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Painting Aluminum Diamond Plate

I'm trying to make a custom foot rest (AKA) dead pedal for my truck. I'm using aluminum alloy 3003, readily available in 0.100 inch thickness and would like to paint it to remove the possibility of sun-glare from the nicely polished surface of the aluminum. Can anyone tell me a good way to accomplish this, at work I have acess to strong acids, bases, solvents, an ultrasonic machine as well as DI water.

Aluminum alloy 3003 has copper and manganese in it and cannot be tempered, but that's about all I know. Thanks for any assistance or knowledge in this matter.

Jonathan Malwitz
Custom Metal Fabricator - Danbury, Connecticut, USA
2005

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2005

You could etch it in lye solution at the rate of one tablespoon per quart and get a rough finish. But this will be rather hard to keep clean.

I would glass bead blast it on both sides (to even out the warpage)and you would have a very nice matte finish.

If you want to paint it, just use a good primer for aluminum ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and follow the instructions.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida