Aluminum winch plate coating advice

JoseA

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Getting an aluminum winch plate from UCF in the next few days. Do you guys think I should leave it unfinished, paint it, or get it anodized?
 
Getting an aluminum winch plate from UCF in the next few days. Do you guys think I should leave it unfinished, paint it, or get it anodized?

I have the UCF aluminum winch plate and I would have left it bare, but the grade markings (is that what the numbers are called?) bothered me. So I had it powder coated.

I am going to order the aluminum skids soon as well. I will leave them bare since they are underneath and not as visible as the winch plate.
 
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I anodized my savvy bumper and fairlead mount. With a white jeep, I don't think bare aluminum looks as good. As an added bonus you can get laser etching or engraving done at most shops that anodize if that floats your boat.
 
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I had an aluminum bumper on a Tacoma. Did a nice clean/prep and rattle canned it with clear. I was concerned it would dull- not the best picture but as reference

IMG_0962.jpeg
 
I'll have to see how it looks unfinished with the white jeep. Otherwise, I might look into black anodize. Thanks all for your input!
 
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I'll have to see how it looks unfinished with the white jeep. Otherwise, I might look into black anodize. Thanks all for your input!

I rattle canned the aluminum on my bumper and winch plate. Thought about leaving it bare with my darker coloured Jeep, but the hoop bar was steel.

bumper005.jpg


winch005.jpg
 
I'll have to see how it looks unfinished with the white jeep. Otherwise, I might look into black anodize. Thanks all for your input!

If you do decide to anodize, you might try to find out from MrBlaine who he uses. I've had too many bike parts that were anodized black turn to a copper or green color.
 
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That is one clean front end! Holy sheet, you could eat off the winch.

Thought you had a bug under the right headlight then I realized it was on my monitor. You do got dirt on your tire.

I’m going to check that now......🤣

Thanks man- sometimes the camera makes things look better than they are-

I got this thing off an old feller (he passed away 3 days after I got it) and have been trying to bring it back to it’s original glory -

@Irun is the king of clean. I’m a wannabe.

No idea why my zip tires weren’t trimmed in that pic. Think that was the night I installed the winch.
 
I have aluminum fenders and I just left them raw. My Jeep is bright silver metallic and, while obviously not a perfect match, the raw aluminum doesn't really stand out against the silver paint and blends fairly well, I think. I love the fact that after a year or so of little rocks being thrown up by the front tires pitting up the front face of the rear flares, I can sand them pretty smooth. Probably not an issue on a winch plate though.

IMG_4399_kindlephoto-97379929.jpg
 
I have aluminum fenders and I just left them raw. My Jeep is bright silver metallic and, while obviously not a perfect match, the raw aluminum doesn't really stand out against the silver paint and blends fairly well, I think. I love the fact that after a year or so of little rocks being thrown up by the front tires pitting up the front face of the rear flares, I can sand them pretty smooth. Probably not an issue on a winch plate though.

View attachment 429006

Could I hire you to video my rock crawling for my YouTube channel?
 
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