powdercoating a servo unit

[kev the rev]

was going to get my ATE servo powdercoated ,then i thought about the heat involved in the process ,do you think it would melt or distort anything inside the servo , bit worried as ATE servos are a bit thin on the ground ,not exactly easy to get hold off , cheers in advance ,all replys appreciated

[katana]

Hmmm! Powder coating does involve heating and I'm fairly sure the rubber components won't tolerate much if any! Low temp coatings are possible but usually not very durable. I think I'd rather trust smooth Hammerite and try not to knock it around too much!

[kev the rev]

3 hours ago, katana said:

Hmmm! Powder coating does involve heating and I'm fairly sure the rubber components won't tolerate much if any! Low temp coatings are possible but usually not very durable. I think I'd rather trust smooth Hammerite and try not to knock it around too much!

cheers exactly what i was thinking but il use upol gloss black 

[colr6]

You’ll find most of the black components are satin black.

[kev the rev]

1 hour ago, colr6 said:

You’ll find most of the black components are satin black.

cheers col  yeh ive satin black here 

[Rally Pack 2000]

4 hours ago, katana said:

Hmmm! Powder coating does involve heating and I'm fairly sure the rubber components won't tolerate much if any! Low temp coatings are possible but usually not very durable. I think I'd rather trust smooth Hammerite and try not to knock it around too much!

I had this same issue, having just had the booster rebuilt. I actually had the tower powder coated but used Eastwood Chassis black on the booster itself. It has such a deep shine and slow drying matched up with the powder coating perfectly

1 hour ago, kevs mk2 rs2000 said:

cheers exactly what i was thinking but il use upol gloss black 

As mentioned above I used Eastwood chassis black. In their specs it mention that it has reasonable chemical resistance so I figured that would help with the inevitable fluid leaks. It doesn't like remnants when spraying it on thought. The back deep grove in particular must have been a collection point for stray brake fluid as it took some serious cleaning out to decontaminate.

1 hour ago, colr6 said:

You’ll find most of the black components are satin black.

That's true most of the blacks are satin black, bumpers, dash and window frames but my original booster and tower were gloss black for some reason. I always thought it was down to a hard coating choice that help repel chemical fluids. It was remarkably resistant to brake fluid actually but I doubt my new paint and powder coated tower will fair as well. I always wondered what the originals were coating in?

[colr6]

4 minutes ago, Rally Pack 2000 said:

 

That's true most of the blacks are satin black, bumpers, dash and window frames but my original booster and tower were gloss black for some reason. I always thought it was down to a hard coating choice that help repel chemical fluids. It was remarkably resistant to brake fluid actually but I doubt my new paint and powder coated tower will fair as well. I always wondered what the originals were coating in?

I painted mine in what was supposed to be satin black but the supplier forgot to put the matting agent in and the servo/ tower came out mirror finish. If I’d wanted mirror finish I couldn’t have done it better !! Placed it in the engine bay and tbh I thought it looked shite. It was so in your face and just looked wrong in full gloss. It was re painted in satin and to me looks better. If you want a touch more shine you could always wax it to lose a bit of the satin.

[Rally Pack 2000]

8 minutes ago, kevs mk2 rs2000 said:

cheers col  yeh ive satin black here 

New ones I have also seen for sale have been glossy.

[kev the rev]

1 minute ago, Rally Pack 2000 said:

New ones I have also seen for sale have been glossy.

expensive new if you can find one

[Ray]

all the NOS servos ive bought for the mk1s, have always been gloss, with the rest of the parts either satin or a mid way between the 2

if you send the servo to someone like past parts for overhaul, they can powdercoat the casings gloss while apart, however it does take a bit of persuading that particular company to do it, because they have to sub contract that part, and they prefer to just paint them in house with normal paint, but it does look well when they do do it

[Rally Pack 2000]

2 minutes ago, colr6 said:

I painted mine in what was supposed to be satin black but the supplier forgot to put the matting agent in and the servo/ tower came out mirror finish. If I’d wanted mirror finish I couldn’t have done it better !! Placed it in the engine bay and tbh I thought it looked shite. It was so in your face and just looked wrong in full gloss. It was re painted in satin and to me looks better. If you want a touch more shine you could always wax it to lose a bit of the satin.

