Chassis builders,1020 tube question

[TRiv]

What should the appearance of cold rolled 1020 ERW square tube used in chassis fabrication be, bare metal silver/gray? The reason I am asking is all book sources say to use this type ( for main frame rails and such, and DOM/seamless round for roll cage,etc.), but they don't show what it looks like. Ordering some 1020 cold rolled I got stuff that was darker blue/gray in color, and after doing more reading, I wondered if this was annealed tube, a few sources said not to use annealed 1020 in chassis fabrication because ultimate/yield of annealed is less than half that of non annealed.

When you buy 1020 ERW tube, looks like you need to be very specific when ordering, I am just wanting a way to be sure what the stuff is.

 

[PCS74]

Just going from memory, the uncoated erw we have used in the past was lighter silver/grey, a few shades darker than aluminum. There were just a couple of times we used uncoated material, typically everything we get is coated for corrosion protection. We grind/sand the coating off and don't pay much attention to what the color of the material is so I can't be absolutely certain.

We are very specific when ordering material, so I would call and verify exactly what you have before using.

Chris S