Painting Aluminum Tonneau?

Just wanted to see if anyone here has painted their aluminum tonneau cover before and what their experience/recommendations were.

I’m looking at a Bakflip MX4 on the ole Facebook marketplace for $300. It looks to be in good condition minus some minor scratches on some of the aluminum panels. I’m a little OCD so I’d like to try and get it looking new if possible.

 

Paint isn't difficult to do well, it's just tedious.

Surface prep is everything - sand the entire thing smooth with 220 grit (you dont need to take it down to bare metal, just prep/"key" the surface) hose it off, let it dry, degrease with alcohol, prime, 220, then follow the directions on your paint of choice.

I like Rustoleum, it's decent, available everywhere, and touches up easily. Three or four light coats with sanding every other coat will get you a very nice finish. Plan on spending a whole weekend doing it.

 

I had the deck of my Mountain Top Industries checkerplate aluminum tonneau powder coated 12-14 years ago.

But it was relatively easy to take the deck surface off the frame for that project. Powder coating was quite reasonable in cost — cheaper than paying to have it painted and a heck of a lot less work than doing it myself.

Some of the DIY bedliner coatings may also be an option for you.

 

Here's mine. This is a hard-to-find (and now long out of production) Gen 1 tonneau that I was able to adapt to fit the Gen 2 as well. The powder-coated surface has held up beautifully.

 

That looks nice! Not sure what route I’m going to go just yet, but good to have multiple options. Picking it up for $250 this weekend and will determine what I’ll do after that. Couldn’t pass up a deal like that, pretty pumped.

 

Well done on the BAKFlip!

You've seen a DiamondBack HD tonneau cover, yes, @OscarWildwood? The "rugged" finish on those looks a lot like a polyurea bed liner or heavy-duty floor coating.
https://diamondbackcovers.com/products/diamondbackhd

Here's one I parked next to a couple of years ago to give an idea of the finish.

 

Picked it up yesterday and installed last night. I’m kinda leaning towards the bed liner polyurea finish idea now. Plenty of time until it warms up some to decide. Thanks for the ideas!

 

Updates OP?

 

After living with it for a while the minor imperfections have just become normal to me. Maybe someday I’ll touch it up, but for now I’m OK with it as is.

 

Anyone else tried to repaint? Suggestions above would be good for smooth surfaces but this seems to be an embossed texture that wouldn’t sand into the crevices. Maybe a gentle wire brush wheel on a drill to rough up or remove previous coating?