I think the quick and cheapness of the original paint does give it a gloss shine but because it is done on the cheap its by no means a mirror finish. Im not sure about the European boosters but ours have an instruction decal over the top face so most of the gloss is only seen on the periphery.

[Rally Pack 2000]

3 minutes ago, kevs mk2 rs2000 said:

expensive new if you can find one

That one was about 300 quid in its box. I was tempted but I had just reconditioned my old one and thought it would have sat on the shelf for decades waiting to be used so decided against it. I saved the photos to remind me what I missed out!

[kev the rev]

1 minute ago, Rally Pack 2000 said:

That one was about 300 quid in its box. I was tempted but I had just reconditioned my old one and thought it would have sat on the shelf for decades waiting to be used so decided against it. I saved the photos to remind me what I missed out!

second hand one on ebay with master cylinder for 250 ,

[colr6]

25 minutes ago, Rally Pack 2000 said:

New ones I have also seen for sale have been glossy.

That’s not to bad on the gloss side, more of a dim gloss. Mine turned out so shiny you could read the labelling on my wiring harness in the reflection 😳😳😳😳

[Rally Pack 2000]

3 minutes ago, colr6 said:

That’s not to bad on the gloss side, more of a dim gloss. Mine turned out so shiny you could read the labelling on my wiring harness in the reflection 😳😳😳😳

Mine did too. The powder coating of the tower was pretty good and the Eastwood chassis black was a finer finish than the original giving it a deeper gloss. Once I put the Ford decal on it it wasn't as in your face as there was no area left visible from the top that would give a large mirror finish just minor reflections. Not quite original but reasonably neat all the same.

[Ray]

1 hour ago, Rally Pack 2000 said:

That one was about 300 quid in its box. I was tempted but I had just reconditioned my old one and thought it would have sat on the shelf for decades waiting to be used so decided against it. I saved the photos to remind me what I missed out!

Tbf, it costs more to overhaul them than it does to buy a NOS one when it comes up, ive had several overhauled now, and if it wasnt for the internal "o" ring, id say it was a waste of money, as they always return the old diaphragm and its always like new, never had a problem with the NOS ones either, other than because generally they were made after mk1 production ceased, the threads are metric and not imperial, so i had to have nuts specially made with metric threads and imperial sized outers to actually look spot on, i know, im a fussy bastard

 

[Rally Pack 2000]

6 hours ago, Ray said:

Tbf, it costs more to overhaul them than it does to buy a NOS one when it comes up, ive had several overhauled now, and if it wasnt for the internal "o" ring, id say it was a waste of money, as they always return the old diaphragm and its always like new, never had a problem with the NOS ones either, other than because generally they were made after mk1 production ceased, the threads are metric and not imperial, so i had to have nuts specially made with metric threads and imperial sized outers to actually look spot on, i know, im a fussy bastard

 

The cost wasn't that bad when I did the Mk2 one. It cost around 150 quid. I had no comparison to how much a new one would cost as I didn't find that new one until after I had mine done and installed it. I did see the kit they installed in it but cant remember now what it contained but there were a few things in it that made it look relatively comprehensive for a simple booster. The same brake specialist did my Twincam one as well. Most seem to swap the remote booster for the later Girling type but it always stand out catches my eye when they do that so I wanted to keep mine original. The trouble at the time was getting the leather seal but the day I went in they also had a 70s Lamborghini that used the same booster but one for the front and another for the back. They had found someone that was hand making the leather seals for him and said it was easy just to add a third which I did figuring that opportunity would never come again. It did costs about 250 quid all up to have done but seemed worth it at the time for a custom job. A couple of years after that someone started making kits with the leather seal in them so its no biggy to get them restored these days. It just came down to availability. I would get new ones if I saw them when I needed them.