My engine is off my 180 for a couple months and I'm trying to find some small projects to not go insane. First up is refurbishing the engine baffles including new seal material and such. I also want to really clean up the metal and make it look nice prior to putting the new seal material on. What is the general consensus to paint/powdercoat versus leave bare? I love the look of painted baffles but don't want them to look like shit in a year if they start wearing. What about powdercoat? Alodine?

Looking for something durable that will look the best for the longest time.

Thanks,
-asa

Edit: I really dig the look of Ryan's 185 baffles:

I was just peeping some new baffling on a IO-550 converted C-210 the other day, and the powder-coated finish definitely caught my eye.

I thought: "That's nice."

It probably is tougher too when you're reinstalling it, whereas paint would get the shit scratched out of it.

I am planning to powder coat mine on the 182. I recently stuck new orange baffle silicone on them, but am going to pull that and use Cowl Saver material instead since everything is coming out anyway. My more annoying problem currently are a few cracks in the metal, I need to decide whether to rivet doublers or replace entire brackets (a lot more $$). As always, most of the time is in the prep.

I would have thought that powder coating baffling would warp the aluminum.
A few interior trim pieces warped when they were powder coated.

But they do look nice all shinny

I just replaced mine and opted for the powder coat option. Mine appear to be the same as Ryan's and I purchased them from Airforms. The powder coat was $155.00 dollar option and worth every penny in my opinion. Great company to do business with.

Brent

Those baffles are from airforms and they use Advanced Powder Coating in Wasilla. The color is called hammertone. I had that on a bumper I built. They do really good work.

schu

akschu wrote:Those baffles are from airforms and they use Advanced Powder Coating in Wasilla. The color is called hammertone. I had that on a bumper I built. They do really good work.

schu

I knew you were going to chime in... because it reminded me of your bumper.

FYI
Rustolem makes a hammertone spray paint

Thanks everyone. Can't afford airforms, but I do like the look.

colopilot wrote:I am planning to powder coat mine on the 182. I recently stuck new orange baffle silicone on them, but am going to pull that and use Cowl Saver material instead since everything is coming out anyway. My more annoying problem currently are a few cracks in the metal, I need to decide whether to rivet doublers or replace entire brackets (a lot more $$). As always, most of the time is in the prep.

Have you gotten local quotes on the powdercoat yet? Curious what that would run.

-asa

asa wrote:Have you gotten local quotes on the powdercoat yet? Curious what that would run.

-asa

Close to free. I know someone with a gun and an oven.

The hammertone coating from Airforms on my 170B has been amazing for the past 12 years. It literally still looks like new. Tough stuff! Maybe a local powder coat shop could duplicate it for you?

Aryana wrote:The hammertone coating from Airforms on my 170B has been amazing for the past 12 years. It literally still looks like new. Tough stuff! Maybe a local powder coat shop could duplicate it for you?

Thanks for the datapoint after a long life. I looked it up and it's a readily available powder so I'll talk to local shops.

Those baffles are from Airforms in Anchorage. Thanks for posting that messy cowling pic... Thought that got buried in the many pages after.

Maybe a call to a local powder-coating shop would be of benefit, at least that is where I would start. I get loads of joy when I get to take the rattle can out, but if you desire a fine finish that is going to last a long time then getting the baffles coated by a professional shop would be the better idea.

Hope to see how they turn out!

I've seen engine baffles that had that hammer-tone finish, I assumed they were rattlecanned.
But now I'm guessing they were powder-coated & from AA.
One nice thing about rattle-canning stuff is that it's easy to match the finish when touching things up.

If you didn't mention the Rustoleum Hammertone, I probably wouldn't bother suggesting it, however I sprayed mine with the silver color about 500 hrs ago and they still look excellent.