Rusty RTE Bumper

flat black spray paint - pics?

i was on the LI sound in CT for 3 years and my RTE looks like dogsh*t.. the salt air and the winter just kills it. ive just gotten used to repraying it every 6 months or so. i use that bedliner in a can crap from autozone.. and.. it doesnt work. the rust bubbles back up underneath it. Line-X is a much better product, so you may have success with that, just prep it properly. i never did..

i hear ya, like i said, i never did mine right..

krylon rust tough flat black is perfect match as well

My RTE is 4+ years old and has small rust areas that I just give the rattle-can treatment every 6 months or so.
However, if were still living in Mass., I would do the Line-X instead. Infact, if I were ordering a new RTE I would get Steve to send it unfinished and do Line-x from the get-go!

You should have gotten an airbag compliant bumper. It wouldn't have rusted.

Ha!Ha! Wrong forum for that "DOT compliant" bumper talk....Made me laugh

My experience with paint and rustproofing steel is that the results are in the prep/sand/prime/seal stages before painting:

some of the Glasurit primer sealers are really great, for those of you seeking a better longer term primer/sealer below your topcoat-even for bumpers and sliders
..but that makes prep,repair and upkeep a bit of a project,albeit with great results

rustoleum sells a a few cans of flat black-not all the same:

i found their 'protective enamel' paint to be good paint and better sealer than their flat black but not a good match for the RTE paint while i am still trying to match it-I may coat all their stuff with the protective enamel, since thats my preffered spray can of black paint

I have also been meaning to pick up their paint thats marketed as a rust inhibitor(assuming its got a phosphoric component to it)but my sliders havent asked for that yet
also a flat black

My rust so far has been easy to treat-most the rust is not deep/I dont let it get deep

I actually have a few cans in da garage now,and the can that says "flat black" also says 'stops rust' on it, and matches the rte stuff pretty well

AS A LONGER TERM solution, how successful is rhino lining longer term-better than line-x??
I havent spoke to DanC in awhile to see how his truck is doing- he rhino lined the entire thing in and out-it would be cool to see how its held up since his move to Florida.wet/boggy there.

I agree, better paint is a good idea, but its sorta silly to put good paint in them IMHO since I scrape them so often/repaint the scrapes within a few days = seems to prevent the onset of any real pitting deep rust

I plan to strip,prime/seal and then paint with a urethane additive paint ot just take the leap and rhino line/bedliner,and carry a small vial in the truck for ongoing touch up work

gmookher said:

i found their 'protective enamel' paint to be good paint and better sealer than their flat black but not a good match for the RTE paint while i am still trying to match it-I may coat all their stuff with the protective enamel, since thats my preffered spray can of black paint

Click to expand...

x2.

I used this on my RTE Rock Sliders and my LR Rear Ladder when I repainted them.

In my opinion, it is a very rich looking black... the best black paint that I've seen.

I just bought another can of it since I need to touch up a few spots.

gmookher said:

I havent spoke to DanC in awhile to see how his truck is doing- he rhino lined the entire thing in and out-it would be cool to see how its held up since his move to Florida.wet/boggy there.

Click to expand...

Which DanC moved to Florida???

Rover Puppy said:

Which DanC moved to Florida???

Click to expand...

he was Trailpimp...iirc on this forum

POR-15 is the only rust treatment on the market I've ever seen that works. I've painted parts and painted an entire M416 trailer with it, then sanded, primed, and finished coated it and years later still no rust. It's the real deal.

ESnyder said:

POR-15 is the only rust treatment on the market I've ever seen that works. I've painted parts and painted an entire M416 trailer with it, then sanded, primed, and finished coated it and years later still no rust. It's the real deal.

Click to expand...

esnyder,

since you are one of the few folks I've been able to identify who have used POR15, I have some questions

any sense to using POR15 on metal that has NOT yet rusted fully?to deal with microscopic rust prior to paint? like SAY my sliders are 99% rust free, any sense treating the entire part or just the rust?

I have a older Z car i am working in, the floorboards were replced but have again rotted under the seat bolts and just by the firewall, but the metal holds weight and is just brown with rust on both sides well pitted but still thick enough to drill, and there is good metal inside,even if its just a few MMs. How does POR15 work on really bad, pathetic looking rust?

what prep is required for it, I want to remove as little of whats there or I ned to go buy a welder and sheetmetal and redo most of it if the POR15 reapir doesnt hold

I had quite a surpise when I sanded down my RTE Sliders. They are really shiny pretty stainless steel under the black paint (just like kitchen appliances). It seemed like my paint rusted because there was not any rust on the sliders themselves.

Is this what you find under your slider paint/rust?

My LR ladder was absolutely gross under the paint. An icky poka-dotted metal was under the paint. :ack:

Lucas said:

The sliders are not stainless. If they were then rust wouldn't be a problem.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is what I was saying. My sliders had no rust on them. It was only on the coating on top of the actual sliders that was looking yucky and chipped.

They look so pretty underneath the paint that I considered leaving them bare. I didn't though... because the welds did not match the rest of the steel.

I'm in the rustoleum flat black camp as well. I can see that it would be a pain in a salty environment though, you would have to sand and repaint often.

The bedliner stuff I think would look and work great until you scratched through it. After it gets scratched I bet it would be like powder coat, the rust would get under it and you'll never get it out, which will lead to peeling.

The POR15 stuff might be a better bet since it is supposed to inhibit rust and it looks like you could do touch up with it after it gets scratched.

In my shop we use Sherman-Williams industrial products (called STEEL SPEC) to coat machine parts and various fabricated metal parts. It's cheap at about 25-35bux CDN a gallon, and holds up very well against taking physical / chemical beatings. Depending how you apply it, it gives you "plastic dipped" protection and look when fully cured. Like every paint it can still scratch off, but not as easily as rattle can stuff. If you can, Pre-sandblasting the surface will double the adhesion. Did a bunch of stuff on my truck and it's held up good over about 1 year so far. You can recover surface rust with no issues. As long as you prevent anymore oxygen getting to rust, then it stops corroding.

Cheaper and easier than powder coat and POR15. Rolled or sprayed, the stuff resists beatings and looks great.