SCORE Journal

COAT OF armor New Technology From Steel-IT Offers Advanced Rust Protection For Off-Road Racing And More Off-road race vehicles are awash in technology. Every major component on a modern race vehicle has been honed to perfection over years of abuse in the competitive arena. For example, engine builders supply reliable power plants with staggering horsepower levels. They are controlled by computers and monitored by sophisticated sensors. Shock absorbers have evolved into an enormous apparatus that help maintain vehicle control at incredible speeds. Many include features to dissipate heat while damping thousands of oscillations per mile. Chassis are designed in the virtual world. Even the most complex unions are no problem because the chro-moly tubing is cut and notched on computer numeric controlled laser cutting machines. Despite a steady stream of high tech solutions, some long standing challenges still remain. Hours are spent tearing the vehicle down to the bare chassis, cleaning it, and then rebuilding it between races. Everyone agrees that races can be won or lost in the shop, so thorough preparation is labor intensive and there never seems to be enough time to complete it. Depending on the weather and the route the course follows, the vehicle is subjected to incredible abuse. Moisture, saltwater, even minerals in the soil can leave your prized race vehicle looking like it spent time at the bottom of the ocean. Protection From The Elements There are two long-held schools of thought about how to protect components from the elements, and neither approach is without flaws. The first school of thought is to leave everything raw. Raw steel has the advantage of being easy to weld on and inspect for damage. The downside is the inevitable rust and corrosion that attacks raw steel and leads to hours of scrubbing every nook and cranny by hand or repeated media blasting; dirty and extremely tedious work. Coating raw steel with lubricants or other solutions leaves a greasy surface that attracts dirt and grit. The second school of thought is to powder coat components, but that too has its own set of drawbacks. Powder coating is costly, and includes a lead time that is out of a team’s control. In order to perform routine repairs, the powder-coating needs to be removed. Beyond being labor-intensive and time-consuming, once the powder coating is removed, there is no way to touch it up without going through the entire powder coating process again. Each heat cycle in the oven runs the risk of damaging the part’s integrity. If an emergency repair is needed during a race, time is lost grinding the coating for welding, and the repair is left exposed to the elements allowing rust and corrosion to form. To protect a vehicle’s critical parts while also allowing repairs in the field, top teams are using a coating called STEEL-IT® Polyurethane. The coating solves the shortcomings of both approaches: keeping steel raw vs. powder coating parts because STEEL-IT Polyurethane provides a rugged barrier shield that also allows you to weld directly on the coating itself. STEEL-IT Polyurethane is packed full of 316L stainless steel micro flakes that are combined with additional anti-corrosive elements in a polyurethane resin. Unseen by the naked eye, the microscopic stainless steel flakes align on the surface to form a tightly overlapping, pure 316L stainless steel barrier wall. This stainless steel shield makes materials coated with STEEL-IT nearly impervious to rust and corrosive elements while providing a durable finish that holds up under the most challenging conditions. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not. STEEL-IT is applied just like paint either from aerosol cans or by using standard spray equipment. The coating has a burnished stainless steel looking finish that doesn’t chip or flake. When it comes to attracting fans and sponsors, looks can be just as important as a racing team’s performance on the course. Crew chiefs that are responsible for maintaining some of the most sophisticated vehicles in off-road racing are using STEEL-IT because of the many benefits it provides. Proven In Baja One of the first teams to discover STEEL-IT coatings, Bevly Wilson Racing, burst onto the Trophy Truck scene in 2016 with a victory at the first SCORE series event of the year, the San Felipe 250. They had only one other race under their belts in their Jimco Trophy Truck before taking on a seasoned and well equipped field of heavy hitters in San Felipe. STEEL-IT Polyurethane saved them many hours during preparation. It allowed time usually spent in the shop cleaning and treating parts to be used for testing and tuning instead. Their hard work paid off with the victory in San Felipe and continued all year. Their strong performances put them in contention for a Trophy Truck championship in their first year of racing. Bevly Wilson’s STEEL-IT Trophy Truck takes full advantage of Jimco’s 40 years of experience and decades of refinement in their Trophy Truck designs. In stark contrast, Jeff Proctor’s truly unique Honda Ridgeline truck existed entirely in Proctor’s and builder Jason LaFortune’s fertile minds before taking shape at LaFortune Race Cars. The truck is brimming with high tech details exemplified by its drivetrain. It uses Honda’s twin turbo HR35TT V6 engine and an Albins ST6 sequential six-speed transmission. The HR35TT engine is a similar version of the turbo charged 2.8 liter V6 engine Honda has taken to hundreds of IndyCar victories and the same production based J35 V6 engine that won at the 24 hours of Daytona. The Ridgeline’s mid-sized profile puts space in the engine bay at a premium. With such compact packaging, it was critical to protect surfaces in tight, hard to reach areas on the truck. “We did the whole Honda with STEEL-IT,” said Jason LaFortune, “I had heard about STEEL-IT used in marine applications and wanted to try it. It has performed beyond our expectations; we really like the stuff. Because the stainless flakes are conductive, you can weld directly over it. Unlike powder coating, it is easy to see hairline fractures when they are small and repair them quickly. It’s easy to touch up areas after making repairs; it sprays on nicely with a medium thick coat that does not run like spray paint. After racing the Baja 500 and the Baja 1000, the parts we coated with STEEL-IT still looked like new. The Ridgeline was a ground up build, but we do all types of fabrication at LaFortune Race Cars. Many times, our customers have us build their vehicles in stages. STEEL-IT allows you to pick up right where you left off without having to grind paint or remove rust. We tig weld most of our work so it’s critical to have good surfaces to work with. When we weld over STEEL-IT, the welds are clean and strong.” It’s rare that a single product can provide protection, appearance, simple application, and fast repairs. The time management dividends alone will pay for the cost of the product and more. Go to www.STEEL-IT.com to find more information about STEEL-IT brand coatings or to www.STEEL-IT.com/Motorsports.com to focus on STEEL-IT Polyurethane’s use in off-road applications. SJ

• Cover