Baring it all!

[Ozz]

OK ladies, you can get back to what you were doing, I'm talking about the 5er hitch... Naughty girls!

Before:


After:

[tanner1070]

Very clean. Rust doesn't have a chance. Is that just the primer coat or the final color? Ever think about powder coating it bright yellow? lol

[Ozz]

Don, that is fresh from the sandblaster, I bought some Krylon primer/gloss black paint for it. heck, that should outlast me... Don't need no stinking powder coat..

[DQDick]

Boy that came out good!

[Tom S.]

I really think you whould have it chrome plated!

[Ozz]

That would be cool!
Yep Dick it did comem out good.. $55.00 is all it cost.

[billhoover]

Now, if I was in your place, would be the hard part...getting it back together, with no left over parts.

[hazmic]

Power coating is not as good as they think it is. That primer and the paint is the best and if needed can be touched up. Chrome plating would be cool though but pricy.

[Ozz]

I am very impatient when I do something, I would hate to wait for the powder coat to come back. I have 3 coats of the
Rust-oleum primer/gloss black paint on the hitch and Bed saver now, will add a coat or two to the areas that get a lot of use. That powder coat that came on the hitch was flaking off in small sheets, guess the rust got under it. The sandblaster guy said the powder coat was hard to blast off completely, but he did a great job.
We got by with the good ole spray paint for all my lifetime, should work now.
BTW, what a nice spray pattern on that can of paint now, a wide fan pattern, I was impressed. About $6.00 something a can.

Oh, Bill, I took lots of pictures of it... and I will ask Sue to make sure I don't assemble it up-side-down

[Hooker]

Pictures, good idea. With these new digital cameras, I took lots of pictures of my battery set up, wiring, fuse boxes (with all labels), and everything else that might come apart or be needed.

[Dave Nowlin]

If the metal had been properly prepped before the powder coat it would be the best finish. Aerosol cans don't do as good a job as a proper job done by a good spray painter with good paint. How do I know? I have found experience to be a very effewctive teacher. My oldest son repairs wrecks on the side and does a lot of spray painting.

[Ozz]

Probably true Dave, I respect your knowledge in this, but the paint will outlast me.

[Dave Nowlin]

Hmmm. You don't really look that old.

[Ozz]

Hard miles Dave, hard miles...
The powder coat on the hitch was really a bad job, I bought it in '07 and it has been rusted and peeling for 3 years, you can see from the pictures that rust was everywhere. As you stated, maybe the prep work was not good, but it should have lasted much longer than it did, can't imagine paint would have been any worse.

[Dave Nowlin]

When powder coat is done properly, it is very durable. Almost all lawn furniture, lawn mowers and many other things which are used outside are powder coated these days. The metal should be thoroughly degreased prior to the powder coating and then the paint is electrostatically applied and the product then goes into an oven to be baked. One object that a customer of mine used powder coating on was electric power transformers. They normally hang on a pole exposed to the weather for about 20 years before they are removed and rebuilt. These transformers can get very hot during the summertime under heavy load. The paint still holds up. These hitches and many RV products simply aren't made in the quatatities that many powder coated objects are made in. I don't believe that any of the hitch manufacturers do a very good job powder coating their products. I have used Valley, Reese and Pullrite and none of them have durable paint jobs.

[Waynem]

Jim,
When you have it all together and there is still one retainer pin clip in your hand, stop and thimk.

[Ozz]

quote:Originally posted by Waynem

Jim,
When you have it all together and there is still one retainer pin clip in your hand, stop and thimk.

Wayne, it would just be binness as usual..

[southern thunder]

very nice.

[RJI47]

I wonder how long it took the fellow to do all that blasting. Probably not all in one sitting.

[Ozz]

They told me the job charge was $110 an hr, when I picked it up, the bill was only $55.00, so he did it in 1/2 hr or so. They use a giant blaster, it's quite an operation.
Here is the blasting area: