Has anyone powder coated a brass copper radiator before? It would be just the tanks NOT the fins. It says it need to cure at 350 degrees. I would call the manufacturer but I think they are no longer in business.
It sounds like a bad idea, to me....powder coating is a decent insulator, not something you want on a radiator. A light coat of black paint is good.
Yeah, that was my first thought too, that the coating would insulate the tanks and prevent heat transfer.
Afaik brass/copper radiators are usually soldered, depending on what it was soldered with that temperature may be too close to the melting point.
That’s kinda what I’m getting at. Not sure what solder is used. Seen all kinds of melting point of solder. I’ve painted all my radiator tank with base coat clear coat never had an issue with heat transfer
We had a customer who had his bodyshell powder coated, it turned into a real mess with all the lead that melted. Now maybe the powder coater put a little too much heat, but the T° is so close to the lead melting point that if there is a mistake done, your radiator will be just a pile of copper sheats.
Solder will start 'softening' at about 325 and can 'move'. Early in my learning curve with powdercoating when I tried it for filling imperfections, I found out that cure heat is too high for good results. Lowering of the cure heat to prevent this results in a crappy finish on the coating, high enough to get a good finish and the solder runs, sometimes completely off.
Eastwood has a black radiator paint in several sheens that doesn't do a lot of build-up. It worked well for me.
The Eastwood stuff sounds pretty good but only use a light coat. The old fashioned radiator repair men went by the adage: "A light coat of special radiator paint" whatever that was. I always assumed it was a thin flat black asphalt based product (?).
Powdercoating on a radiator? Man, some of you guys really like to over complicate things! But, as others have said, bad idea.
I recently had a custom radiator built for a project I'm working on by Superior Radiator in Michigan. It's aluminum, and the guys there said there is no measurable loss of thermal efficiency with a light coat of radiator black versus bare aluminum.
My coworker at the rad shop told me a story about a customer who coated his new rad with rock guard and didn't understand why it ran hot.