Paint and powder coating for Savvy aluminum parts

Ok so if I go this route do a I just use any old primer and paint from Home Depot?

If I decide to leave the aluminum under armor bare, how do I get off the writing that comes off the skids atleast the ones you can see like the writing on the gas skid, does that just scrub off
Use self-etchimg primer as was mentioned in the thread I quoted. Rustoleum and Krylon have aerosol cans of it at Home Depot and other hardware stores. Brake cleaner or acetone and a cloth will remove the printing on the aluminum.

Make sure to strictly adhere to the time between coats of paint instructions on the paint cans. Spraying 2nd,3rd, etc. coats too soon or too late will cause the paint to craze/wrinkle.

Also there's no real need to paint aluminum here in California. I kept my Savvy aluminum corner guards, and rocker guards unpainted.

This is my previous TJ.

CIMG3559.jpg
 
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Got a bunch of Savvy Aluminum parts coming in. Bumper just arrived today. I am not very experienced in regards to painting especially aluminum.

I was just gonna spray the under armor black to protect the aluminum. Is there a certain brand I should be looking at for paint? How about prep?

I am going to get the front bumper powder coated I assume that’s the better way to go for a nice finish?

Can anyone recommend a place in the Sacramento area? Is there a certain type of powder coat I need to do? Should I just paint it so i can touch up?

If I am taking the bumper to be powder coated should I just drop the gas skid and everything off to have it done then i could just touch up from there?

What about the sliders and Corner Armor I plan to have the aluminum color matched should it be powder coated first?

Should I not bother and leave some things Raw aluminum?

Anything else I might not be thinking about or forgetting?

See told you I don’t know much about painting!

Parts here or coming soon and color plan.

-Corner armor (color matched)
-Sliders (color matched armor, black slider)
-Front Bumper (Black)
-Under Armor (black)
-Engine skid (black)
-Gas tank skid (black)
-Control arms (black)


This is who I used to do my roll cage and bumper plate. They were open on Saturday’s and even a Sunday for pick up. It’s a small shop, they do a lot of sprint car chassis. They seemed pretty reasonable price wise and got my stuff done in less than a week even though I couldn’t pick it up right away. He called me to tell me it was ready and I told him I wasn’t going to be back home till Sunday and he told me come by then because he was going to be there working anyway.

https://www.performancepowdercoatingandsandblasting.com/
 
That's exactly my recommendation too. Powder coating doesn't hold up on the trail any better than rattle can paint does. And when the powder coating gets scratched/gouged/scraped you'll be touching it up with satin black rattle can paint from Krylon or Rustoleum anyway.

To me, powder coating looks nice but so does rattle can paint at 1/10th the cost. I was shocked at the quote I got to powder coat my CO2 tank, it was ridiculous.

Yeah, one or two items are usually expensive, especially if they have to remove old powder coating. It’s cheaper if you have lots of stuff or large items especially if it’s a custom coating.
 
These guys are getting a lot of love in the offroad industry lately, at least on instagram.

http://www.steel-it.com/home2.php?u...EALw_wcB&utm_referrer=https://www.google.com/
I like SEM products a lot too, https://www.semproducts.com/product/self-etching-primer/39683

I used this on my rock sliders, I liked the finish but I don't think it held up any better than any other paint. https://www.vhtpaint.com/high-heat/vht-roll-bar-chassis-paint

I've been wanting to try some of the steel-it stuff for a while but haven't yet.
 
Ok so if I go this route do a I just use any old primer and paint from Home Depot?

If I decide to leave the aluminum under armor bare, how do I get off the writing that comes off the skids atleast the ones you can see like the writing on the gas skid, does that just scrub off?

I’ll give cleaning it a shot it seems like it is some kind of grease pen or something.

I’m such a Aluminum noob haha. Everything on my Cherokee was just rattle canned flat black.

Anyways thanks for all the help guys.

Acetone gets it off and preps for paint, use a good self etching primer for the aluminum parts or it will practically rub off. You can get away with cheaper paint but aluminum is fickle, we paint aluminum all the time. My aluminum parts were left raw, but I wasn’t try to keep it stock looking.
 
These guys are getting a lot of love in the offroad industry lately, at least on instagram.

http://www.steel-it.com/home2.php?u...EALw_wcB&utm_referrer=https://www.google.com/
I like SEM products a lot too, https://www.semproducts.com/product/self-etching-primer/39683

I used this on my rock sliders, I liked the finish but I don't think it held up any better than any other paint. https://www.vhtpaint.com/high-heat/vht-roll-bar-chassis-paint

I've been wanting to try some of the steel-it stuff for a while but haven't yet.

I heard from a buddy that ordered some, it took 10 days to get it. Don’t know if he used It yet but he was going to use it on everything.