American flag water bottle

Just one of my water bottles that I removed the existing coating from, then applied Cerakote to. Lighter color is Sniper Grey, main color is Magpul Stealth Grey. Bottom section is my first try at using some spray on bed liner (before getting some Super Grip from Cerakote). Came out pretty good for a first run.

Process involved masking off the upper section, where the lid/top would screw on. That was before media blasting to maintain it’s glossy appearance. Post media blasting, lower section was masked off before Cerakote was applied.

Three more water bottles

Finished up another three water bottles. Two are insulated, the third is not. Last step in the process was spraying some of the SG-200 oven cure Super Grip on the bottom sections. I have another bottle that arrived the other day that I need to strip and then spray on. Need to get some more of the tattered flag stencils first though, since I’m out of the larger side that are facing the correct direction.

First is a 32oz stainless water bottle (from SIGG).

The following are a 24oz, then 32oz, Hyrdoflask water bottles. The 24oz fits into a vehicle’s cup holder.

At this time, I’ll only consider treating stainless water bottles. Mostly due to what has to be done for prep work. This involves soaking in acetone to remove any coatings present, as well as degrease (less of an issue with water bottles, but still needed). Aluminum water bottles have a coating inside them to act as a barrier. I have no idea how that would stand up against acetone. I suspect it wouldn’t do very well against it though.

1.5″ Stubbie antenna

Done over this past weekend is a stubbie (1.5″) antenna for my truck. I installed it in January 2023 (when I got my current truck) and the sun ate the anodizing on it. To the point where it was noticeable. So, I removed it a little while ago (put a replacement on it for the interim) and sprayed it with Elite series Fire (red). Went with a more glossy mixture on this one. Removed the o-rings that you see in the pictures before everything, since the degrease would have eaten them. Not to mention the rest of the process.

Already have a friend that wants me to color the replacement that I removed when I installed this one today. Going to hit it with the same Cerakote.

To be clear, the Elite series has an “excellent” UV resilience rating. Which should let it hold up better than the anodizing did. Since I’ve seen plenty of anodizing fail after not all that long exposed to the sun/UV.

Treadmill cell phone holder/mount

I machined this out of a block of aluminum a few years ago now. Used it until I decided to machine a bit more off the back, to allow it to rest better on the treadmill. It needed to have about another .032″ removed from the back. Put it onto my milling machine a week, or so, ago and made some chips.

Applied the Cerakote (Graphite Black) the same day that I sprayed the water bottle. The Cerakote added just a little bit of grip to the item, making the phone stay exactly where placed. No more shifting around when the treadmill is in use.

When I originally machined the item, I made sure the recess was a bit larger than needed for the phone I had at the time. This gives me some ‘wiggle room’ in case I get a future phone that’s wider than my past few.

The holder is sized so that the camera bar, on the back holds the phone in position. There’s a slight gap at the bottom of the recess so that if a phone has is longer under that area, it will still work. The phone shown is a Google Pixel Pro series phone. I’m sure I could modify the item to work for other phone designs, if someone wants one. I’d just need measurements for the rear facing camera protrusion.

Hitchmate Cargo StabiLoad Divider Bar

I hit the Hitchmate Cargo StabiLoad Divider Bars I have with Cerakote today. Did the degrease, scrape [off the old finish] and then media blast mostly yesterday (hit them a bit again today before starting the process). Used E-100 Blackout for the bars, and E-310 Fire for the screws. Hanging the screws was done with some stainless wire I picked up from a scrapyard (IIRC, used when running wires between poles where one was mated to something else) years back (as in around 2013). I also hit the second stubby (1.5″ long) antenna for a friend, with the E-310 at the same time.

I typically have one of the divider bars on the stabilizer bar in the truck bed at all times. Will probably put that on the bar in the next day or two. The Cerakote finish is a LOT slicker than the old finish. Plus I really don’t think I’ll have any rusting issues moving forward. Granted, I got these back in 2011 (actually late November, 2011). So at 13 years old, they weren’t doing TOO badly. I really just needed something else to hit with the Fire Cerakote, since you need to mix up a certain amount no matter how little you need. I did mix up more than I needed for the bars. Live and learn.

Before:

After: