How did you coat your sliders?

[SFL_driver]

Just ordered some bare metal sliders from BudBuilt. Looking for input on slider coatings. Pros, cons, durability?
I opted for bare metal because it will be easier to touch up than powercoat.

Thanks

 

[cbreze]

I have had Metal Tech sliders since almost day one on my 2012. They came powder coated. I haven't scrunched them good yet and don't plan on it if I can help it, but they have sustained a few scratches in the coated surface. Personally I like the look with the minor dings. Makes my rig looked like it sees the dirt. Depending on how seriously you wheel and rock crawl a good powder coat might be sufficient. Can't beat the the quality look of my metal techs tho and even with a few dings the coating is holding up well IMO and I see nothing that needs touching up.

 

[Jetboy]

I did black rustoleum professional spray paint. One year in and they look like crap. Lots of little rust lines showing up. Gonna have to take them back off and re-paint or powder coat them.

 

[Cypher]

Rustoleum textured on mine. I have scratched them all the hell, touched them up, and washed them a bunch of times. I think they still look great and they are easy to touch up. I went with this paint for the reason that I could touch them up easily with the sliders still on the truck. The textured also gives them some grip so that when you are standing on them you get plenty of traction. If you go this route, make sure that you prep them appropriately before painting. You need to get all the grease/oil off before hitting them with a primer. I used mineral spits for this. You don't need a thick coat of primer, just enough there for the Rustoleum to adhere to. This gives the best performance down the line. I then did 3 coats of the Rustoleum. As far as I am concerned, sliders will get scratched up, and I wanted something that I could touch up easily. Bed liner and powder coat do not offer these advantages.

 

[Engineer]

You will get a lot of "opinions" with this one and below is mine, take it for what it is, a single data point.

Summary: Powder Coat > Paint for general wear and tear in Midwest climates and touch ups should only be needed in places out of site so matching powder coat with touch up paint is a non issue.

I prepped and spray painted my BudBuilts with tread plateing using rustoleaum spray on bedliner (essentially textured paint) and it did not hold up well at all to Michigan Winters. I have since gotten them sand blasted and poweder coated locally and they have held up almost perfect over the past year (including Minnesota winter). The only wear to show for it is minor scuffing from where I use it as a step , under neither where they were used as a slider on rocks (easy to touch up) and then one spot on the seam of the treadplate to tube interface is showing a "rust line" about 3" long but its minor at this point.

The only place that should need constant touch up is underneath where you actually use them as sliders (maybe on the side but if you are doing this type of off roading you are not asking questions on this forum) and that is out of site so doesn't matter that the black spray paint doesn't match exactly with your black powder coat.

I have heard bed liner can "peel off when being used as a slider" but have no 1st hand experience, I got local quotes to go that route and it was 2x what powder coating was, almost the cost of the sliders so it wasn't really an option

 

[LawnDart]

Powder coat, and just touch up with krylon if you intend to use them as sliders. I beat the shit out of my Pelfreys in Moab, and I just wanted to get the bare metal covered before rust sets in.

 

[00Sebby]

I descaled my C4 sliders, treated them with phosphoric acid then sprayed them with Rustoleum hammered finish black. They actually turned out dark gray. But they have held up well through the winter, a few trips to Milwaukee and St. Louis with plenty of slush and salt on the roads, forest service roads, etc. A few chipped areas and a couple of scuffs but they still look good.

 

[MTN4RNR]

Powder coating will have a better resistance to rusting and chipping in non impact areas such as the mounting feet, and the top sides of the tubes. For areas such as the outside and bottoms of the sliders which are subject to scrapes and bare metal, you can still touch up with either a "powder coat touch up in a can" or the spray paint of your choice as [MENTION=124732]LawnDart[/MENTION] mentioned above. That was my logic, and my plan moving forward. Hopefully I'll scratch the damn things this weekend :thumb3:

 

[RockyMtnHigh]

My guy gave me a can of touch up when I had mine powder coated. You can touch up powder coat just as easy as spray paint.

 

[Honu*]

my FJC which got a lot of use and my sliders held up insanely well

etching primer like 3 coats and let it dry very well
then some spray on bed liner material

according to some the etching primer is the key and of course proper prep and clean before anything goes down on the metal so it sticks

 

[DEERUNNER]

Sand down to bare metal, thoroughly clean with naphtha, 3 coats etching primer, many light coats of Rustoleum Bed Liner.

 

[infinitedev]

Por15

I haven't coated mine yet- I've been running them bare steel for the past month.

That being said, I plan to paint them with POR15 and then the POR15 Chassis black top coat.

With POR15, it will scratch as with any other paint, but rust isn't able to continue on under the paint from the scratches. It is also easily touched up.

One thing to note is that the top coat is required because POR15 isn't UV stable, so make sure you coat it, otherwise it will look like crap after a year or so.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

What others said: Get them powdercoated & rattle can them after you scratch them up.

It's not the areas you'll scratch that are a pain in the ass. It's the rust in the corners & on the welds that you'll play hell cleaning up if your can job doesn't hold well in your climate

 

[SFL_driver]

I haven't coated mine yet- I've been running them bare steel for the past month.



That being said, I plan to paint them with POR15 and then the POR15 Chassis black top coat.



