I talked to a guy on the phone today for like a half hour ... and,
holy runningboards, Batman! This guy was REALLY into his game! And
-- get this -- he talked me OUT of powdercoating.
This guy does work for the City of New York and has a sandblasting/
painting facility that will handle anything as large as 60-foot steel
beams and anything as small as carb parts and thin sheetmetal. He
also does a lot of frame-up retorations on vintage vehicles.
His main beef against powdercoating is that, if you chip a spot, that
spot will start to rust and you can never get to the rust; it just
spreads forever. He said, "NYC doesn't powdercoat their bridges for
a very good reason. Did you ever see one of those big maintenance
trucks or big rigs that have bumpers or such frame-stuff that is
rotting to no end? That's what happens with powdercoat because you
can't remove the powdercoat to ever get to the rust! And
runningboards, on a daily driver, are gonna get a lot of chips from
stones, etc."
He went on to say that, after sandblasting, he uses a zinc (I think)
based primer that seals out rust and an epoxy paint that's tough as
nails -- "you have to do a good number of thin coats to get the
hardness." Total cost should be about $300 - $350 per
runningboard ... but he needs work on his web site and I build web
sites for a living, so I may wind up doing a simple work-swap and get
my 'boards done for "nothing." Can't beat that one, huh?
If you want to talk to this guy, his name is Eric and he has an 800-
number:
1.800.750.2527
Alan Horvath
http://AlanHorvath.com/54chevy
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