A self etching primer provides better adhesion if you have a fairly smooth surface to paint. It's a must for polished steel or aluminum if you aren't going to sand blast.

 

That looks sweet!...what's did u bedline it with?

 

This is all good to know....cause I plan on getting a bumper and the one I want comes bare metal from poison spyder

 

Those are the bumpers I'm looking at getting eventually too. Want to paint them an accent color, but for easy touchup reasons, I'll probably keep them black... If you want to evaluate powder coaters, ask them about their process. Almost everyone does a one coat process, which is where most of the headaches come from. Powder, when melted, becomes a liquid. Due to surface tension and fluid dynamics, liquids don't typically round sharp corners. Therefore, a one step powder coat leaves a very thin layer at any sharp corners that introduces a weakness and easy failure mechanism built-in! The proper way to do it is to apply the first coat and put it in the oven. When it becomes semi-amorphous (ie gooey, but not yet watery) you apply a second coat that sticks to the first coat and allows much better corner coverage, since the gooey powder doesn't pull away from the corners as much. Then they need to finish baking and curing it while its still hot.

 

Dupicolor bedliner