Hey, after seeing that thread about the grab bar mod, I got to thinking that painting my grab bar glossy black would give it a nice look. How would I paint it -- it seems like it's aluminum with some kind of coating on it. Has anybody done this or know how?

 

Rust Oliam or however its spelled.

 

WEt sand with 220 then use some self etching primer found at AutoZone or similar.

Then topcoat.

 

Im polishing mine. Thats another idea if your interested.

 

i sanded mine with scotchbrite pads, and cleaned it real well with brake cleaner. then painted it with generic rattle can paint.. looked good for about the 1st week.. after i put my cargo net on, and rubbed it with my foot a few time when getting off, it looked like ****.

i almost have all my parts for a split seat, so im not sweating it. but a true metal paint prolly would of been best.

 

Thanks for the ideas. I will post my results here when I'm finished

 

Zinc primer works well on aluminum. If you want a pretty common color and have a powdercoating shop neer you they might be willing to powder your grab bar when they do another job the same color pretty cheap.