I painted my rear end and three link suspension with Mobile BLP paint,probably not available other than the deep south. It is an alklyd enamel paint that was actually designed to paint wrought iron fences. It has low gloss and does not require primer. Of course you know the better it looks underneath,the better it looks when your done. It reduces with xylene and costs about $20.00 gl. for the paint about $6.00 for th reducer. It has just the right gloss and appears to be nice and durable. Had I not already primed my frame with etching primer or wanted it black i would have used it for the rest of the frame and suspension.
If you think it's high.....consider how long you think it would take you to prep and paint it....then figure out how much you make during that time.... Daily driver? Rattle can.....show car or mall crawler....then powder coat.
Sandblast, POR 15, and then top coat with PORS tough nose product. around my neck of the woods you would have less than $200.00 in all that for the complete frame and all the attached pieces. Por and tough nose may be applied with a brush with some amazing results! This stuff is very very chip resistant, you can't knock it off with a hammer. getting ready to do my '36 ford pickup with it. For a Daily, this is the only way to go in my opinion! Shines like a new penny and the tough nose is not affected by Uv rays. This product would be well worth your time to investiagte.
I've had frames powdercoated and wouldn't do it again. You know how lawn chairs go when they've been out over the winter? Same thing - water gets under the powdercoat and the rust spread out of sight and then blows off the powdercoat in big pieces. Having said that, powdercoat is probably fine in So Cal but if you see cold wet weather and salt on the roads then don't touch it. The best thing I had done was to have a chassis done in flame sprayed aluminium. They blast it and then spray on aluminium powder through a flame. Bonds with the surface metal and then you paint directly over it. Paint is not really necessary but makes it look nicer. I usually use silver 2 pack epoxy. The surface looks like 800 grit wet & dry paper sprayed silver. Probably not traditional though - the Ducati Monster had the frame done in this and I've seen it on Italian supercars. I have also used 2 pack floor paint - incredibly hard wearing and easy to apply to a lightly blasted surface. BTW - blasting is the key to getting good paint adhesion to a chassis.
The John Deere black is a semigloss, I am not sure if it is good frame material. Good old Rustoleum is pretty nice for this on a budget application. Just my 2 cents, nothin nicer than powder coating these pups however. ~sololobo~
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