rear end powder coating question

I have a question and need to get some input from people who have experience with powder coating. I plan on getting my rear housing powder coated. It's Moser M9 housing with a back brace welded on. I'm waiting for a rear sway bar that I've ordered. Once it get here, I want to drill the holes through the back brace for the brackets. My question is regarding the back brace and having 4 holes drilled into it. Obviously right now the back brace area is sealed and once I drill the holes, moisture will be able to get in and potentially rust the housing (although it would take a while). Would I be better to drill the holes a little bit bigger so the powder coat fills the new hole and gets inside the back brace a bit or would I be better off mocking up the sway bar with brackets in place and then welding the brackets to the housing and filling the new holes? Hopefully this makes sense. Thanks in advance.

I doubt the powdercoat will get inside the brace in any case, so I would weld the brackets on then powdercoat the housing.:yes:

BTW,
I always like to paint rear end housings rather than powdercoat because floor jack scratches can be touched up with paint, and powdercoating may chip away should you get any deep gouges. And its cheaper!

I doubt the powdercoat will get inside the brace in any case, so I would weld the brackets on then powdercoat the housing.:yes:

BTW,
I always like to paint rear end housings rather than powdercoat because floor jack scrathes can be touched up with paint, and powdercoating may chip away should you get any deep gouges. And its cheaper!

Thanks, that's the way I was leaning. I thought about doing the rear end housing with POR15, but then I called to get a quote on the powder coating. The place I found only wants $75 to powder coat it and they have a great reputation with the car clubs here. As for the jack stands, I have a couple sets of these and they work great:http://www.jegs.com/i/Prothane/311/19-1411/10002/-1

I work for a steel company that does commercial building projects from condos to hospitals to whatever. We get half of what we fabricate powdercoated. The powder doesn't like to go into holes, just it's nature. Welding before hand is the best idea. A good powdercoat job will use a zinc rich primer and a quality powder. If it is baked properly and the prep work (sandblasting) is done right, it is more durable than wet paint. The powdercoater can get you a quart of paint that matches the powder for any unfortunate needing of touch ups though. Hope this helps, if I am not too late. $75 is adecent price, my guy does my car stuff free or for beer, but that because I send him $150,000 of my work stuff every year.

As for the jack stands, I have a couple sets of these and they work great:http://www.jegs.com/i/Prothane/311/19-1411/10002/-1

The Prothane jackstand pads are a worthwhile investime if you've restored your underside.

I wouldn't paint it, 75.00 is a smoken deal:yes:

Thanks for all the input guys. I've made up my mind and I'm just waiting for the rear sway bar. I'll be picking it up this week and hope to mock it up the following week. I'm going to weld the brackets into place to fill in any holes in the rear brace. I'm then going to take the subframe and housing in to get powder coated. Will post pics when I get it back. One more question regarding getting parts coated....is it okay to get the axle c-clips coated?

Where I work we powdercoat stuff. When stuff comes out of the ovens where the painter might have missed a spot or hit a spot lightly, we have basically regular old spray paint that we use to touch up areas.

This is acceptable practice for John Deere, Caterpillar, etc. that we do business for. If you go semi-flat on the rearend. I would say try Krylon semi-flat black. It has matched for me on several things I have had powdercoated.

Yes you can coat the c clips it wont hurt anything.

Cool...thanks for the tip.

Any place you want bolts to go through etc. will need to be drilled out or sanded out etc. or they won't go through the holes because the powdercoat adds enough thickness it makes holes smaller. One trick I learned was you can remove powdercoating very easily with something like Jasco paint remover. Places that accidently got coated where I didn't want them coated I used it and wiped the powdercoating right off. Powdercoat is much thicker than paint, so the only drawback with fixing chips etc. is you will have to fill the chip area and then paint, or you will have a low spot...depends on how picky you are. If you want it to look really sexy, you can have them powdercoat whatever cover you want and then have them put a clear powdercoat over it. I've seen valve covers, air cleaners, intakes, etc. done that way and they look really good.