I do have one question about the sheet metal. It has a coating on it before it is formed and spot welded. I'm assuming that it comes from the mill this way. Is this a phosphate coating? And can you scuff with scotch bright and epoxy prime over it?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Sorry it took so long to respond. I will attempt to answer some of the questions about our zinc plated parts. The coating is in fact zinc, and it is called "electro-galvanized", not to be confused with "galvanized". The base metal is cold rolled steel and the zinc coating is applied by electrolytic deposition (plating) as opposed to galvanizing which is a hot dip coating. We generally order 40000 lb coils of cold rolled steel to our specification and have it electro-galvanized by our supplier. Some kind of phosphate treatment is also done to improve paintability. The result is a uniform dull gray matte surface that is smooth and well suited for painting to an excellent finish. It is dry, not oily, although some manufacturing processes, especially roll forming, utilize coolant and a slight residue may remain. It must be cleaned off before painting.
Electrogalvanizing is a relatively thin coating and is not intended for long term outdoor exposure without painting. We believe this coating provides excellent protection in areas that are difficult or impossible to paint such as the bedside curl, the front panel and tailgate top roll, the mating surfaces of anglestrips and bedsides, etc. Bare steel parts and even EDP coated parts may not be protected in those areas.
If you want to sand it off before painting, it probably won't hurt anything, but we don't think it is necessary. The coating is designed for painting. Just make sure it is very clean. See our instruction
http://www.mar-k.com/painting_preparation.html for preparation to paint. The zinc coating should be scuffed sufficiently that the entire surface has been sanded to some extent. You just don't have to sand it off down to the steel unless your paint system requires bare steel.
I hope this long, somewhat technical, response helps and was not too boring. We believe electro-galvanized metal is best for our parts. Flaws or rust may be hidden under paint, but with electrogalvanized, what you get is what you see. With proper preparation it will provide a base for an excellent paint job.
Mar-Ktech
