Powder coating steering pedestal

[duffer1960]

I was thinking of refinishing the steering pedestal on my 1981 C-38 while it is removed for repairing the rotted cockpit sole (which is progressing SLOWLY… damn rain!). Originally I was only going to paint it, then I thought powder coating might be better. Has anyone done this? If so, how do you like it? How much would it cost? What were the pedestals originally finished with (mine is a 1981 model)? Thanks for the info

[Sasha_V]

Be really glamy and have it annodised!
(like chrome for aluminium...but you can have any colour at all, including changeable oil-slick chromatic finishes).

Powder coating would be a good idea, except for the hassle of needing to strip out the contents of the pedestal (no problem if you are doing that anyway as part of maintenance). Powder coationg involves a baking stage and the bushes and plastic inside the pedestal would not thank you for that.

(Yes, you would also need to strip it fully for the annodising process)


Sasha

[merc2dogs]

yeah, but you can easily powdercoat it at home, if you have a large enough oven for it, a friend and I powdercoated a few things, made a couple large ovens, one with 2x, fiberglass, and old electric oven elements and controls, worked out very nice and the best part was that it was all easy to break down and store away.

the second was made with the shell of an old electric dryer, just pulled everything out of it, drum, motor, bottom etc, just leaving the heating coil in place, then wrapped with fiberglass, temp control was manual by opening the door a bit or shutting down the heat loaded it by picking it up and setting it over the parts.

ken

[borja_escalada]

I just painted mine with two part polyurethane paint and looks very good.

[pklein9401]

About two years ago I saw Sears advertise a Powder Coating kit for about $100. You might check to see if they still sell it and what else is required.

[hellosailor]

Duffer, spray painted polyurethane will look very good and be very durable. If you don't have spray equipment, you might be able to get a local auto body shop to do it for you. (Not with auto paint!<G>)

Powder coating prices will vary, your best bet is to find someplace in you local yellow pages so you don't have to ship the pedestal back and forth. If you tell them you can be flexible, so they can do it "sometime this month" while they're already spraying white, they may also be able to flex a little on price. You'll still need to do the prep, but maybe that's a good excuse to replace all the bushings and things while you're in there.