P700 A-Arm / CV Boot Guards

[Caleb]

I recently purchased a set of EMP A-Arm guards for my 700. At first glance they seem to be a very high quality and strong aluminum. I have not mounted them fully yet but have tried a test fit and they seem to fit really well. I was also very pleased with EMP's customer service. After unboxing I found a clamp that had the bolt hole drilled on the wrong end. I emailed EMP and within minutes had a response and a replacement clamp on its way to me. Very impressed. The replacement was received within a couple of days.

Now onto my question.

I purchased the bare aluminum version from Amazon and found out after the fact that I could have ordered a powder coated version directly from EMP. Now I know I could have them powder coated myself but I was also wondering about using a spray on bed liner coating. Has anyone tried this? Does it come out okay? Is it durable enough? I don't really want to have to re-coat often. I could just leave the bare aluminum but I like the all black look underneath too. Any thoughts would be helpful.

 

[Smitty335]

I recently purchased a set of EMP A-Arm guards for my 700. At first glance they seem to be a very high quality and strong aluminum. I have not mounted them fully yet but have tried a test fit and they seem to fit really well. I was also very pleased with EMP's customer service. After unboxing I found a clamp that had the bolt hole drilled on the wrong end. I emailed EMP and within minutes had a response and a replacement clamp on its way to me. Very impressed. The replacement was received within a couple of days.

Now onto my question.

I purchased the bare aluminum version from Amazon and found out after the fact that I could have ordered a powder coated version directly from EMP. Now I know I could have them powder coated myself but I was also wondering about using a spray on bed liner coating. Has anyone tried this? Does it come out okay? Is it durable enough? I don't really want to have to re-coat often. I could just leave the bare aluminum but I like the all black look underneath too. Any thoughts would be helpful.

I don't care for A arm guards aluminum or other wise, had both. The original aluminum Honda guards bent and almost cut one of my boots, in my field, gave those away, the Trail Armor were tougher, but they both caught a ton of mud, got the arched A arms and running necked.

 

[Caleb]

I don't care for A arm guards aluminum or other wise, had both. The original aluminum Honda guards bent and almost cut one of my boots, in my field, gave those away, the Trail Armor were tougher, but they both caught a ton of mud, got the arched A arms and running necked.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Farmer]

They were the big number 1 add on before the aftermarket caught up. Now you really don't hear about them that much.

 

[swsebek]

I recently purchased a set of EMP A-Arm guards for my 700. At first glance they seem to be a very high quality and strong aluminum. I have not mounted them fully yet but have tried a test fit and they seem to fit really well. I was also very pleased with EMP's customer service. After unboxing I found a clamp that had the bolt hole drilled on the wrong end. I emailed EMP and within minutes had a response and a replacement clamp on its way to me. Very impressed. The replacement was received within a couple of days.

Now onto my question.

I purchased the bare aluminum version from Amazon and found out after the fact that I could have ordered a powder coated version directly from EMP. Now I know I could have them powder coated myself but I was also wondering about using a spray on bed liner coating. Has anyone tried this? Does it come out okay? Is it durable enough? I don't really want to have to re-coat often. I could just leave the bare aluminum but I like the all black look underneath too. Any thoughts would be helpful.

I like a-arm guards, and they help protect the boots. But they do collect stuff and need to be checked on regular basis.
Things to look out for. Grass and debri build up, ice build up and when you hit stuff they can bend and cut the boot themselves. Also you need to take them off from time to time to clean. If you run over small trees and weeds that are very tall they really help. Powder coating them is a waste of time. Unless you are just wanting to pimp it out.

 

[Caleb]

**Update**

I finally found the time to get to this project and finish everything up. Having an 8 month old is a little more demanding on my time. I went ahead with the plan to use the spray on bed liner for coating the A-arm guards. I ended up using 3 cans total to do 3 coats on the inside of the guards and 4 coats on the outside. This also was enough for a couple quick coats on the mounting brackets. I'll break down the process as little and have some pictures of the end result.

I took some 150 grit sand paper and roughed up the guards to give the liner something to grab on to. I hand sanded all the guards and mounting hardware. If you have a palm sander I would recommend using it instead. Although not difficult by hand the sound of sand paper on smooth aluminum is a little grating (think nails on a chalk board). I cleaned the guards off with some rubbing alcohol to make sure there was no dirt or anything on them after all the sanding. The coating process was very simple, just like spray painting anything else. Nice smooth passes and coat evenly. I let the coating dry about 20 minutes between coatings per the instructions. As mentioned I did 3 coats on the inside of the guards and 4 on the outside. I figured the outside will obviously take more abuse so an extra coat wouldn't hurt. I let the guards dry for a good 2 days after that, but it was really closer to a week before I could get back to them to mount.

Mounting the guards was pretty straight forward with the hardware included. I used a jack stand to prop the guards against the arms until I could get the brackets on enough to hold it up and tighten everything down. They seem to fit really well and I don't see any issues so far. The rear guards took a couple test fits to make sure I had them on the correct sides as they are not marked for left or right.

Takeaways: If I were doing it again, I would use coarser sand paper to give a deeper roughing and more for the liner to hold onto. Something like 60 or 80 grit. The liner seems to coat everything really well but I am not sure about the long term durability yet. It seems to me like it could peel off if something hits it right. I would probably put another coat or 2 on the outside for some more layering. The bright side is that it will be very easy to touch-up if it is needed in the future. All in all I am happy with the way it turned out and think it looks really good matching with the all black.

Pictures attached are of the product used, front, rear guards, & mounting hardware after coating, before front guards, after front guards mounted, and close ups of the fronts.