When I did my cross member I disassembled everything down to the nuts and bolts and powder coated everything. I used the two stage chrome for the A arms and gloss black for the X member itself. I used a translucent red for the springs. It cost about $400 for all the coating, but with as much of a beating that the X member gets with road debris and chemicals like brake fluid, power steering fluid, and antifreze, figured that powder coating was a better choice than just paint that would have bubbled off by now.
