact (like a heavy impact or scraping it) in order to expose the raw metal?

My end goal is to figure out whether what I've encountered is normal for powder coated vehicle armor or just poor application.

 

I was a powdercoater for a number of years. Your scenarios are mostly unspecific enough that I could imagine versions of them where yes, the powder would chip/damage, and others where no they wouldn't. Different powders are also made from different materials and may be more or less durable.

Dropping an empty tumbler on concrete from ~4 feet and it lands on its side or hits on an uncoated part first, probably just some minor abrasion. Dropping a full tumbler 4 feet and it lands on a corner, ehh might chip or scuff it up more, might not.

Dropping a tonka truck from a play structure onto concrete - there are play structures that are 20ft high and tonka trucks that are 15lbs or more. Yea I would expect that to chip. If you are talking about a little handheld tonka truck and one of those little plastic backyard play structures where a kid can't hold it more than 4 feet high before dropping it, no probably not going to chip.

I would not expect a 20lb object dropped 8 inches onto dirt to chip.

"Slapping" the edge of steel plate with a box wrench - any sharp corners are generally going to be the thinnest part of the coating and most susceptible to damage. Depending on how hard you "slapped" it, yes that could chip/damage it.

It would be better to show us what you actually did with pictures instead of guessing at vague scenarios.

At the end of the day, powdercoat is just a coating. Is it typically stronger then paint, yea (there are some very strong paints out there though). Is it impervious to damage, no. Type of powder, surface prep, and application/curing will all affect durability.

 

Raptor coatings for the win . I never had any luck with powder coating holding up .

 

Here are a few photos that I currently have on hand.

Photo 1 shows the sparse coating and rust on a brand new our of box slider (prior to me touching it up)
Photo 2 shows that same rust on the previous slider which had been used for 4 months
Photo 3 shows some of the chipping on the corners of one of the sets that had apparently been dropped during shipment. (I ended up touching these up)
Photo 4 is chipping off one of the end caps of another set that had apparently been dropped during shipment (these were not the angle I ordered though so I sent em back)

I don't have a photo of the under coated or chipped spots on the skids at the moment though and I've already touched em up.

 

Few more photos (this spot being damaged during shipment due to packaging was a chronic problem)
Photo one is a new our of box set
Photo 2 is from a set that had been on my truck for 4-5 months and not used off-road.
Photo 4 is photo of the primary reason (water was getting inside a welding seam and causing them to rust internally and leak out rusty water) the original set was being swapped under warranty. I'm considering enlarging the hanging hole as well as adding a drain hole to the set I have on right now and just costing the inside with Eastwood internal frame spray/wax.

 

So noticing those are RCIs..... Their packaging for sliders was shocking. Mine were in a plastic box inside a cardboard box. That's it. Of course I had some edge damage just like yours. I didn't care because I knew they get beat up at some point. I emailed them complaining about the lack of packaging protection. I didn't expect much, and didn't get much in return.

After a wheeling trip, I also noticed rusting in the same places as yours (under the c-channel legs). I was kind of surprised at that as well.

I knew better than to pay for powder, but I was in a hurry and feeling quite lazy. My plan is to Raptor line them when I'm at a point where I'm doing the entire vehicle.

 

I'm t

Hmm, that's concerning and feeds my worries about the underlying craftsmanship o, making me strongly consider switching to another brand.
They unfortunately sell neither their differential nor shackle skid nor roof rack as bare metal which prevents me from just inspecting them then having them powder coated locally. I just feel weird about mixing parts from different brands,. especially with differing styles and branding. I wonder if they'd do a special order if I called them explicitly requesting bare metal...

 

The rear bumper I got, the builder won't ship if it's powdercoated. Probably because of the high likelihood in damage during shipment. Knowing powder coat can chip, I was perfectly happy with that. I rattle canned mine and I've been very happy with it. Can always touch up with rattle can anywhere that bugs me.

 

Brute force by chance? Ive been looking at their bumpers and considering ordering one then driving to CA for pickup/install.

 

Yup. Brute Force. Had it shipped up to Washington. They had it strapped and screwed down to a pallet, all raw metal. Polishing wheel, self etching primer, and a lot of Semi-Gloss came out looking good to me. And I had never painted anything like that before.

 

As far as their metal construction, I've never had issues. I had their skid plates on my Tacoma and have them now on my 4runner. My sliders held up very well on a recent three-day wheeling trip.

RCI powdercoats in-house if I remember correctly, and their low prices on it reflects that. Powdercoating isn't as easy as it's portrayed. Prep is super important, and durability will depend on quite a few other variables.

My friend had done it for years and really demonstrated that it's more than just laying the powder on.

With that said, I knew what I was getting into, well-knowing it wouldn't hold up to me.

 

If I threw the switch, I'd likely either have it PC and drive down or go Semi-Flat (matte) which contrasts well with my black Tacoma and plan to eventually wrap it in gunmetal gray.
So far it's been a coin toss between body armor, iron man, brute force, ARB and CBI.

 

I cannot recommend Raptor liner enough if you're going to do it yourself. I had done almost all of my Tacoma and I couldn't believe how well it turned out. Especially with me having zero paint experience. For raw metal, you'd have to prime it, but it doesn't have to perfect because the bed liner will cover mistakes.

 

I've got ARB front, and BC back. The tube on the rear sides goes well with the ARB. And using the Semi-Gloss, it pretty much matches the ARB's powder coat (I'm assuming it's powder coat).

 

Powder coat is essentially a type of paint.

Several thousand pounds of vehicle humping a rock is going to remove it.

Road salt and gravel blasting it for a couple of hours every day is going to remove it.

 

The areas that are rusting are hard to coat because of how powder is typically applied (electrostatically) - the powder literally is repelled away from tight corners like that. However, they should have hot-flocked powder onto that area instead, or at the very least spray painted in there to prevent rusting.

Powdercoated parts gets damaged all the time in shipping, especially big heavy parts like rock sliders, bumpers, etc that are not super well packaged for shipping. Sounds like these were not.

All that being said, powdercoat is not going to hold up when rocks and debris from the road kick up and hit it or it gets bashed against something with the weighg of a truck behind it. It just wont, it's basically a very thin layer of plastic. I specificallh did not powdercoat my own rock sliders because of this - they are spray painted, and if I need to touch them up it takes 30 seconds and it looks like new.

I can understand your frustration and the work done could have been done better with regards to the rusty areas and packaging for shipping, however I think you need to reset your expectations on what powdercoat will hold up to.

 

Thus this post, I was considering dropping them as a vendor I'm willing to use but wasn't sure whether some of the issues are par for course.

I expect to abuse the heck out of them when they are actually used off-road, I was however worried that we're the PC poorly applied, water could find its way underneath the surface easily, causing a ton of rust damage if I don't t pre emptively have them redone.

 

I'd say if the fabrication of the steel is up snuff, I would just move on and spray paint/line x / raptor line it like has been suggested. Sending this stuff back and forth hoping to get a perfect item, knowing it will end up damaged with use no matter what, seems like an exercise in time wasting and frustration.

 

Definitely not worth sending back.maybw stripping and repainting but sending back.

The only stuff I've had to send back were the initial pair of sliders which had huge gaps in some of the welds, causing them to begin to retain water and rust internally or when I've been sent the wrong part.

I'm not going to the extreme of stripping and repaintong them just yet but keeping a very close eye on everything for signs of delamination or rust under the coat, at which point I will go to that extreme.