Painting UCAs?

Has anyone painted their UCAs? If so, please post pics and process for a newb lmao .. also, before someone says did you search, yes I did and there were a ton of threads that came up with UCA but nothing specific regarding painting the UCA...

 

You would have to ask yourself why? To paint it the right way you would have to remove it...

 

... or paint it before installation..

 

If you're going to go for it on a new control arm, just take to a shop for powder coat. This will last the longest in my opinion. However its not like they take a lot of abuse up there either really. If you're going low budget just rattle can it if you really want to change the color that bad, and then throw on a couple coats of clear and call it good.

 

I painted my Red JBA's blue. Of course my 35's rubbed some away, but just couldn't do the red.

 

Take the wheel off. Jack it up. Get lots of tape. Spray three or four coats. Let it dry. Put wheel on. Remove jack. Tighten wheel.

 

I lightly sanded my new set of JBA's and painted them in Rust-Oleum Professional Red, the used Clear Epoxy and they came out the bomb. I sold them to @SR-71A and even through the Maine Winter they still look new. I'm going to do another set in Blue to match my Kings. The picture with the Kings in it is his truck.

 

Is your steering rack leaking?

 

I have painted everything on my 1st lift, 2nd lift only needed some touch up paint.

 

Every now and then it does, but I keep the reservoir full.

 

I refurbished a pair of SPC I just cleaned them up with degreaser, lightly sanded them and then a couple coats with Black Enamel spray paint. The sort of glossy stuff for tool boxes and wheel barrows, etc. it supposed to be a little tougher than regular rattle can paint.

 

Those look great! what grit sand paper did you use?

 

Common issue with 2nd gens and to a somewhat lesser extent 3rd gens. Replacing the rack is a PITA as you may know.

 

Mine is leaking a little. Pretty sure it’s coming from the hose connection at the reservoir and just running down. I just top it off.

 

Yeah, I've seen this issue come up quite a few times with 2nd gens and a couple with 3rd gens. On 3rd gens, it was due to smashing a wheel into a stump (Max Powell). I didn't realize the person I quoted was in a 2010... I thought it was a 3rd gen (due to the sub forum) and though it seemed a bit early. But also excused it as maybe a result of running 35's. Just wanted to point it out for OP in the off chance they didn't notice.

 

Red scotchbrite pad only.

 

Original rack with 215k miles on it. It was leaking worse until I flushed the system. Now it only intermittently leaks from the seals. I'd love to do a Tundra rack swap, but coughing up the $1300 for it hurts worse than a new Cardone rack at $350. It really isn't that much of a pain to pull, just that bolt under the AC is the worst of it.

 

Fluid Film helps a ton too! (everything was just pressure washed right before that pic was taken)

 

And they still look new