i recently bought another 1988 4runner w/no motor. (its receiving the motor out of my current 4runner). this truck did come with tube bumers and step bars. they all have a some rust so i have decided i want to clean them up. (who likes rust?) so i'm looking for suggestions on how to finish them. the original color is black, and i intend on keeping it that way. but for now they are bare metal in the garage. i have had people suggest using the undercoating stuff, or that spray on bed liner you buy at the parts store. but i have heard more negative on those then postive <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />. one of my thoughts was rustoleum <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />. i am looking for something that is apove all durable but also looks good <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />. any thoughts or suggestions would be much apperciated. thanks in advance
nathan <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

http://www.por-15.com/ is what I use.

kinda pricey...i forgot to mention i'm on a budget. whats the coverage like for that stuff? it took my 3/4 of rattle can (large) to do the skid plate.

i used the hammered rustolum black it looks good and seems to be holding up well except where i missed it when painting.
on thing is to get the inside of the tubes some how mine are rusting from the inside out. and almost at the point of no return

mine have servere rust on the inside from what i can tell...can't really see passed the bends. it still sounds solid all the way across. any ideas on how to or what to coat the inside with?

To do it right, you'll have to spend the money, or it won't last a year in the midwest. I don't like POR-15. Best bet is a solid acid dip, etching primer, primer, top coat and clear. Or check w/ the Eastwood company - they have some coatings similar to POR-15, but from what I've heard, are much higher quality.

so i'm guessing those cheap spray on coating are worth the cans they are put into? i've never used them or heard anyone talk about them. so i don't know. opinions?

I used dupli-color spray on bedliner on my bumper. it looks much better than it did and didn't cost me more than $8.00. The quality is probaly far less than other things but I wasn't really worried about that. There are other things at the top of my "things to fix list" .

I would figure out how much you want to spend and go from there. I would think re-powder coating would run about $600( I was quoted $275 for a bumper alone), it might be cheaper to buy the powder coating machine and paint, apply it yourself and opnly pay a shop to bake it on. A commercial spray on truck liner would be about the same price as powder coating. Duraback is a good DIY coating but at $50+ a gal. for black ($120 for colored) it gets pricey, the Herculiner doesn't wear well, and it fades withion about 6 months, and the Duplicolor is a bit soft for bumpers and berf bars. Rustoleum has a truck bed kit for DIY's, you might look into it.

I think using rustoleum primer and paint would be the easiest way of going, don't use the spraycans, buy it by the pint, this way you can put on thin coats and build up the paint. You will want to put some type of paintable undercoating on the bottom and leading side of the nerf bars to help reduce chipping caused by rocks(unless you are running mud flaps).

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=505785

i just wrote this on powdercoating and painting