I don't own one, okay, but I am going to comment anyhow.
It is not to crap on a very promising tire carrier and a possible great business. I would love to see another 120 member (SeaBee) become a success story and hope that he would later give us cool deals on group buys.
What is lacking in this thread are some public responses from SeaBee that might make
future customers (like Josh or me) want to spend $1000 on this product. I do mean "product" as that implies more than a one-off that someone builds in their garage for a friend. This is a For-Profit item and SeaBee could have commented in a positive tone rather than dismissing Josh's concerns so callously. SeaBee's three responses are devoid of technical content but definitely radiating attitude....
For instance, it would have been easy for Seabee to say "Josh, thank you for your interest in my limited production product. I have looked into powder coating and on such a small scale it would have raised the price 20%. In the interest of cost cutting I was forced to stick with rattle can paint. If I can sell enough units I may purchase a low cost pressurized paint sprayer."
The members of the offroad community will often check in with each other before talking to a vendor, especially if they are fearful of a strongly negative response from the vendor. Good communications from the vendor can easily help to minimize the back channel questions in PMs.
When a vendor puts a product up for sale he/she has to respond to all sorts of comments without showing that they took a comment personally. That is life in the business world. Expat gets very high marks for his customer service for the OW brand. He can probably offer good advice to SeaBee about dealing with issues. Kurt also gets very high marks for how he modifies LCAs for 120 members. If they can succeed I know Seabee can.
I understand the difficulties associated with shipping such a large item back to the source to have welds or paint fixed. It could quickly run any business into the ground.
PS: I had a thought on the carrier's rust issue: I've recently heard about a rattle-can paint product at Home Depot that is meant to spray on rusty areas and it actually combines with the iron oxide (rust) to help with areas that are hard to wire brush or grind.