Clear coat over bare metal?

[price2757]

Was doing some rain gutter rust repair when the sander jumped and hit the outside of the rain gutter. I noticed some shiny stuff there and this time hit it on purpose and there was this bright shiny bare metal. My mind went racing. If I were sand the gutters down to bare metal, get them nice and shiny, is there a clear coat or something I could put on them to keep them shiny? Like I said, the mind was racing.

[Joe Kriston]

I've seen some old rat rods in these car culture magazines where the entire body was sanded to the bare metal...Seems like I read that they put some kind of clearcoat to keep them from rusting....

[kaptnkaos]

Hey Price...

You need to check out Marz68's chop top...
The whole truck is bare metal and it looks rad...
He coats it with WD40 every couple of months to keep the rust off...

KaptnKAOS

[FORDification]

Yeah, that does look good....but he'll never be able to paint it now, with all the silicone that's been worked into the steel. Silicon is a painter's worst nightmare, it's very hard to clean off, and many body shops will refuse to work on a vehicle in which the owner has even been using ArmorAll.

My opinion? If you want the drip-rail shiny, paint it body color (for protection) and then install the factory chrome-plated drip-rail trim.

[price2757]

I've only come across 1 truck at the bone yard that had the chrome drip rails and it had gone to the crusher by the time I could get back to it with in my pocket. It had a flawless interior too! How difficult is it to pop those off if I come across one again? Had to give up the idea of the shiny metal. Finished cleaning them up and found several little rust throughs (and imagine rust in Washington! Whodda guessed that)

[td]

i have heard of useing a bottle top opener from the inside edge to pop them off, but i've never tried it my self.

[rjewkes]

i have done clear coat on bare before. it worked for a while.

[dcbullet]

I cleared my rear end u-bolts with rattle can clears. It didn't last too long.

[foghorn]

If you know some one with the drip chrome on his or her truck take a close look at it. You have to carefuly pry it off from the bottom as it sits on the top the kinda like snaps on the bottom. When i say carefuly it is very easy to bend it up and will look like holy crap. My tool of choice is a door panel remover. You can also take a flat blade screw driver and bend the shaft close to the end so you can catch the lip on the bottom. Bend it about 2-3 inches from the end of the blade part. You will have to slowly work it off so as not to bend it up.




Foggy