With POR15, it will scratch as with any other paint, but rust isn't able to continue on under the paint from the scratches. It is also easily touched up.



One thing to note is that the top coat is required because POR15 isn't UV stable, so make sure you coat it, otherwise it will look like crap after a year or so.

I've seen many others using POR15 as well. I'll probably go either this route or Rustoleum.

 

[jdtaylor42]

I haven't coated mine yet- I've been running them bare steel for the past month.

That being said, I plan to paint them with POR15 and then the POR15 Chassis black top coat.

With POR15, it will scratch as with any other paint, but rust isn't able to continue on under the paint from the scratches. It is also easily touched up.

One thing to note is that the top coat is required because POR15 isn't UV stable, so make sure you coat it, otherwise it will look like crap after a year or so.

Do they make a flat or satin topcoat with POR15 nowadays? I used this on floor pans when restoring a '69 Nova and that stuff was blindingly shiny. I couldn't handle a high gloss like that on my vehicle.

I home built my sliders and I primed and painted them with a rattle can. The only problem I have had is on the front facing sides of the mounting legs. My tires kick up rocks and it chips and dings the paint. I haven't had any bad enough to get to the bare steel but quite a few have gone through the paint and is showing the primer so touch-up is necessary every once and a while.

 

[High_Country]

I've seen many others using POR15 as well. I'll probably go either this route or Rustoleum.

I like POR15. Using it on an early bronco resto.

It's of course your choice. I'd suggest at least pricing powder coat. That's how I'll go when I get sliders. POR15 isn't cheap, consider all the prep time you'll spend (your time is worth something right?) and of course consider the final product.

I'd guess a set of sliders might be $100 or so bucks to powdercoat, it'll last better and look longer than most DIY paint jobs, and you'll save gobs of time.

I love and take pride in doing things myself, but sometimes it makes sense to let others do it.

 

[CrazyNorwegian]

I spent hours degreasing, until they had almost a mirror finish. Then I rubbed them down with steel wool, degreased them again, and finally 3 coats of etching primer and 3 coats of rustolium bed liner. I beat them up pretty good on rocks so they need to be touched up after runs regardless of what coating I would have on them. The nice thing about rustolium bed liner is its textured, so after probably reprinting areas 20 times, it still looks like the first time I painted them.

 

[Antman]

My opinion on powder coating- based on my personal experience- is that it's way over-rated. Why? Well, if you get a scratch the coating and don't touch it up quickly, rust will spread under the coating and it will start to flake off in pieces. Try to touch it up and you can see where it flaked off under the paint.

I stripped the powder coat completely off my Rocky Road sliders and painted them with Rustoleum Black Hammered Paint. I did a test- one side I rolled on and the other I sprayed. Surprisingly, the spray side is holding up incredibly well. The rolled side is doing fine but when I actually use the sliders offroad that side chips easier, I guess because the paint is thicker.



Here's a link to my thread showing what I did...





Anyway- I dislike powder coat for things like racks and sliders, but maybe it's just me.

 

[SFL_driver]

My opinion on powder coating- based on my personal experience- is that it's way over-rated. Why? Well, if you get a scratch the coating and don't touch it up quickly, rust will spread under the coating and it will start to flake off in pieces. Try to touch it up and you can see where it flaked off under the paint.

I stripped the powder coat completely off my Rocky Road sliders and painted them with Rustoleum Black Hammered Paint. I did a test- one side I rolled on and the other I sprayed. Surprisingly, the spray side is holding up incredibly well. The rolled side is doing fine but when I actually use the sliders offroad that side chips easier, I guess because the paint is thicker.



Here's a link to my thread showing what I did...





Anyway- I dislike powder coat for things like racks and sliders, but maybe it's just me.

Thanks Antman. This is very useful feedback. Especially the part about spray vs roller.

 

[00Sebby]

My opinion on powder coating- based on my personal experience- is that it's way over-rated. Why? Well, if you get a scratch the coating and don't touch it up quickly, rust will spread under the coating and it will start to flake off in pieces. Try to touch it up and you can see where it flaked off under the paint.

I stripped the powder coat completely off my Rocky Road sliders and painted them with Rustoleum Black Hammered Paint. I did a test- one side I rolled on and the other I sprayed. Surprisingly, the spray side is holding up incredibly well. The rolled side is doing fine but when I actually use the sliders offroad that side chips easier, I guess because the paint is thicker.



Here's a link to my thread showing what I did...





Anyway- I dislike powder coat for things like racks and sliders, but maybe it's just me.

I used to work at an automotive OEM parts coating facility. That was one of the primary concerns of powdercoating... inability to protect against rust once the surface was compromised. Our parts were zinc-phosphated and e-coated. If appearance or exposure to UV was an issue, they would get powdercoated as well. This combination was very rust resistant even if scratched. The zinc-phos is key to adherence of the coatings and to prevent the spread of rust under the coating.

For relative comparison of salt-spray test results of various powdercoat application methods:

No pretreatment and powder coating topcoat = 100+ hours

No pretreatment; e-coat primer and powder topcoat = 100+ hours

Iron phosphate and powder coating topcoat = 500+ hours

Zinc phosphate and powder coating topcoat = 750+ hours

Iron phosphate and e-coat primer and powder coat topcoat = 1,500+ hours

Zinc phosphate and ecoat primer and powder coating = 2,000+ hours