Surface finishing for wishbones

[reynard55]

What is the best finish for a single seater's wishbones?
I am after something that looks good and wears well, I prefer black to bright finish.

[Al Weyman]

All the parts I have bought for my car have been powdercoated and seem to stay looking good, not a single seater but the principle must be the same, the company (Spohn Racing) does the same treatment to their fabricated wishbones. There are few companies around that do this process and I used to use them a lot when I was in the curtain walling and window industry.

[dtype38]

Yeh, got to agree with Al. Unless you are looking for some sort of crack or thermal protection, then good old powder coat in satin black looks good (doesn't show blemishes as much as full gloss finish).

[DSM]

Originally Posted by dtype38

Yeh, got to agree with Al. Unless you are looking for some sort of crack or thermal protection, then good old powder coat in satin black looks good (doesn't show blemishes as much as full gloss finish).

....and then protect the leading edges with helicopter tape.

[ChironWSC]

Kephos is what allot of the Single seater guys are using. We are using this on our wishbones it gives a very smart finish. We have tried a different finish every year but this is by far the best and most expensive which we will keep on using now. I would not recommend powder coating it will not look that great. Contact SPA they can do Kephos. It’s not cheap though.

Henry

[reynard55]

Thanks for the help, I am not too keen on the powder coat route, I think it picks up stone chips to easily. I will check out the Kephos coating.

[Russ-Turner]

Originally Posted by DSM

....and then protect the leading edges with helicopter tape.

What is he, made of money?

[PaulD]

The 'traditional' finish for racing car wishbones is Kephos. It is thinner than powder coating and better for crack testing.

[terence]

Absolutly, powder coating does tend to hide cracks ,it ,once chipped can set up corrosion that you cant see until its to late,if Kelfos is too expensive,you could also try a light grit blasting, followed by a black etch coat,lightly applied.

[zefarelly]

I hate powder coating . . .looks good on the surface but can, and often does, hide a multitude of potentially dangerous sins.

I just paint my suspension components, you can see whats going on, and it provides sufficient protection for the type of car and amount of use it gets

[1200Datto27]

Sand/Bead blasting then clear coat with no primer/paint is good as well, the clear coat will protect the metal from weathering, and also shows stress points through cracks in the clear coating.