bumper

[wiggamoe]

hey. I made a bumper for my tacoma. I just got the bumper back from powdercoat today, and it looks like hell. We make the bumpers by using 3/16" 1018 cold rolled mild steel. We MIG weld every joint and grind down the welds. I got a semi-gloss powder coat, and you can see every single grind. I am ashamed to even put it on my truck. Once we ground down the welds, we took a flap wheel on a 4 1/2" angle grinder to smooth the welds down. What am I doing wrong? any ideas? Thanks.

[Sapper]

Personally I would never use powdercoat on anything I use outside. For bumpers I would sandblast the powdercoat off and spray the whole thing with Line-x or similar product. You will be amazed how fast the powdercoating will wear or chip off and be a bitch to repair or touch up later.

[scott-885]

Either you have some deep gouges or your powder coater sucks. But IMO either just spray it with paint or line-x them. Powder coating is way too costly and time consuming for something like a bumper.

[wiggamoe]

Thanks guys. I do believe that some of the marks in the bumpers are due to me grinding too low... I don't know why I didn't think of that when I was doing it. I also do think that the powercoater sucks. The actual coat itself really sucks, it's really thin. They also did a high gloss when I told them to do semi-gloss, which makes every imperfection even more noticable. Thus far, my only solution has been to lay some coats of primer and flat black enamel. After that I took some Rustoleum hammered texture paint and went over it with that. I actually like the textured look, and it's a really thick paint. I can already tell that it has hidden some of the imperfects, but I won't know for sure how effective it is until tomorrow when it's dry. Why would I have to blast the powdercoat? wouldn't that provide as an effective primer? Thanks again!

[FrontCC]

it would be an effective rust preventer...but to paint on it would not be good unless you sanded the suface a little so the paint would bond to the surface.

[PJohnson]

My powdercoater sandblasts the item, primer coats, then powdercoats. Excellent results.

Phil

[PAToyota]

Powdercoating you almost have to prep as well as for paint. It's a bit thicker, but not substantially. I'd second the vote for Line-X or similar bedliner. A friend had his bumpers and sliders done that way and it looks great!

[D60]

I have one bumper which was professionally built and powdercoated. My impression is that the powdercoat is very thick, but you certainly can't see any grinding, and yeah all the joints were ground smooth. I know what you mean, I see that w paint all the time, but in this case I'd guess your powdercoat is too thin. Properly done it should be fairly thick, altho I can't provide a specific numerical thickness.

It's also been very tough.........it scratches and gouges but doesn't really chip unless it starts to get rust under it. I don't really live in a rust-prone area so YMMV

EDIT: this was back in '98-ish but they only charged me $75 to powdercoat the whole bumper, this is for a fullsize Ford. Prices have probably gone up or maybe I just got a random good deal, but once you factor in your time and materials I doubt you could Line-X a bumper for much less?

[tobbjo]

After I had ground down and flap disced my welds on the latest run of bumåers i tokk the flap disc all over the surfaces that are visible when mounted. That gave a similar surface roughness all over and later rattle can paint became really nice. For a bumper :flipoff2:

T

[HeyZeus]

Several of my friends have Line-X on their bumpers/rockers. It looks nice, and is pretty tuff, but when it does get gouged you can't just touch it up in your garage. Also, I am cheap and spray on liners are not.

I say rattle can is the way to go with rocker skids and bumpers. Cheap and super easy to touch up.