Successful deposition of thick copper coatings on low carbon steel is a challenge for the Cold Gas Dynamic Spray (CGDS) process if one is to avoid the use of helium as the process gas for the initial pre-coat layer. The issue stems from the presence of accumulated residual stresses, which causes delamination of the weakly bonded coating. Even after exploring different deposition parameters, several copper powders and various steel substrate preparations, copper coating delamination still occurs. The purpose of the current study is to produce copper coatings using only nitrogen as the process gas, while avoiding delamination of the deposited material. To this end, the current work focuses on the study of the effect of steel substrate temperature on particle deposition and adhesion processes. Steel substrates were heated to temperatures between 25°C and 600°C using induction heating and laser. Once the substrate reached the desired temperature, three different copper particle sizes were deposited using the CGDS process. Individual particle impact tests (wipe-tests) were performed to characterize bonded particles and craters from rebounded particles. Further analysis was performed by extracting particles from the surface to understand the effect of substrate temperature and particle size on the particle/substrate deformation and bonding processes. Mechanical adhesion prediction modeling at substrate preheated was also performed to obtain a greater understanding of the bonding mechanism. This prediction is in order to compare with the coating developed with a bond layer coating with helium as process gas and then build the rest of the coating with nitrogen. The experimental results show a significant trend as the substrate temperature increases, indicating proper conditions for enhanced adhesion.