Refinishing mesh grille

Hi guys,

I have a mesh steel grille that came powder coated, but is now rusting all over. I actually like the look and fit of this grille and would like to try to save it. I am thinking a bedliner type of finish would be strong enough to withstand the daily assault from sand and road debris to prevent future rusting.

From my limited experience in refinishing metals, I would anticipate needing to first sandblast off all the old powder coat and rust. Then I would spray on rust converter to kill any lingering rust, then prime, and spray on the bedliner finish? Sound about right? I'm also willing to have a pro do the work since time is short with two young boys, a full time practice, and teaching at the University. However, I do like a small springtime project to keep me out of trouble...

I'm guessing this might be a tad far fetched, but is there any benefit to attaching a block of zinc to the bare metal? I've heard of some boat owners doing this and it prevents corrosion due to the zinc being the sacrificial metal. Since the grille gets the full brunt of any salt spray in winter, perhaps that would somewhat mimic a marine environment?

I am open to any advice you more experienced guys can give.

Thanks much!

 

I've never used spray-on bedliner before, but from what I have heard about the product I would be afraid of its thickness and possibility of it being too thick and not looking good on the mesh.

 

I just used plain old Rustoleum flat black on my old Spec V's grille, and it turned out nice and no chips or rubbing off.

 

Is the Rustoleum finish kind of flexible? I'm just wary of road debris making tiny chips in the finish, exposing the steel underneath and then the grille rusting again. I don't expect any finish to hold up for the life of the car, but I'd like to see at least a few years before rust starts rearing its ugly head.

I'm wondering if I should get Duracoat or even have someone professionally Ceracoat it...

 

Powder coat should be your most durable option. Are you certain it came powder coated or just painted? If it was coated they must have done a horribly job and/or too thin. Blast it and powder coat it.

 

Cerakote is basically powder coat, but with a much higher heat tolerance, which isn't necessary for a grill.

 

Rustoleum is a little flexible, mine never cracked on my grill over 3 years of ownership. The main thing would be either wire brushing the crap out of it, or sandblasting it. It'll keep rusting under the paint unless you get rid of all of it. Lovely Minnesota roads will slowly sandblast it (and the rest of your car) over the course of the years, but mine looked fresh through it all. And if it needed to be redone, it's cheap. I just taped up the bumper cover and put newspaper behind the grill and went to town.

 

I agree that powder coating will be the most durable/best looking. A good powder coating job should be very durable even in salt spray. That does require good sandblasting, good degreasing, a good gun to apply the powder for what is a difficult part to coat (faraday cages between all the mesh spokes probably), good powder, a proper cure time and heat, and probably a clear powder coat over it too. I think we have a vendor that does powder coating too, and is pretty dang good at it. I'd ask for a quote from him

You could also get into powder coating yourself! It's probably one of my favorite things (right up there with welding) to do in the garage.

As far as sacrificial anodes go, they do have to be very well attached (electrically) to what they are supposed to be protecting. I don't think that mesh grille would be an ideal candidate. The individual wires probably don't connect to well to each other or the main frame. It might be worth a shot. Aluminum anodes are another choice, and are more electronegative than zinc, and may help a bit better.

 

You could also use Chassis Saver or POR15.

 

Thanks, guys. The site I purchased the grille from (subispeed) stated it is powder coated. Must not be a very good job... It was perfectly fine till the first snowfall and then I started seeing pinholes of rust forming and then it just spread like cancer. Perhaps the coating was just too thin and the road debris was able to pierce through and allow bare metal to be exposed. At any rate, Harbor Freight Tool has some inexpensive abrasive spray guns I am looking to buy. Aluminum oxide, a good wire brush, and a few cans of brake cleaner ought to take care of the old powder coat, rust, and any grease, yes? I know my wife won't allow me to use our oven to cure powder coating, which was why I was looking at Duracoat (no need for Ceracoat - thanks, Joebush) since I can just spray that on and let it hang dry in the garage. Perhaps I'll plastidip the grille after having it refinished, be it powder coat, Duracoat, Rustoleum, etc.

 

Por15 I would think would be a good option.

 

If you want to powder-coat it I can help you out. I have a gun and oven to do it. Shoot me a pm if your interested and we can talk it over. I also have a blaster to strip it but am not opposed to just coating it if you wanted to strip it yourself (would be cheaper for you to do that)

 

I agree that if you aren't going to powder coat it that POR15 would be a good choice. That stuff is very durable and pretty resistant to staining and chipping (I painted my engine bay with it). My vote is still for powder if you don't want to have to keep touching up the paint.