CarCare101: Project Miata: Painting the Harddog Duce Roll Bar

[Bruce Nunnally]

So being that Project Miata has little to no budget we decided to salvage all the parts we could from the crispy car. This meant transferring our old Harddog Duce Roll bar to the new car. But before we can do that it needs a fresh coat of shiny.

Step 1 – Stripping off the Rust:

Our Harddog Duce bar originally came powdercoated black. However the powder coat was destoryed in the make of Project Miata: The Extra Crispy Edition. We decided to salvage the bar for use in the current car as there was no real damage done to it.

But before we can put it in the car we’ve got to get it cleaned up and looking as good as new. And the first step is to sand all the rust off that has accumulated over the past few months of it sitting around the garage in bare steel. Some 80 grit makes quick work of this chore.

 

Step 2 – The Wipe Down:

The next step is to wipe all the contaminats off the bar to ensure good paint adhesion. We used a little denatured alcohol and Duplicolor’s Prep-Spray to make sure the surface was squeaky clean.

Step 3 – Priming:

Priming is essential to a good paint job. Primers have a higher build than paint and the cover better are are formulated to stick to bare metal where as print is NOT. So we hit our Harddog Duce roll bar with two coats of Dupli Color’s Self Etching Primer and let it dry over night.

Etching Primer might seem like over kill since out 80 grit sand paper left plenty of tooth on the bare steel of our roll bar, but I’ve always had great results with etching primers.

 

Step 4 – Its Chrome Baby!… Or is it?:

After letting the primer dry over night. We hit the bar with two more coats of Duplicolor’s Automotive Metallic Chrome paint. And the bar looks great! It really has that old school hot rod look now. Fitting since Project Miata was inspired by Carroll Shelby’s famous 427 Cobra’s

 

I know what you’re thinking. “Wait a second… How’d you get the bar in the car?!” Well to see that you’ll have to subscribe and read the next couple of articles. For now you’ll just have to be satisfied with this teaser shot.

Note: We’ve had a bit of an issue with getting Duplicolor’s chrome paint to stick. The shiny rubs off leaving a dull grey behind. We are currently working with Duplicolor to figure out where we went wrong.

 

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