Painted Thule Crossbars
 

Hi. I am taking delivery of a 2014 Q7 with the blacked out S-Line Plus package this week (and titanium wheels). This package blacks out the roof rail and removes all chrome accents on the outside of the Q7.

I presently have a 2010 Q7 with a Thule crossbar system. After I take delivery of the new Q7, I'm thinking that it will look silly with all the chrome on the car blacked out including the roof rails - and then an aluminum colored cross bar on top.

So, I'm considering painting my crossbars. I've only found a few examples of this online and only one photo of someon have done this - on a Nissan Juke: http://www.jukeforums.com/forum/atta...-aimg_7578.jpg

I like the look and think it complements his choice to black out all the chrome and go with titanium wheels.

This person said he used VHT Roll Bar and Chassis Paint. http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/rollbarchassis/

Anyone have any experience with this task? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance; pictures forthcoming assuming I decide one way or the other :)

I haven't done this before, but as with anything painting related, prep will be critical to whether or not it sticks vs. chips/peels off in big chunks. Scuff the surfaces with a fine sandpaper and clean with a paint prep solvent for starters, then finish wiping with a tack-cloth to get all the little specs of debris removed.

Also, it;s possible a spray-on or roll-on truck bed liner coating would work too, though you might want to find one that has a finer finish to it. This might be more durable with repeated mounting and removing of carrier attachments.

I would have them powder coated...much more durable.

This is an even better option. The powder coater will probably know this, but your load bars are probably anodized (clear) which makes them electrically isolated to some degree, so they may have to sand-blast the bars to get the static charge part of the process to work....

Thanks for the powder coating suggestion; that's the route I'm going to go.