Rock Sliders: Powder Coat v. Bedliner

I think if you live in a rusty, salted-road type of area, it'd be a good idea to take them off every so often and clean out the gunk.

 

Because I had hand surgery right after I got mine (BARE METAL) they had to sit around for a while and developed a bit of rust. So I started with POR 15 then two coats of rust-Oleum self-etching primer followed by 3 coats of Rust-Oleum bed liner. I've gone through a snowy salty winter with them and no signs of rust at all. I still haven't had to actually use them to slide on or against anything but when I do, I know they will touch up easily.

 

If you had to take a guess, how many cans of each did you go through?

 

So far I'm seeing folks who basically rattle-canned it, whether bed-liner or some black paint. Sounds like both are easy to maintain. Good news.....

 

This is something to think about if you are in a place where salt is used in the winter. I would recommend Primer, then POR-15/Chasis Saver, then top coat with Rustoleum Paint or even bed liner.

 

I went powder coat, but if you do make sure it's by a company that knows what they are doing. I've had poor coating jobs before where the paint flakes off and bubbles.

 

BTW if you decide to go with POR15, make sure you spray on the self-etching primer while the POR15 is still a little tacky.

 

Yeah, it really depends on how much you're planning to use them. Here in AZ most of the fun trails are rock-crawly and so your sliders will scrape with full weight and get dented. So no matter how good your powder coating is, it will get messed up. I still have a nice, full length scrape on one of mine as the slider scraped against the side of a boulder to get through a spot. (better that than my doors) But if you're elsewhere and say mudding or forest roads is your thing, your sliders will hold up fine with powder coating.

I also use rust-o-leum bedliner and do touch ups every few months.

 

I should be picking up my Demello round tube sliders next week. How many cans of primer and Rustoleum should I expect to go through for 2-3 coats of each?

 

I played it safe and bought 3 cans of primer & 3 of paint. It was more than enough to paint all the washers/ parts + both sliders for mobtown bolt ons..plus now I have extra for touch up.

 

Make sure to clean off the oil off of the sliders prior to primer/paint. I found out the hard way. Prep is key.

And I am with the rattle can crowd. Bedliner doesn't make sense. You want the thing to SLIDE. The rough texture of spray bedliners would do the opposite. And they typically chunk and flake off. No thanks.

 

I had mine sprayed with Line-X. Cost $150 and ''supposedly'' guaranteed for life.

 

I'll share a line-x/prep horror story. Local guy line-x'd his front and rear Pelfreybilt bumpers and didn't prep it properly. The line-x flaked and chipped.

I ended up purchasing the rear bumper because it was a hell of a deal. To not fuck around, I had them sandblasted and powdercoted professionally. They sent pics after sand blasting and the bumper was pitted pretty bad:



Left untreated and due to poor prep, eventually, the elements would have eaten through.

Just take your time and prep it properly. Keep and eye on everything and touch up as needed. Remember, 90% of a paint job is prep.

 

THANKS YALL!

 

Flat black rattle can.

 

I used raptor liner, couldn't be happier. Little touch up everynow and again with spray paint on the bottom of meeting some rocks

 

Around here the threats are mostly logs and stuff rather than boulders, but yeah, powdercoat is expendable. If you go hard enough, the whole slider is expendable really.

 

I chose Linex and I'm kicking myself for it... Scraped up the finish to reveal it was corroding underneath and they still want $100-$150 to fix it.. Because "you have to mask the whole vehicle" because of overspray... Weak.

 

This ^^^^^^^^

IMHO, if you wheel your truck-rattle can. If not-powder coat.

 

Rattle can bed liner .

Easy to touch up, bit more durable than normal rattle can possibly better than powder coat.

My sliders look better than my skids which were powder, and both take a lot of abuse