Ordered a Rear Bumper for the YJ

[Sparky-Watts]

Well, I finally ordered a rear bumper for the YJ last night. I'm getting it from Keystone Fab out of Boise, ID. Here is an old eBay auction for the one I'm getting. I've ordered it with the weld-through D-ring mounts and two light tabs ($10 a pair for the tabs, $15 for the D-ring mounts). I've talked to several of his previous customers and they are all very happy with theirs. The welds are very clean and strong, everything fits perfectly, and they all say they are just as good or better than anything else they've seen by the top companies in Quadratec or other outlets. His ad says 10 days to fab it up and ship it, but I'd be surprised if he can get it done in that amount of time. No big deal, it sounds like it'll be worth a little extra wait time.

They come unpainted, so now I need suggestions and instructions on how to go about prepping and painting it. I've done a lot of staining and finishing on woodworking stuff, but have very limited experience on metal. I'd like a good rust-proofing base coat, would POR-15 be good underneath a topcoat of flat black paint? I was thinking something like Krylon rust-proof flat black paint for the top coat. Any other suggestions? And finally, how should I prep it prior to painting? Clean it all down with acetone after a good "roughing up" sand job?

Any and all suggestions welcome. 8)

 

[LRwrnglr]

Well geez Sparky I woulda welded you up one like that. I'm wouldn't gurantee the welds would be "pretty" but they would be strong, haha. But good luck with the paint, if ya need help, give me a ring and I'll be over.

LR

 

[jay79cj7]

I used Eastwood rust encapsulator on my CJ frame. It is supposedly better than POR15.

 

[yjdave]

I'm not sure the price on por, but you should be able to get the thing powdercoated for bout 50 bucks.

 

[redrooster]

Powdercoat is nice but Sparky is cheap and besides that the fresh black powdercoat would make the frame and the rest look bad.
Seriously, rub it down with a scotch brite pad or fine sand paper if necessary. Wipe it clean with Acetone. Spend the money on good primer. I like Sherwin Williams 988 primer in a spray can at the auto body supply place, bout $6 for a large can. Rustoleum black would be a good top coat. Their primer isn't bad either if you can't find the Sherwin stuff.

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Powdercoat is nice but Sparky is cheap and besides that the fresh black powdercoat would make the frame and the rest look bad.
Seriously, rub it down with a scotch brite pad or fine sand paper if necessary. Wipe it clean with Acetone. Spend the money on good primer. I like Sherwin Williams 988 primer in a spray can at the auto body supply place, bout $6 for a large can. Rustoleum black would be a good top coat. Their primer isn't bad either if you can't find the Sherwin stuff.

Me cheap? Ya got that right!! I actually thought about powder coating it, there's a place about 15 miles from here that does it. But then I decided I'd rather have it painted with something I could readily get to touch up if need be....you know, like if I back into a shopping cart at the mall or something.

I'll look for the SW primer. Can't say as I've ever seen any SW products in a spray can around here, but probably because I haven't really looked.

 

[redrooster]

I have only seen the Sherwin 988 at a few auto parts places, most of the time I go to a body shop supply place. That primer holds great. I have run my sliders over rocks that took the black off and left the grey primer. It's good stuff.

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Sounds like some pretty darn tough stuff! My boss has a lot of ties with body shops, maybe he can get me some. If he can, I can order through our company account and get it at cost.

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Took him six weeks to build and ship it, but it's finally here. I'll post up some pics later. Not too sure about his placement of the light tabs I requested...he put them on the backside of the bumper, between the bumper and the body of the Jeep. I'm wondering if I'll be able to get a light mounted there. If I can, that's great because it'll keep it out of the way. If not, it was just wasted money having him put them on. It looks to be built very solidly, no complaints there. My biggest issue would be the delivery time and communication with him. He told me when I ordered it that it would take about 2 weeks from order to delivery. I had to keep emailing him to check the status, and he very rarely returned any of them. In fact, he only emailed me back 3 times: once when I hadn't heard from him whether or not he'd received the order and money; another time when he finally told me (early last week) that it had been shipped and gave me a shipping number; and finally a couple days ago because he still hadn't delivered it to FedEx. I mean, I checked the shipping number when he gave it to me, and it showed the data had been transmitted to FedEx and gave a delivery date of the 19th. Well, that date came and went, and on the 20th, the FedEx site showed no shipping date at all. I emailed him again and told him about that, and two hours later FedEx showed they had received the bumper from him and gave a new shipping date. Then he emailed me the next day and said he had called FedEx to see why it wasn't shipped and said they told him it had already shipped. Not real impressed with his business skills, but his work looks good and others still swear by his quality and craftsmanship, though they also complained about slow delivery and poor communication.

Anyway, I hope to get started painting it this weekend, and should have it mounted by next weekend.