De-Chroming

[Sapient]

Just a quick general question. :roll:

Supposed I wanted to colour code the roll bar on my GLXR, whats the best method? Do I need to remove the chrome plating or can I paint/powdercoat straight on top?

[Austblue]

I'm pretty sure a powder coating should bond they may need to give it an abrasive blast first though? Someone did a photo shop version of cranky triton's over on 4wdmonthly a while back and it looked pretty good.

[Notso]

So is yours chrome plated, mine is plain old aluminium.

[Austblue]

Same, polished aluminium.

[Buzzy]

Yeh there aluminium. Dont think you will be able to powdercoat it

[cyberhonky]

if you do a bit of prep work they can be powdercoated. aluminium needs to be either etch dipped, or primed for the powder to stick for any decent length of time- if it were an internal item, not getting bashed around you can get away without etching- but not in this case.

[shane308]

why would you not be able to powder coat it ?, i get alloy stuff powder coated for work all the time.

[Austblue]

Yeah I'd say with a garnet grit blast there'd be no problem.

[cyberhonky]

..........or any bar left to pcoat

[King Triton]

Aluminium can be powder coated
Most aluminium windows you buy nowadays are powder coated so there should be no issue.
If it needs to be prepared or primed im sure the powder coating company would be able to do it, as most things would be primed to make sure of a good final product.

[Buzzy]

I bet there would be some $ involved!

[rick]

looks better as is

[Sapient]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
Looks like powder coat is the way to go. Been quoted $200 by a local guy.....will post pics when I get it done.

[cyberhonky]

i dont know what 'drop in' prices are like- but for that size tube i'm paying about $6/mtr- double that price if you get an etch done, but it'd still be about a $50 job.

sapient- try one more place and see what they charge you

[NowForThe5th]

There is a big difference between paint and powdercoat but either way etch priming is virtually essential. Colour matching in powdercoat may be an issue, not so with paint, but you need to consider that polished alloy is a lot easier to keep looking good than paint which can fade, chip and scratch. Powdercoat can take a bit more punishment.

I do colour coding and although I haven't done a sports bar, at $200 it sounds pretty reasonable given the extra work required to properly prepare the alloy - clean, scuff, etch primer, sand, then surfacer, sand again then colour coat then clear.

[martyboy]

will be very interested to see what it comes up like.

I must say I like the "black" alloy bars on the new TRD hilux.

[Sapient]

At this point I am getting the front nudge bar done in Satin Black, for two reasons.
1) Colour matching is a biatch with powder as stated by NFT5
2) Nudge bar is to be fitted with some spotties soon so I wanted it done NOW!!!

Will report back on pricing and outcome soon-ish.

[....BeAkEr....]

yeah its a case of giving the bar a bath and then powder coating will be fine

[martyboy]

BeAkEr is back!!! where have you been?

[....BeAkEr....]

in hiding mate, I upset some particularly scary fraggles

[mmaaxx]

I just got my rear Hilux alloy bars powder coded black last week.

Pulled them apart and dropped them off and 120bux cash and 2 days later they were back and on my truck.

Im rapt with the job. they said no problem with powder coating it. they lightly sanded it back, put an undercoat on before powder coating it.

heres a pic of how she looks now-


get it done mate, you know you want too

[....BeAkEr....]

bars look nice

that's my attempt at not taking a pot shot at the rollux ;)

[....BeAkEr....]

bars look nice

that's my attempt at not taking a pot shot at the rollux ;)

[Sapient]

Well this has turned into a shi1t fight.....been around all the local powdercoaters and panel shops locally and have a raft of different opinions. Basically, from what I have been told thus far is that it cannot be powdercoated, at all, ever. Just wont stick.
This surprises me because as king triton said, aluminium windows are powdercoated. Mind you aluminium windows arnt strapped to the front of a 4WD and driven into hard objects, so the application is different.

Can anyone recommend a good powdercoater in Sydney that I can get some sense from?

[....BeAkEr....]

I was told by a powder coater in port macquarie that it was entirely possible and not very expensive [$400 to prepare and powder coat an 8ft aluminium tray]