Prep Work Is Key

One thing that separates us from other "cheaper" shops is our meticulous prep work. All of our projects start with media blasting. Some of our projects do start with chemical stripping to save time but if we don't use chemical stripping we head straight to the media blaster. Media blasting is key to great prep, in order for the powder to adhere correctly you must get all the way down to bare metal and ad some sort of etching so that there is something for the powder to grip to. Unlike some shops we do all media blasting ourselves in house. Unlike other companies we blast the entire part, for example, on wheels we blast the face, the barrel, and the inside of the barrel. We know that even though you'll never see the inside once on the car it still is very important to a proper finish.

After media blasting all parts are washed and then dried. After a nice bath we mask off any places we don't want powder including threaded area's and the mounting surface of the wheels so that they will balance correctly. Masking the mounting service of all aluminum wheels is crucial to getting a wheel to mount and balance properly.

After alllllll of this work it is finally time to start the coating process, which we will cover in our next blog........

Travis Ridenour

TLR Coatings

Kalamazoo, MI

www.TLRCoatings.com