Painting over a crinkle finish?

[Spinakr]

I've found a fairly nice workbench at Costco, it's not on the Costco website, but very similar to THIS ONE made by Whalen; Just a bit fancier with stainless front pull out drawers and 2 sidemount, or wallmount stainless front cabinets. I really don't like the black crinkled powdercoat finish. Can I just prime and paint over the crinkled paint? or do I have to strip the finish?

[MacNoob]

You'll want to test compatibility between your topcoat and the base crinkle, but guys in my car group repaint over top of crinkle all the time to change the colour.

[Spinakr]

Thanks MacNoob,
Are they using another crinkle coat finish, or a smooth topcoat?
I was thinking about doing either a smooth topcoat, or maybe even a hammered finish.

Spinakr

[MacNoob]

Typically they use a thin coat of smooth paint on top of the factory crinkle paint in order to retain the factory crinkle finish but change the colour. I don't think it would work to paint crinkle or hammered paint on top of existing crinkle.

Note that we are using paint on top of crinkle paint, not paint on top of crinkle powdercoat. I didn't even know crinkle powder existed!

[bomber60015]

unless you layer the new paint over and over, it will still be wrinkled (natch) . . . . hammertone finish won't look hammertoned on top of a wrinkled finish, I think . . . . ..

there IS wrinkled powdercoat . . . it will also take topcoating (but I'd use enamal, in any case, rather than laquer).

But anything you can rattlecan on top of the factory finish is not likely to be a tough as existing paint . . . . . the rought life of a work bench will likely have it looking a lil ratty fairly quickly . . . . .

[MacNoob]

I was assuming OP just wanted to change the colour. Was I wrong? Only way to get rid of the crinkle would be a lot of sanding or stripping I think...

[JimVonBaden]

Sand it down and repaint it. Even wrinkle finish powder coat will sand, it is just a bit harder and you won't get a glass like finish unless you remove it all.

Jim