1. Remove anything not intended to be powder coated. Besides removing stuff you don’t want coated (since powder coating involves time in an oven near 400 degrees F) you’ll want to remove anything plastic or rubber, bearings, plated components, or other temperature-sensitive pieces.

2. Account for the thickness of the powder coating. When powder coating a component that interfaces with another part, like a mounting bracket or suspension component, you need to take into account the additional thickness of the powder coating. The thickness of powder coating usually varies between 1 and 3 mils (about the thickness of a garbage bag), so make sure to add that into the clearances required.

3. Cover areas that shouldn’t be coated. Make sure the powder coater puts plugs in threaded holes, holes where fasteners pass through, and any other holes into which you don’t want powder coating to go. High-temperature tape is placed over larger areas that need to remain bare metal, like an engine-block cylinder-head mounting surface.