Has anyone ever painted the inner compartment?

[MoonDawg]

Wanted to avoid removing the liner to take to the powdercoater. Looking for a quick fix for all those rusty floors. Cold Galvanize sounded like what I was looking for.
        Could a liner be powdercoated in place?

[joesquid]

Jim,
  Where can you find hammer-tone paint for spray gun use?  I've used ALOT of hammertone spray-bomb cans and would love to use the stuff in a sprayer.  I'll bet it lays alot more easily, probably cheaper in the long run too.

Also, out of curiosity, what do you pay (on average) for powder-coating?

[BrianB]

Glen -

The problem with attempting to powdercoat the liner in place is this: #1 - The liner has to be prepped/sprayed with an acid solution to make it grease free and powdercoat friendly. #2 - You would have to mask off the entire machine just so you wouldn't get any of the powder in the nooks and crannies. #3 - (the worst part) You would have to submit your ENTIRE machine to 400 Degrees for about 10 - 20 minutes during the bake phase of the powdercoating, that means any powdercoat that didn't adhere and got in any nooks and crannies will have melted and messed stuff up. Not to mention it probably would be to good for all of your wiring and other "guts".

The excess powder won't actually adhere like it would to the liner due to a bunch of reasons such as, When you powdercoat, the peice being coated has an electrical bond hooked to it to enable the powder to "stick" to it. Plus, the rest of the machine isn't prepped properly to allow the powder to stick per say. I am fairly sure that this isn't the best way to go.

[BrianB]

Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Glen - The largest peice that I used the "Cold Galvanizing" spray on was the eveporator fan shroud, thermostat bracket and the condensor fan shroud. I tell you what though, I thought that I was screwed after I sprayed it! I let it cure/dry for about 2 days and it semmed to come off really easy. I was livid   !!!! So....I stripped the part really well and cleaned it again with CLR and sprayed it again. Once it dried this time, I gave it 2 coats of diamond gloss clearcoat (came from a can, I'm pretty sure any clearcoat will work though).

I let the peices dry for a couple of days before I messed with them and.............TA DA!! They came out AWESOME!! The were rock hard and very scratch resistant. This won't make the unit look original but it does look very nice.

Cold galvanizing compound is used alot in the fencing and sign business for touch-up's as mentioned by Johnnie. You can purchase it at Lowes, Menards, Home Depot....The usual suspects!