The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Mar-K does it again!!!!

Mar-K does it again!!!!
My buddy has had a 1950, 3104 sitting out side of his garage for a decade and I finally talked him into getting it inside and up on blocks in December. He knew all along that it would need new box parts, and maybe even a whole new box. He’s really not anywhere near ready for the bodywork at this time but with the discounts that Mar-K was running this winter and the no shipping offer, it just looked like to good of a deal to pass up. So I got on the phone and gave him the sales pitch. He isn’t very computer savvy so I helped him price out all the individual parts and compared it to a complete kit. Well the day before the sale was over he ended up calling and ordering the whole bed kit with oak boards.
The weather has been a bit brutal here in northern Illinois the last couple of weeks, lots of snow and temps well below zero. My friend is on oxygen full time because of a lung ailment and he was worried about the delivery in this cold weather. Unloading the boxes was out of the question for him. Even getting a semi into his place presented a problem because of the drive layout.
So last Friday, a week after he placed the order, I got a call, which I thought might be for me to come over and help unload the truck. Nope, it was to tell me that the trucking outfit had just delivered the bed in a box-delivery truck with one of those piggyback lifts on the back. It was all shrink wrapped on to one skid and they drove it right into the garage and placed it right next to the truck, all done and the garage door was only open for a couple of minutes.
A little later that afternoon he called back all excited after opening the boxes and was just overjoyed with the quality of everything. The tailgate and box sides looked just like the originals and the oak was just beautiful, and that was coming from a long time wood-worker.
So Mar-K, ya might not hear it from my friend, so I’ll let ya know, you got another very satisfied customer, and to think, its still “Made in the USA”.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks so much for the kind words. We are very proud to say that yes, our parts are still made in Oklahoma City, USA, from the R&D to the production of all our parts.
Tell your friend to be sure and send us pictures once the truck is done. We love to use these in our catalog and on our website.
Good luck and have fun with the project!

You just can not beat their boxes (and their crates that they ship them in)!! I bought a complete box several years ago and it sat for a couple years before I ever got any sort of paint on it. Probably not the recommended action but there was absolutely no rust even after sitting that long. You can view the finished product on the Mar-K Reader's rides section or on my web page.

Just can't say enough about their quality!!!

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

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

I used a DA sander on all of the flat panels, then used a scuff pad for the rest of it, then epoxy primed. I would suggest getting most of that coating off, and be sure to use a cleaning solvent like DX330 PPG.

Well thanks guy but I was kind of hopin' the Mar-K tech would come back, you know, getting it straight from the Horses Mouth.
I kind of suspect that its a phosphate coating from the mill, which is good and you wouldn't want to remove that, if anything I would just touch up the spot welds and with a metal prep and go for it.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, ILL

Denny, I don't know what it is, it's a lot like aluminized exhaust pipe. When you scuff it, it leaves a residue, almost oily, so that's why I think it should be taken off. I figured you were asking the tech., but because I did this about a month ago, I figure I'd reply.

I am pretty sure you will hear that it is a phosphate coating. Mine was not the least bit oily.

Hey, no problem guy, I like to hear as many different opiniions as I can. It helps ne to make an educated decision on how I will handle a situation.
The bed in question belongs to my buddy and the sheet metal isn't at all oily either. I've heard it, mistakenly discribed as galvanized, it's not galvanized it's, once again probably a phosphate coating.
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

Not at all boring,but in fact very informative.
(As always!)

Exactly what I was looking for, thanks for responding. Most of guys that have been around the bolt for a couple of years know, I'm pretty long winded me self! I just hate it when your asking a technical question and get a curt half answer that requires more pumping to get all the info you were looking for in the first place.
The question of what the surface finish was on the Mar-K sheet metal has come up many times on the forums. If it was answered on your site, I must have missed it, I try, but I just can’t read everything on every one of the dozens of sites I visit daily.
That was a very thorough answer and now I feel confident applying PPG's epoxy etching primer after scuffing lightly with a Scotch Bright pad and wiping down with Prep-Sol and Final-Klean.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I just left the page that was linked to and all of the answers were there in the first place. Guess I just need to dig a little deeper next time.

exactly the stuff we get from the sheetmetal shop here called "satin body metal", which was discussed awhile back, and I've since found is galvanneal, that has been bonderized, meaning surface treated in a phosphate bath .... ready for paint as-is, if it isn't too scratched up it only needs to be cleaned with grease n wax remover

Bill

Electrogalvanized and galvanealed are not the same process although their appearance and usefulness are similar. We have had better results with the electrogalvanized coating, especially for gages up to 14 gage. Electrogalvanized is not readily available for gages thicker than 14 gage, so we often use galvanealed in those applications.

Regardless of which coating is used, thorough cleaning the surface before painting is very important and both types of coating seem to be a little more difficult to clean than bare steel. As is stated in the "how to paint our parts" article mentioned above, use detergent and solvent prior to scuff sanding to make sure all contaminants are removed. We can't emphasize this enough and people need to know that once over lightly with a scotch brite pad is generally not sufficient. Parts have been handled through multiple manufacturing and packaging processes and each one contributes contamination to the surface. It must be completely cleaned for a satisfactory paint job.

Mar-Ktech

Mar-Ktech -

Over the past year or so I have purchase all of the bed components from you guys. I did it in separate orders, spread out over a year or so.
One of my first purchases was a front bed panel. The one that I received is black. The sides, tail gate and tailgate cover are the grey you mention earlier.

Would this black coating be the electro-galvanized coating as well? Would you recommend that I prep it for paint just like the other items?

Thanks for any information.

Ross

Ross:
The black coating is not electro-galvanized, but is typically an EDP coating which when properly done is an excellent base for most paint products. Prep it much like the other parts. Clean and scuff it well but do not attempt to sand it off, then paint with your primer as with the electro-galvanized parts.

Mar-Ktech

I have nothing to contribute to the (extremely informative) discussion above. But I can't go without saying how impressed I am with Mar-K's participation on the Stovebolt forums.

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't noticed any other parts suppliers showing such attention to their customers.

I haven't needed to buy many parts that Mar-K sells, but I was extremely pleased with the powder coated battery tray I bought. Frequently you read about us 'Bolters crabbing about wanting good prices and non-Chinese made parts. Mar-K provides both AND Stovebolt support.

Props to Mar-K. I hope other suppliers read this and learn from Mar-K.

Bill

Hey Mar-K tech,

When are you people going to carry a full line of parts for our trucks? On behalf of all us here, I beg Mar-K to make more great parts, so we aren't forced to buy chinese junk! Thanks!