What to do...

[Benthosboy]

Howdo chaps.

I'm in the process of making a decorative in-fill for the rear end of the chassis rails on my wagon. It wil take the form of some kind of plate, about 2 feet long by 8 inch deep, bolted onto angle brackets, bolted in turn to either rail. I'd thought of having a piece of stainless plate cut, which should look good when polished. For decoration, I deliver a lot of railway stuff so I have two slivers of 80 lb railway line, about 1 inch thick, which I want to bolt on, as well as a couple of LED tail lights, and possibly a pair of high-viz flashing LED warning lights.

Questions: stainless plate or ally chequer plate? Ally is obviously easier to "work", and poss cheaper?, but stainless, polished, will look a lot classier to me. What's the best way to treat the slivers of rail? I'd thought about angle grinding all the rust off, having them galvanized, painting them gloss black and bolting them on with some shiny s/s bolts. Then I wondered if galv and then powder coating would be better?

Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[Paul.]

Ally will soon lose its shine, polished stainless is the way way to go, I made some stainless bumper covers for a truck some time ago they still look good and can be easily repaired and re polished if needed,
Hot zinc spray and powdercoat will protect the rail sections,

 

[DanielW]

You could get the ally anodised,can be anodised in any colour under the rainbow.